Minimize capital investment for refinery revamps

Petroleum refinery unit revamps are the norm for most of the world with few grassroots units being built. Major unit capacity and yield improvements are incremental. Minimizing investment is important since refinery margins are highly cyclical. While minimizing investment is always a business objective in maximizing profit, it doesn`t address a revamp`s technical needs. Unoptimized revamps simply use the existing flow scheme while making the existing equipment larger. This requires only equipment design knowledge and not an understanding of the integrated system. An optimized process design requires a thorough understanding of major refinery equipment fundamentals and how the integrated system performance is affected by individual equipment limitations. Revamping refinery units for minimum capital investment involves an overall view of the integrated system and an understanding of what process flow scheme modifications are practical. Revamp process design is an iterative process performed by an experienced revamp process design engineer. Full use of existing equipment minimizes the capital cost of a refinery unit revamp. The paper discusses what revamp process design concept is and the application of the theory and practice.