HYDROGEN MANAGEMENT

IN
REFINERIES

Prepared By: Patel

Harshkumar R.
Guide: Dr. Bina Sengupta

INTRODUCTION
Hydrogen has always played an important role in oil refining.
Heavier crude oil, tighter environmental regulations and
increased heavy-end upgrading in the petroleum industry are
leading to the increased demand for hydrogen in oil refineries.
The wide implementation of hydro processing technology leads
to significantly increased demand for hydrogen.
Therefore hydrogen

management is focused on making the

best use of limited hydrogen resources and optimize its

operation.

In addition, hydrogen management practices significantly

impact operating costs, refinery margin and CO2 emissions.

HYDROGEN NETWORK

Hydrogen network divided in three part

Hydrogen Producers
Steam Reformer
Membrane reformer
Off gasses from hydrogen-consuming units

Hydrogen Consumers
Hydrotreating units
Hydrocracking units

Hydrogen Purifiers

The discharged hydrogen often sends to fuel gas system or flares.

Rostrup-Nielsen J. R. and Rostrup-Nielsen R., Large-scale Hydrogen Production, Topsoe technologies,2001

SRU - Steam Reformer

Unit
CRU - Catalytic Reformer
Unit
HCU - Hydrocracker Unit
PSA - Pressure Swing
Adsorption Unit
NHT

Naphtha

Hydrotreater
DHT

Hydrotreater
Typical Refinery Hydrogen Network

Jia N., Refinery Hydrogen Network Optimization with Improved Hydro processor Modeling, Ph.D. Thesis,
University of Manchester , U. K., 2010.

Diesel

PINCH ANALYSIS
Linnhoff (1979) proposed the pinch technology for heat
exchanger network synthesis.
Alves (1999) utilized Linnhoffs work and extended the pinch
technology into the hydrogen network field.
Hydrogen pinch analysis gives a general overview of the
hydrogen usage situation of a specific hydrogen network.
Hydrogen sources and sinks must be defined in a simplified
hydrogen consumer model.

Smitha R., Zhanga N. ,and Zhao J., Hydrogen Integration in Petroleum Refining, Chemical Engineering
Transactions, vol. 29, 2012.

Hydrogen composite
curve

Hydrogen surplus
curve

Terms of + or - indicate hydrogen in excess or shortage.

Zhao Z., Liu G. and Feng X., New Graphical Method for the Integration of Hydrogen Distribution Systems, Ind. Eng.
Chem. Res. 2006, 45, 6512-6517

Hydrogen surplus
curve
No negative hydrogen surplus is allowed anywhere in the
hydrogen network.

Zhao Z., Liu G. and Feng X., New Graphical Method for the Integration of Hydrogen Distribution Systems, Ind. Eng.
Chem. Res. 2006, 45, 6512-6517

HYDROGEN PURITY ANALYSIS

Jia N., Refinery Hydrogen Network Optimization with Improved Hydroprocessor Modeling, Ph.D. Thesis, University of
Manchester , U. K., 2010.

LIMITATION OF HYDROGEN PINCH ANALYSIS

The targets are set based only on the flowrate and purity
requirements and pressure is ignored.
The purification units placement is guided on the basis of
across pinch, the detailed selection and design of purifiers
are neglected.

Rabiei Z., Hydrogen Management In Refineries, Petroleum & Coal 54(4) 357-368, 2012.

Bandyopadhyay S.,Dutt N, Chaturvedi, and Desai A., Targeting Compression Work for Hydrogen Allocation Networks,
Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, November 13, 2014.

HYDROGEN PURIFIER
There are three purification technologies
Pressure swing adsorption
Semipermeable membranes
Cryogenic separation (cold box).
The cost of hydrogen recovery can be as low as 50% of the
production cost.
Selecting purification technology
Minimum purity of the hydrogen product
Pressure drop between feed gas and hydrogen
Possibility of byproduct recovery
Delta cost between hydrogen product and feed gas
Capacity

Zagoria, A., Huycke, R., Refinery hydrogen management the big picture, hydrocarbon processing,2003

THANK YOU