Generalized Mathematical Model for SO2 Reduction in an Oil Refinery Based on Arabian Light Crude Oil

The refinery industry is a vital component of the national industry. The main task of a refinery is to efficiently produce high yields of valuable products from a crude oil feed, employing different physical and chemical processes, such as distillation, hydrotreating, reforming, cracking, and blending. The main products are liquid petroleum gas (LPG), gasoline, jet and diesel fuels, lubricants, and petrochemicals. The refinery process contributes directly to the air pollution problem, mainly from combustion sources. Because combustion is the major source of different emissions, it will be the focus of this paper. SO2 is considered as one major pollutant, from combustion to generate energy, in an oil refinery. The purpose of this paper is to develop an optimization model to select the least cost control technology for a given reduction target. The refinery is modeled on the basis of Arabian light crude oil as the feedstock to the distillation column. Three options to reduce SO2 are considered in the model, and these are fuel balancing, fuel switching, and flue gas desulfurization technology. The developed model is applied in a case study. The results show that, for a low reduction target of SO2, such as a 30% reduction target, balancing or fuel switching is the option. On the other hand, a higher reduction target requires installation of more efficient technology, such as flue gas desulfurization. The profit decreases by about 26% if all SO2 emissions are controlled by that technology.