Recovery and re-use of waste energy in industrial facilities

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9879918-B2
Application number	US-201615242186-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 19, 2016
Priority date	Aug 24, 2015
Publication date	Jan 30, 2018
Grant date	Jan 30, 2018

Abstract

Configurations and related processing schemes of specific inter-plants and hybrid, intra- and inter-plants waste heat recovery schemes for thermal energy consumption reduction in integrated refining-petrochemical facilities synthesized for grassroots medium grade crude oil semi-conversion refineries to increase energy efficiency from specific portions of low grade waste heat sources are described. Configurations and related processing schemes of specific inter-plants and hybrid, intra- and inter-plants waste heat recovery schemes for thermal energy consumption reduction in integrated refining-petrochemical facilities synthesized for integrated medium grade crude oil semi-conversion refineries and aromatics complex for increasing energy efficiency from specific portions of low grade waste sources are also described.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method implemented in a crude oil refining facility, the method comprising:
in a crude oil refining facility comprising a plurality of oil refining plants, each oil refining plant configured to perform at least one oil refining process, each oil refining plant comprising a plurality of interconnected oil refining sub-systems, wherein a plurality of streams at respective temperatures flow between the plurality of oil refining sub-systems:
flowing a gas separation plant stream comprising at least one of C2 to C4, an acid gas regenerator bottoms stream comprising a weak amine salt and a first aromatics complex stream comprising at least one of benzene, toluene or xylene from a gas separation plant, an amine regeneration plant and an aromatics complex, respectively, of the plurality of oil refining plants to one or more heat exchangers;
flowing a second aromatics complex stream comprising at least one of benzene, toluene or xylene, the second aromatics complex stream being different from the first aromatics complex stream, from the aromatics complex of the plurality of oil refining plants to the one or more heat exchangers, wherein the one or more heat exchangers transfer heat from the second aromatics complex stream to at least one of the gas separation plant stream, the acid gas regenerator bottoms stream and the first aromatics complex stream; and
utilizing the heated gas separation plant stream, the heated acid gas regenerator bottoms stream and the heated first aromatics complex stream in an oil refining process at the gas separation plant, amine regeneration plant and the aromatics complex.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more heat exchangers directly transfer heat by:
heating, in a first heat exchanger, an acid gas regenerator bottoms stream using a first branch of the second aromatics complex stream which comprises a raffinate column overheads stream in the aromatics complex xylene products separation unit;
heating, in a second heat exchanger, a benzene column bottoms stream in the aromatics complex benzene extraction unit complex using a second branch of the raffinate column overheads stream;
heating, in a third heat exchanger, a raffinate splitter bottoms stream in the aromatics complex using a third branch of the raffinate column overheads stream;
heating, in a fourth heat exchanger, a C3/C4 splitter bottoms stream in the gas separation plant using a first branch of the second aromatics complex stream which comprises an aromatics complex xylene separation section extract column overheads stream in the aromatics complex xylene products separation unit;
heating, in a fifth heat exchanger, a de-ethanizer bottoms stream in the gas separation plant using a second branch of the aromatics complex xylene separation section extract column overheads stream;
flowing the heated acid gas regenerator bottoms stream to the amine regeneration plant;
flowing the heated benzene column bottoms cold stream to the aromatics complex benzene extraction unit in the aromatics complex;
flowing the heated raffinate splitter bottoms stream to the aromatics complex benzene extraction unit in the aromatics complex; and
flowing the heated C3/C4 splitter bottoms stream and the heated de-ethanizer bottom stream to the gas separation plant.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the first heat exchanger, the second heat exchanger and the third heat exchanger are fluidically coupled to each other in parallel, wherein the fourth heat exchanger and the fifth heat exchanger are fluidically coupled to each other in parallel.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more heat exchangers directly transfer heat by:
