Investigating the Production Management and Optimization of Hydrogen Gas

Heavy crude oil cracking units (hydrocracker) and crude oil desulfurization (hydrotreater) are the two most important hydrogen-consuming units in the refinery. Affected parameters such as hydrogen consuming units and environmental rules increase the necessity of optimization the hydrogen network in the refinery. In this article, we intend to obtain the optimal hydrogen network structure in Abadan Refinery using the superstructure method. The superstructure method includes a mathematical model that is able to provide the hydrogen necessity by consumers and design the optimal hydrogen network with the lowest cost. The results of optimization show the hydrogen from RPS CRU and COLD-SEP CRU streams, which were sent to the fuel system before optimization can be recovered and reused in the network. RPS CRU and COLD-SEP CRU flow rates of 5000 and 3600 (kg/h), respectively, with relatively high purity of hydrogen, can be sent to the PSA purifier for the recovery. In addition, regarding to the recovery there is no necessity to utilize the hydrogen production unit (U-57) and it will be taken out of service, and as a result, the purchase cost of the hydrogen production unit will be removed from the network.