Refining energy utilization and CO ₂ emissions modeling

Process-specific energy use and CO ₂ emissions for petroleum refineries are not publically available, and may not even be adequately or accurately measured; making it difficult to understand current or to predict future refining energy requirements and emissions. A tool for estimating individual process energy requirements and emissions as a function of varying feedstocks, products, and processing would be useful to policy makers and researchers focused on improving energy efficiency and reducing emissions. JM Energy Consulting has developed such a modeling tool to support a Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory (LBNL) project aimed at estimating costs and benefits of energy-efficiency improvements in the US refining sector. To demonstrate the robustness of the method, refinery CO ₂ emissions were estimated and allocated to the various refinery intermediate streams that are blended into gasoline and distillate fuels. In addition, a methodology for handling the variation between US refineries is under development. Data compiled on energy use will be used to update and tune the refinery model to match government-collected aggregate energy consumption in the industry. A final report on this analysis should be available from LBNL by late 2012. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 2012 AIChE Spring Meeting and 8th Global Congress on Process Safety (Houston, TX 4/1-5/2012).