heating, in a first heat exchanger, a benzene column bottoms stream in the aromatics complex benzene extraction unit using a first branch of the second aromatics complex stream which comprises an aromatics complex xylene products separation raffinate column overheads stream;
heating, in a second heat exchanger, a sour water stripper bottom stream in the sour water stripper plant using a second branch of the aromatics complex xylene products separation raffinate column overheads stream;
heating, in a third heat exchanger, an amine regenerator bottom stream using a third branch of the aromatics complex xylene products separation raffinate column overheads stream;
heating, in a fourth heat exchanger, a raffinate splitter bottoms stream in the aromatics complex benzene extraction unit using a first branch of the second aromatics complex stream which comprises an aromatics complex xylene separation section extract column overheads stream in the aromatics complex xylene products separation unit;
heating, in a fifth heat exchanger, a C3/C4 splitter bottoms stream in the gas separation plant using a second branch of the aromatics complex xylene separation section extract column overheads stream;
heating, in a sixth heat exchanger, a de-ethanizer bottoms stream in the gas separation plant using a third branch of the aromatics complex xylene separation section extract column overheads stream;
flowing the heated benzene column bottoms stream and the heated raffinate splitter bottoms stream to the aromatics complex benzene extraction unit;
flowing the heated sour water stripper stream to the sour water stripper plant;
flowing the heated amine regenerator bottom stream to the sulfur recovery plant; and
flowing the heated C3/C4 splitter bottoms stream and the heated de-ethanizer bottom stream to the gas separation plant.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the first heat exchanger, the second heat exchanger and the third heat exchanger are fluidically coupled to each other in parallel, wherein the fourth heat exchanger, the fifth heat exchanger and the sixth heat exchanger are fluidically coupled to each other in parallel.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more heat exchangers directly transfer heat by:
heating, in a first heat exchanger, a benzene column bottoms stream in the aromatics complex benzene extraction unit using a first branch of the second aromatics complex stream which comprises an aromatics complex xylene products separation raffinate column overheads stream;
heating, in a second heat exchanger, an acid gas regenerator bottoms stream in the amine regeneration plant using a second branch of the aromatics complex xylene products separation raffinate column overheads stream;
heating, in a third heat exchanger, a sulfur recovery bottom cold stream in the sulfur recovery plant using a third branch of the aromatics complex xylene products separation raffinate column overheads stream;
heating, in a fourth heat exchanger, a raffinate splitter bottoms stream in the aromatics complex benzene extraction unit using a first branch of the second aromatics complex stream which comprises an aromatics complex xylene separation section extract column overheads stream in the aromatics complex xylene products separation unit;
heating, in a fifth heat exchanger, a C3/C4 splitter bottoms stream in the gas separation plant using a second branch of the aromatics complex xylene separation section extract column overheads stream;
heating, in a sixth heat exchanger, a de-ethanizer bottoms stream in the gas separation plant using a third branch of the aromatics complex xylene separation section extract column overheads stream;
flowing the heated benzene column bottoms stream and the heated raffinate splitter bottoms stream to the aromatics complex benzene extraction unit;
flowing the heated acid gas regenerator stream to the amine regeneration plant;
flowing the heated sulfur recovery bottom cold stream to the sulfur recovery stream; and
flowing the heated C3/C4 splitter bottoms stream and the heated de-ethanizer bottom stream to the gas separation plant.

Assignees

• Saudi Arabian Oil Co

Inventors

• Noureldin Mahmoud Bahy Mahmoud
• Al Saed Hani Mohammed

Classifications

• C01B2203/043

  Regenerative adsorption process in two or more beds, one for adsorption, the other for regeneration · CPC title

• C01B2203/127

  Catalytic desulfurisation · CPC title

• C01B2203/0227

  containing a catalytic reforming step · CPC title

• C01B2203/0283

  containing a CO-shift step, i.e. a water gas shift step · CPC title

• C01B3/34 Primary

  by reaction of hydrocarbons with gasifying agents · CPC title