About the Refinery Calculator

Refinery Calculator - Refinery Process Simulation

Meet REFINERY CALCULATOR – we are your refinery, petrochemical, industrial gas, power, natural gas and energy information supplier. The REFINERY CALCULATOR team provides end users with a unique, easy to use, on-line and back end Excel based refinery simulation software to provide you with information at your finger tips.

We have developed a proprietary and rigorous techno-economic oil refinery simulator that optimizes! The refinery process simulator can configure itself to any refinery in the world and provide valuable and insightful information to the user.

The REFINERY CALCULATOR model has proprietary process refinery yield correlations and configurations for nearly every complex oil refinery in the world with the ability to apply Brent Crude, WTI and oil product prices. For the upgrader and specialty refineries our clients can provide us with an order for a custom simulation and we will use our offline version of the tool to provide the same value added services.

The REFINERY CALCULATOR team has worked earnestly to simplify our highly sophisticated refinery software package and equip oil industry users with the ability to use the tool with very little training.

Access the Calculator

Features

provides users with the ability to specify the following information to perform a simulation of nearly any refinery in the world or even a “green field” refinery:

  • Capacities
    refinery configurations and unit capacities are generated from the EIA, market intelligence and other databases
  • Crudes
    crude assays are updated regularly and are easily customizable.
  • Prices
    refinery prices for all crudes, other feeds, other blend stocks, products, and utilities are updated regularly from public sources; user has the ability to over-ride standard prices and insert their own prices.
  • Specifications
    Property specifications for gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, heating oil, kerosene, bunker fuel, heavy fuel oil and other products are contained within the Refinery Calculator model
Refinery Calculator input chart

Other Unique Features of the Refinery Calculator include:

  • Several Databases of Worldwide Refinery Process Unit Capacities and Configurations are updated yearly
  • Crude Oil Assays are updated frequently and our library is constantly expanding
  • Optimized Process Stream Routings
  • Fully Functional Cut-Point Adjustments that are Customizable
  • Process Unit Property and Yield Correlations For Each Process Unit
  • Process Unit Operating Conditions that are Fully Customizable
  • Utility Consumptions for Each Process Unit and Minor Equipment (i.e. pumps, compressors, furnaces)
    • Power
    • Natural Gas
    • Water
    • Steam
    • Hydrogen
  • Properties of other Feedstocks and Blend Stocks
  • Full Bottom’s Up Energy and Mass Balance and Adjustments
  • Solutions are “Grounded” in Operational Reality with Minimum Turn Downs Limitations Included
  • Complete Hydrogen Balance for the Refinery including required outside hydrogen purchases

01.

INPUTS

First select nearly any complex refinery in the world, adjust any of the processing unit configurations either upward or downward, next select up to 5 crude oil types, then adjust crude prices, ‘cut-points’ and product prices. Users can utilize the pricing information that the Refinery Calculator team provides or use his/her own pricing information.

02.

SIMULATE

Simply hit the Run Refineries button to begin the process simulation. On average each refinery run takes less than 2 minutes. The time of the simulation varies based on the number of refineries selected, the types of crudes and any modifications to the configurations.

03.

OUTPUT

Once the model completes the simulation there are several web based reports that a user can view and then print to a .pdf file – plus the user can download the data output file from the simulation. Lastly, if a user wants more specific data from any particular process unit – the Refinery Calc team would be happy to assist in providing a custom solution or report addition for your model run.

