Reduction of Energy Cost and CO₂ Emission for the Boilers in a Full-Scale Refinery Plant by Adding Waste Hydrogen-Rich Fuel Gas

Abstract

The use of hydrogen-containing fuel in gas turbines and industrial burners can benefit both losses of radiative heat and emission of pollutants. In this study, worthless waste hydrogen-rich fuel gas (RG) was led into a high-pressure boiler or a medium-pressure boiler in the fuel system to partially replace fuel oil (FO) and/or natural gas (NG) in a full-scale petrochemistry plant. Two sets of inlet fuel flow rate ratios were examined to evaluate the reductions of boiler energy consumption and CO2 emission. The result showed that for the high-pressure boiler at a loading of 75%, the usage of NG can be 13 × 106 m3/y less and the CO2 emission can be 2.2 × 104 tons/y lower by changing the inlet FO:NG:RG ratio from 1:1:0 to 1:0.65:0.35. Meanwhile, for the medium-pressure boiler at a loading of 70%, the usage of NG can be cut by 8 × 106 m3/y and the CO2 emission can be 3.0 × 104 tons/y lower by changing the inlet FO:RG ratio from 1:0.2 to 1:0.7. Therefore, the addition of RG has practical benefits on both energy saving and the reduction of greenhouse gas emission.

Utilization of Hydrogen Sulfide-Containing Refinery Flare Gasеs

“…This method reduces the volume of irreversible losses of hydrocarbon gas (burned in flare candles), thereby reducing atmospheric pollution, and ensures stable and trouble-free operation of the flare plant [1][2][3][4]. Given that the emission of flare gas is one of the main sources of environmental pollution and global warming, it is of great importance to develop the methods for utilization of flare gases in the oil and gas industry, in particular in oil refineries of many countries [5][6][7][8]. One of the problems related to the utilization of lowpressure flare gases is the need to compress them to the pressure necessary for processing or transportation to external consumers [9][10][11].…”

Using hydrogen‐rich multifuel to improve energy efficiency and reduce CO2 emission for high‐energy furnace

“…The authors have conducted experiments earlier on reusing the recovered MG to power a plant‐scale medium‐pressure boiler, and a gas and electricity symbiotic system high‐pressure boiler. The results show that, for the medium‐pressure boiler with 50–70% loading, approximately 4.8–8.0 × 10 6 m 3 /yr NG can be saved with 1.3–2.2 × 10 4 ton/yr carbon dioxide emission reduced [9–12].…”