There are several reasons why many industries would benefit from the use of WF chilled water production.
These benefits can be direct and indirect. In a refinery application the following conclusions can be made.
Indirect Financial Benefits
- Increased Carbon Credits for Emissions Trading
- Reduction in industrial water charges and affiliated pumping costs
- Reduction in Consent to Discharge
- Enhanced company image from an environmental point of view
- Enhanced company image from an investors point of view
- Compliance with modern pollution regulations
- Elimination in chances of air pollution fines or government taxes
Direct Financial Benefits
From a feasibility study it is possible to determine from the following calculation a payback from the prevention of flare gas on a 100,000bbl/d oil refinery. (The value of flare gas per has been noted as $250.00 per tonne. Market forces remain
Bbl/d x 0.9 x 160 x 0.01 = A
A x 0.50 = B
B - C = Total Loss per day of Valuable Hydrocarbons
Key
Bbl/d = barrels per day
0.9 = SG (Specific Gravity) of feedstock
160 = amount of litres per barrel
0.01 = % of feedstock that makes it to the flare
A = total amount given as kg/d for crude oil
0.50 = mean SG of combined flare gases
B = total volume in kg/d of gas to the flare
C = total volume considered as invaluable hydrocarbons (such as Co2 and Hydrogen etc)
So
100,000bbl/d x 0.9 x 160 = 14,400,000 litres
14,400,000 x 0.01 = 144,000 litres
144,000 x 0.5 = 72,000 kg
72,000 = 72 tonnes
72 - 50% = 36 tonnes
36 x 250 = $9,000 per day
9,000 = $3,285,000 per year
Less Operational Downtime = $3,000,000 per year
Due to the large variety of processes apparent with each individual refinery a feasibility study or environmental audit for each individual site would best determine the economic viability of this project.
It could be that on a particular refinery the volume of flare gas could be considerably lower or that the spot price for propane may be higher. All the above is subject to evaluation on result of initial data analysis provided by the refinery engineers.
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