Risk Management Tool to Evaluate Asphalt Feedstocks
A major South American refiner sought to strategically upgrade refinery bottom streams into higher-value, lower-carbon footprint products with minimal investment. The client was particularly concerned about maintaining deep conversion margins and protecting their hard-earned market reputation for producing high-quality asphalt.
Objective
Evaluate the feasibility of producing asphalt with current equipment and available feedstocks while ensuring deep conversion efficiencies and maintaining product quality acceptable in multiple world markets.
Becht Approach
Becht deployed a multi-consultant team to assess the opportunity and technical options. Using PetroSIM® kinetic modeling, Becht conducted a detailed review of vacuum tower operations and developed a proprietary, web-based risk management tool to evaluate feedstocks and verify that the cut points required for deep conversion could be maintained while producing asphalt of various qualities acceptable in multiple world markets.
Solution
Becht’s analysis provided senior management with confidence in the feasibility of their strategy to produce asphalt with existing equipment and utilizing the excellent feedstocks already available. The client decided to proceed to implementation and Becht is slated to support with start-up of the asphalt operation.
Client Value
The client successfully developed a plan to produce asphalt at the expense of low-value, high-carbon load fuel oil, achieving:
- ~$10/bbl improvement in asphalt production profitability
- Reduction in CO₂ emissions from 3.64 to 0.25 kg CO₂ per barrel
