HISTORICAL

DATA
ANALYTICS
(MEK-II)
A brief analysis of the past to
improvise the future
Prepared By: AHMER DAD KHAN
Overviewed By: ASAD NOOR
( Mgr. Production L-II Refinery)

PRODUCTION LUBE-II
REFINERY
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract ........................................................................................................................................................ 1
Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 2
Yield .......................................................................................................................................................... 3
Oil contents ............................................................................................................................................. 5
SOR …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….6

Feed Rate………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….7

Production…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..8

Analytical Synopsis………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….10
 ABSTRACT

Believing in continuous enhancement of the process and operations, Ops-L-II collected the past
operational data after extensive efforts not only to study the past analytics but to optimize the
corresponding conditions in order to achieve the excellence in production.

This study covers the various trends and standard deviations of the statistical data of MEK-II
unit including Oil contents, SOR, Production and yield and their possible interpretations and
implications for a better tomorrow.

Since at normal stream days, MEK-II processes three stocks named as 400NHVI, BSHVI and
BSMVI. Upon Market’s demand, MEK-II also processes the 150NHVI stock at rare.

MEK-II process involves diluting the waxy feed with solvent and chilling the whole
mixture at a controlled rate to produce slurry. Rotary vacuum filters are used to filter the slurry
and the wax cake produced this way is washed with cold solvent to reduce its oil content. The
cold filtrate is utilized to chill the feed stock and solvent mixture. Solvent is recovered from
diluted oil and wax cake by flash vaporization and recycled to the process.

DilChill De-waxing is actually an improvement in a dilution chilling dewaxing process wherein

waxy lubricating oil stocks are solvent dewaxed by contacting them with successive increments
of cold dewaxing solvent at a plurality of points along the height of a vertical tower divided into
a plurality of stages while agitating the oil-solvent mixture in each stage to provide substantially
instantaneous mixing of the waxy oil and solvent thereby precipitating wax from the oil while
avoiding the well-known shock chilling effect.

This empirical study has been conducted by Ops L-II to analyze the past record for the sole
rationale of optimization of the unit’s parameter and consequently; for the betterment of the
organization.
INTRODUCTION:
This report deals with the important parameters of MEK Dilchill De-waxing Unit that are
necessary for the optimized production and consequently to the on-spec product i.e WFO. Each
section below covers the respective parameters involving wide range population of data to
validate the aspects with certainty.

YIELD:
In the glossary of the extraction phenomenon, yield is referred as the percentage amount of
Wax Free Oil (WFO) recovered out of the Waxy feed. The remaining amount apart from this
yield is considered as the quantity of wax extracted out of the mixture.

Since at normal stream days, MEK-II processes three stocks named as 400NHVI, BSHVI and
BSMVI. Upon Market’s demand, MEK-II also processes the 150NHVI stock at rare.

The averages for the year 2018 and 2016 are given below:

2018 2016

Yield
STOCK Yield
79.67 80.66
AVERAGE
400NHVI
83.30 84.47
BSHVI
85.09 83.69
BSMVI
 WFO YIELD
86
85
84
83
82
81
80
79
78
77
76
400NHVI BSHVI BSMVI

2018 2016

OIL CONTENTS:
Oil contents are defined as the quantity of LBO traces present in the extracted wax. Analyzing
the statistics, it is evident that the oil contents were reduced in 2016 as compared to 2018 due
to low throughput and higher SOR. But certainly higher SOR brings heat and chilling load on the
furnace as well as on the chillers respectively which can be detrimental to the unit’s
throughput.

All the data population compiled here regarding the oil contents were initially reported by the
Quality Control department during their orthodox testing.

The averages for the year 2018 and 2016 are given below:

2018 2016
STOCK
Oil Content % Oil Content %
16.52
AVERAGE 400NHVI 17.98032523
9.99
BSHVI 10.99942384
9.65
BSMVI 11.94322414
 OIL CONTENTS IN WAX
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
400NHVI BSHVI BSMVI

2018 2016

SOR (SOLVENT TO FEED RATIO):

SOR is defined as the solvent to feed ratio for the de-waxing phenomenon. The design SOR for
the 400NHVI, BSHVI and BSMVI is 2.8, 4.2 and 4.2 respectively. Higher the SOR corresponds to
higher yield and lower oil contents in the wax but consequently, it increases load on the chillers
as well as on the furnace.

