(37c) Thermodynamics Needs in Petroleum Recovery and Refining

Petrochemical processing presents its own special needs for thermodynamic modeling. Recent advances are particularly demanding at high pressure conditions.  Several issues have arisen in recent applications: (1) Fluid-liquid and liquid-liquid equilibrium in the solvent de-asphalter. These mixtures involve high pressure and H2. Many “semi-empirical” approaches have been published but none is reliable for predicting a broad range of crude oil types. (2) Density and compressibility of fluid and liquid mixtures. Hydrodynamics for selecting and sizing of pumps, tubing, and pilot plants requires accurate data for these mixtures, but current methods have significant errors necessitating large design margins (3) Dynamic simulation of multi-electrolyte systems requires equilibrium models that can be solved 10-100 times faster than currently available models (4) Validation criteria for high pressure experimental data are needed similar to thermodynamic consistency tests at low pressures. (5) Accurate prediction of multicomponent phase equilibria from binary data remains a perpetual problem with no reliable solution in sight. (6) Prediction of transport properties for multiphase systems require extensive development. The properties are especially important in coal plants affected by ash clogging. (7) Transport properties for block copolymer systems require dedicated predictive methodologies. (8) Accurate, fast and robust flash calculation algorithm for systems containing vapor, multi-liquid phases and multi-solid phases. This presentation will illustrate case studies of specific problems and details of the systems involved and the types of results that are required.