Aspen Petroleum Refining Reactors

(RefSYS Reactors)

Layered Products for Upstream and Downstream

Aspen HYSYS is the Foundation for Process Modeling

Upstream Oil & Gas

Upgrading & Refining

PIPESIM
Prosper/GAP
PVTSim, PVTPro
Multiflash
OLGA
Black Oils

FCC
Reformer

Aspen
HYSYS
Upstream

Aspen
RefSYS

Equation Oriented Capabilities

Aspen HYSYS
2006 Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved

Hydrotreater
Hydrocracker
Spiral
(CrudeManager)

Layered Products for Downstream

Aspen HYSYS is the Foundation for Process Modeling

FCC

Aspen RefSYS

Hydrocracker

Reformer
Shortcut Models

Hydrotreater

Spiral
CrudeManager

Equation Oriented Capabilities

Rigorous Heat
Exchangers
Cost Estimation

Column Design

Aspen HYSYS

Aspen Simulation
Workbook

Heat Network
Design

2006 Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved

Custom Models

RefSYS Refinery Reactors

Three broad types are available
Rigorous models are discussed in this presentation
RefSYS rigorous reactors
FCC (RefSYS CatCracker)
Naphtha reformer (RefSYS Reformer)
Hydrocracker (RefSYS Hydrocracker and bed model)
C5 Isomerization
RefSYS Petroleum Shift Reactor
Simple linear shift model. Not rigorous. Short cut model.
HYSYS reactor options in general flowsheet
Plug flow reactor, etc.

2006 Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved

RefSYS Rigorous Reactors

Overview
Best in class refinery reactors
Only Exxon Mobil has comparable technology

Reactors are flow sheet based

Build up reactors from unit operations toolkit
One core bed model is used to build simple hydrotreaters up to
multiple bed hydrocrackers and resid treaters

Reactors are EO (Equation Oriented)

First EO technology in HYSYS was refinery reactors migrated from
Aspen Plus

Reactors use software components from broader Aspen

Aspen Properties, Aspen Open Solvers, etc.

Reactors are up to date with modern trends for multiple

lumps in feed characterization and reactor kinetics

2006 Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved

Refinery Reactor Products

Type of Process

FCC

HYSYS based

Aspen Plus based

Offline application
focus (RefSYS)
Aspen HYSYS
CatCracker

Online application
focus
Aspen Plus CatCracker

Naphtha Reformer

Aspen HYSYS Reformer Aspen Plus Reformer

Hydroprocessing

Aspen HYSYS
Hydrocracker &

C5 Isomerization

HBED option(single bed)

ISOM model option

Delayed Coking

Future

Visbreaking
2006 Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved

Aspen Plus
Hydrocracker

Nature of Models
Operational vs. Design Models
RefSYS reactors are operational models
Not very sensitive to mechanical or catalyst design
Run with feedback, calibration or base case
Model theory is biased to fit actual data

Work process for running models

Calibrate to one or more base cases (test runs or
snapshots of unit operation)
Predict moves from base
Feed rate and feed property chnages
Reactor temperatures
Other operational variables

2006 Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved

Rigorous Reactor Design

Common model framework
Components common to all reactors
Specific reaction systems
Plug in specific reactor system
FCC
Reformer
Hydroprocessing

2006 Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved

Common Model Framework

Components common to all models
All are objects in a HYSYS flowsheet
Use HYSYS interface
Use Aspen Simulation Workbook interface (Excel)
Standardized thermodynamics
Use Aspen Properties package
Heat balances based on heats of formation

Easy to use flowsheet connections

Standardized user environments
Simulation
Calibration
Configuration wizards

2006 Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved

Specific Reactor System Features

Multiple reaction lumps
Networks of first order reaction pathways
Coke deactivation models
Configurable for multiple reactors and beds
Global connections tie numerous kinetic constants
to limited number of plant measurements
Other unit operations added as needed
Core reactor model is EO based

2006 Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved

10

Reactors integrated with flowsheet

Rigorous model including all reactor
segments (fractionation, recycles)
components in EO environment
RefSYS
Reactor Model

Feed streams

Feed stream from the RefSYS

basis is converted to the kinetic
lumps used in the kinetics model

2006 Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved

De-lumper
lumper

Lumper

Reactor
Section

Reactor
Effluent

The kinetic lumps are converted back

to the RefSYS basis and Petroleum
Properties are populated

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Reactor User Environments

Environments
HYSYS word for sets of screens. How model screens
are organized for easy user navigation.
Four environments for each model
Drill down through these environments
Main simulation environment
Model simulation environment
Calibration environment
Configuration wizard

2006 Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved

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EO Models
EO = Equation Oriented
EO uses a matrix of equations along with the
analytical derivatives to drive the whole model
simultaneously to solution
Solves complex problems efficiently
Good for recycles (beds with quenches)
Data reconciliation (minimize error in calibration)
Optimization

2006 Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved

13

Reactor Model EO Cores

Reactor models have EO cores to solve robustly
FCC EO core
Reactor + regenerator

Converge catalyst recycle between reactor + regenerator

Reformer EO core
Reactors + Product separator flash + recycle gas
Converge kinetics and reactor temp drops with recycle gas
conditions
Hydrocracker EO core
Reactor beds + High pressure separator + Multiple recycle
quench gas stream to beds
Converge kinetics and bed temp profiles with many bed
quenches

2006 Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved

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Reactor Lumps
Lumps are equivalent of pseudo-components
Pseudo-components
Based on boiling range, ie, 300-325 DegC
Used for distillation models
Lumps
Based on reaction classes, ie, paraffins
Used in reactor models

2006 Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved

15

Lump Measurement
How to measure reactor lumps?
Lab cannot measure them.
Develop standard base compositions
Long term analysis work (GC-MS, NMR, etc.)

Shift base to current using routine lab data

Leverages routine refinery lab data
For example, shift base composition to match current stream
distillation
Models contain code to perform these shifts to build feed compositions

So todays feed = base + shift from lab data

2006 Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved

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Reactor Lumps
FCC
21 lumps
By boiling range and simple composition (PNA)

Naphtha Reformer
68 lumps
Almost pure components with some lumping of isomers

Hydrocracker
125 lumps
Complex classes of reactions

2006 Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved

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FCC Design
Simplest
21 lumps
Dominated by two effects
Reactor vs. regen heat balance effects
Uncrackable aromatics in the feed

Core model is reactor + regen

Calibration can be configured to be square, equal
numbers of measurements vs. fitting parameters.

2006 Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved

18

Naphtha Reformer Design

Medium complexity
68 lumps
Feed GC can produce almost all lumps
Core model is reactors + separator flash + recycle
gas loop
Calibration is complex balance
Competing reactions
Reactor endotherms
Need EO based error minimization for calibration

2006 Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved

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Hydrocracker Model Design

Most complex
125 lumps
Lumps span many types of reaction classes
Core model are reactor beds + high pressure flash +
recycle quenches to beds
Model good for any hydroprocessing process
Calibration is complex balance
Competing reactions
Reactor exotherms with quenches
Need EO based error minimization for calibration

2006 Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved

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