The averages for the year 2018 and 2016 are given below:

2018 2016

SOR (Feed ratio=1)

STOCK SOR (Feed ratio=1)
2.89
AVERAGE 400NHVI 2.86766629
4.18
BSHVI 4.176148504
4.11
BSMVI 3.987083333
 SOLVENT TO FEED RATIO
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
400NHVI BSHVI BSMVI

2018 2016

FEED RATE:
The design capacity to run 400NHVI, BSHVI and BSMVI stocks is 23.2, 14.5 and 14.5 cubic
meters respectively. Since the rotary drum vacuum filter are considered to be the workhorse of the de-
waxing process .Therefore, washing and de liquoring of the formed filter cake tends to hinder the
feed rate especially at the time of stock change over. Apart from this, the increased chilling load
also contributes in the feed reduction for the on-spec product.

The averages for the year 2018 and 2016 are given below:

2018 2016

STOCK FEED RATE (m3/hr) FEED RATE (m3/hr)

AVERAGE
400NHVI 21.2580349 19.31258009

BSHVI 13.85268046 12.87205087

BSMVI 15.31432154 13.41219783

 AVERAGE FEED RATES(m3)
25

20

15

10

0
400NHVI BSHVI BSMVI

2018 2016

WFO PRODUCTION:
Since U-214 actually process a high viscosity fluids therefore any disturbances due to utility
failures directly indents the WFO production. Based upon the feed limitations due to the
viscosity and filtration rate, Ops L-II managed to produce LBO with the following averages in the
respective years.

2018 2016

MONTHLY STOCK PRODUCTION (Bbl/day) FEED RATE (Bbl/day)

AVERAGE 2320.44
400NHVI 2638.934945
1819.39
BSHVI 1853.893351
1808.20
BSMVI 2093.030755
 WFO PRODUCTION(Bbl)
3000

2500

2000

1500

1000

500

0
400NHVI BSHVI BSMVI

2018 2016
 ANALYTICAL SYNOPSIS
MEK DilChill De-waxing Unit-214 is an ingenious modus operandi to get rid of the waxes in the
wax containing hydrocarbon oils. However, one of the factors tending to hinder the capacity of
the U-214(MEK De-waxing Unit) is the rate of wax filtration from the de-waxed oil which in turn
is strongly influenced by the crystal structure of the precipitated wax. The size and crystal
structure of the precipitated wax, occlusion of oil in the wax crystal and of the condition of the
oil left in the crystal are extremely varied and depends upon the wax condition. These
conditions not only affect the filtration rates of the de-waxed oil from the wax but also the yield
of the de-waxed oil and consequently the oil contents in the separated waxes. Ops L-II alter the
unit parameters by thoroughly analyzing the product’s result provided by the Quality Control
department.

Ops L-II always believed in operational improvements for which the data population of each
and every day for the years 2016 and 2018 were compiled and analyzed for the process
betterment. As each factor has already been discussed in detail in the earlier sections. It is to be
emphasized here that these critical parameters widely varies at the time of stock change which
is inevitable. A brief summary of variations in these critical parameters is summarized below
with the standardized measure that is standard deviation of the data population for the year
2018 and 2016.

STANDARD DEVIATIONS
STOCK SOR (Feed FEED RATE PRODUCTION
Yield Oil Content %
ratio=1) (m3/hr) (Bbl/day)
400NHVI 0.49 0.73 0.01 0.97 159.25
BSHVI 0.59 0.50 0.00 0.49 17.25
BSMVI 0.70 1.15 0.06 0.95 142.42

Being the advocate of cross-functional coordination, Ops L-II believes that technical department
should go through these rationales and bestow their operational exhortations for further
optimization of the critical factors.