Varga Z., Eller Z., Hancsók J., 2014, Techno-Economic Evaluation of Quality Improvement of Heavy Gas Oil with Different Processes, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 39, 1657-1662.
This paper summarizes the results of an engineering study to evaluate the techno-economic feasibility of different types of hydrotreating processes for producing high quality gas oil blending components from heavy gas oil fraction. Hydrotreatment of feed in one-stage on NiMo/alumina and in two-stage on NiMo/alumina followed by on PtPd/zeolite catalysts were investigated. In one stage hydroprocessing sulphur and polyaromatic contents of the products met the requirements of the standard only if strict process parameters were applied which resulted in operation problems and product loss, moreover the advantageous process parameters of hydrodesulphurization and hydrodearomatization did not coincide. In two-stage hydrotreating results showed that the advantageous process parameters for reduction of sulphur and aromatics coincided. Advantageous process parameters to produce gas oil of quality meeting the requirement of the standard were determined. Based on the experimental results model for both alternatives was prepared, and heat and material balances were determined. Heat exchanger network analysis and sizing of main equipments were accomplished. Operating and investment costs were estimated for both processes, which showed that all the cost elements were higher for the two-stage process. But it provides the following advantages in comparison to one-stage process: higher yield of gas oil, better product quality allowing the application of low value hydrocarbon streams in higher quantity at the blending, the lower density of products would be the source of extra profit due to diesel fuels are sold on volume basis at the petrol stations.
