(124c) Building Flexibility into a Refinery with a Delayed Coking Unit

Very few refineries process a single crude, or for that matter, the crude that their configuration was designed to process. Often, the refinery must cope with a multitude of opportunity crudes as they try to maximize their margins while keeping within the limits of their configuration. Delayed coking provides a refinery operator with unparalleled flexibility to process the vacuum residue from widely varying crude oils. Unlike catalytic processes, delayed cokers are largely insensitive to feedstock properties, including the level of contaminants such as sulfur, metals and Conradson Carbon Residue (CCR).

This presentation will summarize the leading residue upgrading technology options, and then examine the effect on the coker resulting from a significant change in crude composition to a refinery. Flexibility can make the difference in today’s competitive market, and a Delayed Coker has the in-built flexibility to process whatever crude oils the traders are likely to buy for the refinery.