Article Summary
Refinery tank terminal automation are the largest units in terms of numbers of plant items in any refinery. Refineries handle a huge stock of crude oil and product inventories, which invariably involves high capital investment. Accurate inventory is critical to terminal operations and to reconciling hydrocarbons within the plant. However, the complex and dynamic nature of the operation can make it difficult to pinpoint current tank levels or predict a refinery’s future inventory. This can result in increased operational expense to fulfill existing commitments and an inability to execute future orders. This article focuses on new horizons in the field of automation in tank terminal automation management systems and also highlights the challenges arising.
Challenges in refineries
Refineries continuously strive to better their standards and uphold effective best practices in the areas of operation, accounting, loss control and overall hydrocarbon management to deliver significant cost savings and reduce their environmental impact. To improve their hydrocarbon management, refineries should continuously evaluate their perception of the principles and effects of the measurement of oil movement and storage to understand the errors involved. This should help them towards better management of hydrocarbon inventory.
Refiners are under pressure to increase refining margin by reducing inventory, optimising crude mix and reducing product quality giveaway at the same time as producing more grades to tighter product and environmental specifications. Economic benefits result from improved planning and scheduling, coupled with tighter control and increased operational assurance and flexibility.
Refinery tank terminal automation operations involve a list of tasks and oil movements like crude receipt and storage, process unit feeds and crude blending, process unit rundowns, intermediate product storage, component storage, blended product storage and dispatch through ships, pipeline, road trucks and rail wagons. Significant improvement in the operation and management of the off-sites can be achieved through refinery automation.