Imubit experts share insights in Petroleum Technology Quarterly
This quarter, the Q&A section of Petroleum Technology Quarterly (PTQ) was loaded with interesting content about the application of AI and ML in refining and where refiners can expect to see the fastest return on investment (ROI) on these technologies. Imubit’s Principal Hydroprocessing Engineer weighed in on AI applications in closed loop process optimization and the impact our customers are seeing on their business.
Some of the areas highlighted as particularly high ROI for AI-based process optimization included –
- Distillate System Optimization – in a presentation at last year’s American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) Summit a medium sized US refiner reported 0.5°F improvement in average ULSD T90 vs baseline
- FCC System Optimization – in June 2024 Rocky Mountains region refiner Big West Oil shared that their use of AI for closed loop optimization has boosted debutanizer throughput capacity by 2% and overall liquid volume yield by 0.6%
- Coke Drum Cycle Optimization – at the 2024 AFPM Summit top US refiner Marathon Petroleum Corporation reported a significant improvement in coker giveaway thanks to a 25% reduction in suboptimal drum cycles
Hydrocracker units are also proving value in their capacity to swap between naphtha and diesel outputs in response to market swings. While traditional closed loop optimization techniques may be designed to work towards a single yield strategy, AI-based approaches learn from all of a unit’s historical data, so strategies automatically adjust to changes to feed and product pricing to shift yields towards the more valuable product.
For more on high ROI applications of AI and strategies to take advantage of hydrocracker flexibility check out the full Q&A in PTQ Q1 2025 online.
