SIMTO^® M-Blend for Crude Oil Blending

• Stabilizing crude feed qualities and utilizing more economic crude by optimizing crude blending to meet quality specifications
• Minimizing the total cost of crude of multiple blends over multiple periods in the schedule horizon, while honoring constraints in specifications, inventory, logistics, and production schedules.
• Avoiding the problem of optimizing a single blend at the risk of inventory shortage and unit shutdown or slowdown for subsequent blends of the crude mix.
• Managing inventory economically by accurately predicting demands of crude oil components. Inventory control is important with the tight supply of crude oil.
• Controlling critical properties that limit the amount of crude mix can be processed. For example, sulfur and vacuum resid contents have maximum targets because of the battery limits of the sulfur recovery and coking units. A crude mix with a high total acid number may be incompatible with the metallurgy of the processing units. Hydrogen availability and hydrocracking capability determine how heavy a crude mix can be processed.
• Predicting blend properties accurately with versatile blending methods including linear blending, bonuses, formulas, interactions, and dynamic libraries. The library blending method can handle complex correlations of oil compatibility models to predict asphaltene insolubility to prevent oil separation and heater fouling.
• Blending the crude mix consistently for stable operation and consistent product quality.
• Increasing refinery flexibility with the ability to blend crude oils outside experience and to adapt quickly to changes in crude supply and quality.
• Managing product specifications and blending methods through a blend knowledge base.