Energy Bandwidth for Petroleum Refining Processes

Petroleum refining is one of the largest consumers of energy in the industrial sector, second only to the chemical industry. In 2002, petroleum refineries consumed nearly 3.1 quadrillion Btu. To better understand the potential for energy efficiency gains, ITP commissioned a "bandwidth" study to analyze the most energy-intensive refining processes. Five processes - crude oil distillation (atmospheric and vacuum), fluid catalytic cracking, catalytic hydrotreating, catalytic reforming, and alkylation - account for approximately 70% of the energy consumed by the refining industry and offer significant opportunities for increasing energy efficiency.

For each refining process, the Energy Bandwidth for Petroleum Refining Processes (PDF 1.2 MB) (Download Adobe Reader) study estimates the:

theoretical minimum energy, assuming ideal conditions and neglecting irreversibilities
practical minimum energy, accounting for real-world, non-standard conditions
energy bandwidth, the difference between current average energy (published in the Energy and Environmental Profile of the U.S. Petroleum Refining Industry) and the practical minimum energy

The energy distribution of the five processes is also estimated as it relates to refinery product output. An analysis of typical product energy requirement is provided showing the relative percent of total.

Summary of Findings

The largest potential bandwidth savings is found in crude distillation, with savings of up to 54% of current average energy for atmospheric distillation (39% for vacuum distillation). Alkylation follows closely with a potential bandwidth savings of 38%, and the remaining processes exhibit significant inefficiencies as well. According to experts working in the field of petroleum refining and energy management, identifying plant-wide energy savings of approximately 30% would be typical.

The product energy requirement distribution demonstrates that gasoline, which is approximately 49% by volume of refinery output, accounts for 62% of refinery process energy consumption. Distillate fuel is the next most energy-intensive product, consuming 17% of refinery energy. The remaining 21% is distributed fairly equally between other product streams, including residual fuel oil, jet fuel, asphalt, coke, fuel gas and LPG.