AN APPROACH TO OPTIMIZE COSTS DURING ULTRA-LOW HYDRODESULFURIZATION OF A BLEND CONSISTING OF DIFFERENT OIL STREAMS

ABSTRACT The presence of contaminants in diesel oil is severely controlled. These components affect the diesel properties, causing impacts on the emissions of pollutants and compromising its commercialization. The Brazilian legislation imposes the use of diesel S10. In this work, a hydrotreatment unit fed with multiple diesel streams was optimized using a phenomenological mathematical model. A three-phase model of a tricked-bed reactor was considered. The optimization of the process was performed with the interior point method considering the hydrodesulfurization reaction of diesel. It was proposed to minimize the operating cost, keeping the amount of sulfur in the final product below the maximum allowed value. The EMSO process simulator was used to model, simulate and optimize the hydrotreatment process. It was observed that the optimization strategy drove the contaminant content into the diesel S10 specification range, as well as reducing the process operating cost by increasing the feed temperature and hydrogen flowrate and adjusting the feed composition blend of the available diesel streams.