Energy network optimization in an oil refinery

Abstract

Management of energy is a critical factor in refinery operations, having a significant impact on the production costs. The effective management of the energy system in the refinery can improve the economic performance significantly. The energy demand in refineries changes continuously in the presence of changing crude oil properties, operation conditions of process units, and cost of fuels. We present a decision support system to manage the complex energy network of the refinery by determining the optimum operational combinations of the equipment for minimizing the energy costs. In addition to operational optimization of the energy network, we also examine the impact of policy decisions through scenario analysis. We show that around 3.5 % cost reduction is possible without capital investment.