Aspects of Heavy Oil Refining to be Addressed at the Global Refining Technology Forum

Dr. M R Raizi, Professor Chemical Engineering Department - Kuwait University and Editor in Chief - International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Tech+971 4609 1570nology has joined the speaker panel for the 4th Annual Global Refining Technology Forum to be held from 15 - 17 September 2014 at the Grand Hyatt Doha in Qatar. Refineries world over are facing various challenges when it comes to utilizing resources to cope with the economy changes, varying regulatory standards and optimizing processes while maximizing productivity. Focus on new technologies and innovations seeking profitable and sustained operations has become the prime need of the hour for refineries. The forum will gather refining experts from across the globe to deliberate on the latest developments in refining.

Dr. Riazi, who is also the CEO of Petrogas Canada - a consulting firm based in Canada, will present on heavy oil characteristics and processing to produce middle distillates. Dr. Riazi has a vast experience in the field and has about 140 publications to his name. Focusing on characterization of heavy oils for process design and operation, he will also provide insights on upgrading processes for residues and heavy oil to maximize middle distillates. Speaking in an exclusive pre - event interview, Dr. Riazi spoke about the various aspects in refining of heavy oils. He said, "Heavy oils are characterized by high sulphur, metals and aromatic contents. Heavy oil processes involve removal of these heteroatoms and cracking heavy compounds into lighter and more valuable products. Production of vacuum residue in modern refineries is not desirable. Processing of heavy oil includes additional processing of flue gases to meet environmental requirements as well as treating by-products such as coke and asphaltene. In modern refineries these by-products may go through gasification processes followed by various hydrotreating processes to convert them into more middle distillates requiring higher capital as well as operating costs".

Refining of heavy oil is slightly more expensive than light oil; this coupled with economy changes and varying regulatory standards creates a lot of challenges for the refineries. When asked about how refineries can modify their operations for heavy oil processing keeping their expenses to the minimum Dr. Riazi said, "Generally processing of heavy and unconventional oil is more expansive than processing of light crude oil. However, a refinery margin can be increased by converting all residues and light gases into middle distillates such as naphthas, gasoline and kerosene. By products such as coke and asphaltenes in heavy oil processing may be go through gasification processed and together with light products (i.e., LPG) and Fischer-Tropsch process all may be converted into more valuable middle distillates. Use of control unites and online analyzers will help to reduce operating costs and producing higher quality products yielding into higher ROI and refinery margins."

Organizations like Chevron (USA), ORYX GTl (Qatar), ENI Refining & Marketing (Italy), MOL Group SCM (Hungary), Sinopec (Germany) SASOL (South Africa), Borouge (UAE), Petro Rabigh (Saudi Arabia), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (India) and National Oil Company (Libya) will also be presenting also at the forum. Spirax Sarco, sponsor at the forum will be conducting a workshop on 'Advance steam condensate system - challenges and solutions' on the last day. Now in its fourth edition, the forum seeks to create an avenue to exchange view points concerning the future and simultaneously aim to benefit from the experience of other countries.

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This release was published on openPR.