Simple optimization method for partitioning purification of hydrogen networks

The Egyptian petroleum fuel market is increasing rapidly nowadays. These fuels must be in the standard specifications of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), which required lower sulfur gasoline and diesel fuels. So the fuels must be deep hydrotreated which resulted in increasing hydrogen (H2) consumption for deeper hydrotreating. Along with increased H2 consumption for deeper hydrotreating, additional H2 is needed for processing heavier and higher sulfur crude slates especially in hydrocracking process, in addition to hydrotreating unit, isomerization units and lubricant plants. Purification technology is used to increase the amount of recycled hydrogen. If the amount of recycled hydrogen is increased, the amount of hydrogen that is sent to the furnaces with the off gas will decrease. In this work, El Halwagi et al. (2003) and El Halwagi (2012) optimization methods which are used for recycle/reuse integration systems have been extended to be used in the partitioning purification of hydrogen networks to minimize the hydrogen consumption and the hydrogen discharge. An actual case study and two case studies from the literature are solved to illustrate the proposed method.