Model Functionality

The model performs the following functions based upon the user-defined inputs and a standard set of proprietary assumptions based upon many years of refinery operations and engineering experience:
  • Crude oil slates are analyzed and then optimized for a refinery’s configuration
  • Process streams and distributions are directed to various process units based on a proprietary optimization algorithm
  • Material and Mass Balance:
    The Refinery Calculator measures the mass, volume, and properties of the individual streams iteratively such that near perfect weight balances are achieved with every simulation run
  • Process Unit Properties and Yield Calculations:
    The Refinery Calculator predicts yields and properties of the major refining process units and some petrochemical units based on the following routine:
    • specific stream properties and unit arrangements.
    • cut point adjustments (user defined/adjusted or standard assumptions)
    • proprietary yield correlations (or user defined/adjusted)
    • using standard unit operating conditions or the user can bias them.
    • adjusting advanced operating conditions such as reformer severity, FCC conversion, hydrocracker conversion, sour diesel production, and advanced intermediate and bottoms handling
  • Finished Product Blending:
    Blend stock purchases and intermediate sales are used to provide the necessary degrees of freedom to meet user-defined product specifications for light naphtha, and heavy naphtha, regular gasoline, premium gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, kerosene, gas oil, ultra low sulfur fuel oil, and high sulfur heavy fuel oil.
  • Refinery Margin Optimization Calculation:
    An optimized solution is generated by solving a profit maximum objective function by performing thousands of simulations in mere seconds using the Refinery Calculator’s proprietary optimization engine
Refinery Calculator modeling steps

Crudes

Over 1000 of the world’s most popular crude assays are available for use with the Refinery Calculator. We can even insert your specific crudes if provided with an assay.

Crude Units

We have modeled units in each refinery across the world. You will be running the refineries at the designed capacity to know exactly what is happening in the real world
Crude Unit
CRUDE UNIT
VACUUM DISTILLATION
ALKYLATES
AROMATICS
ASPHALT & ROAD OIL
CAT CRACKING: FRESH FEED
CAT CRACKING: RECYCLED FEED
CAT HYDROCRACKING, DISTILLATE
CAT HYDROCRACKING, GAS OIL
CAT HYDROCRACKING, RESIDUAL
CAT REFORMING: HIGH PRESSURE
CAT REFORMING: LOW PRESSURE
DESULFURIZATION, DIESEL FUEL
DESULFURIZATION, GASOLINE
DESULFURIZATION, HEAVY GAS OIL
DESULFURIZATION, KEROSENE AND JET
DESULFURIZATION, NAPHTHA/REFORMER
DESULFURIZATION, OTHER
DESULFURIZATION, OTHER DISTILLATE
DESULFURIZATION, RESIDUAL
FUELS SOLVENT DEASPHALTING
HYDROGEN PLANT AND PSA (MMCFD)
ISOMERIZATION (ISOBUTANE)
ISOMERIZATION (ISOPENTANE/ISOHEXANE)
LUBRICANTS
OPERATING CAPACITY
PETCOKE,MARKET
SULFUR (SHORT TONS/DAY)
THERM CRACKING, DELAYED COKING
THERM CRACKING, FLUID COKING
THERM CRACKING, OTHER (INCLDNG GAS OIL)
THERM CRACKING, VISBREAKING
Crude oil units diagram

Web Based Report

Upon running each refinery, you will get an immediate report that looks like the following
Crude oil reporting dashboard

Detailed Report

You will be able to download the raw data file that helps you to further analyze the data any way you wish
Oil products detailed report

Use Cases

Under What Scenarios Will the Calculator be Used?

Evaluate "What If" Scenarios

Compare various refineries against each other, increase or decrease unit capacities, or even shutdown particular processing units to determine “what would happen”

Automate Optimization

Each time the user returns they can start exactly where they left off to simply and expedite the simulation.

Express Reporting

Create your own report or allow a member of the Refinery Calc team to generate a custom report for you and email it to yourself at some pre-set frequency.

Custom Refineries in Minutes

Don’t see a refinery that we have listed in our refinery database – simple, no problem. Select the Custom Refinery from the dropdown list or modify a pre-existing refinery by changing the bias (either upward or downward)

Modify the Inputs

Change crude pricing, ‘cut-points’, product pricing or any configuration that suits your needs.

Premium Users

Can request help on a refinery simulation any time M-F during normal business hours. Also Premium Users get first access to new product releases and beta editions of new features

Modern Design

Enjoy the layout and sleek features of the Refinery Calculator

Custom Solutions

No job is too large or small for the Refinery Calc team. Consider us your partner in helping you generate custom reports or data packages for refineries that may include specifics about, energy, industrial gases, chemicals, carbon emissions, green hydrogen, crude pricing, product yields, refinery margins, feasibility studies, refinery expansions or any other type of question you can come up with. We are here to support your needs

Unlimited Support

Five days a week M-F during normal business hours. Also, feel free to send us an email at support@refinerycalculator.com

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