LPG measurements by Suncor &

GWI – Control You Can Measure:

A Novel Configuration for Near-Infrared Analysis

of LPG Composition and Quality Control in a
Refinery Setting.
Standards
Certification
Shashi Mistry, Nate Peters, Dian Wang, Suncor
Education & Training
Publishing
Energy
Conferences & Exhibits Susan J. Foulk, Terry R. Todd Guided Wave, Inc.
Presenter- Debra Hall

• Debra Hall was appointed VP Sales & Marketing, Analytical

Products, Americas of Advanced Holdings in May 2015.

• Debra has over 20 years of experience in Process Industrial

Analyzer Sales Management worldwide for the Chemical Industry in
gas and liquid measurement solutions. With a Bachelor’s Degree in
Electrical Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology she
helps companies improve their processes both from a technical and
economical standpoint.

2
Overview

• Background
– Terminology
– Measurement locations
• NIR review
• Hardware
• Data review
• Performance

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Background

• Suncor Edmonton Refinery

 Processes 142,000 barrels of oil/day
 Extensive NIR installation onsite
 Improved production and blending capabilities1.

• Guided Wave, Inc.

 Designs and manufactures NIR and UV/Vis spectrometers
 Photometers, probes, and fiber optics for process
installations.

1. Real-time Optimization of a Gasoline Run-down Header Blending Operation. Shashi Mistry, Craig Mangan, Jim
Eshpeter, Suncor Energy, Edmonton, Canada. Sanjay Sharma, Honeywell International, Houston, Texas.

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Terminology

• LPG
 Liquefied petroleum gas; Primarily propane and butane
 Produced during oil refining or extracted during the natural gas
production process

• LNG
 natural gas cooled to a liquid state; primarily of methane (typ 90%+).
 May also contain propane, ethane, and other heavier hydrocarbons
 The composition of natural gas from can vary slightly from locations.
• Hydrocracker (HCU)
 A petroleum refining process that upgrades heavier fractions to more
valuable products (LPG, naptha, diesel,kerosene, etc)
 Removes hetero-atoms such as S, N, etc and adds hydrogen to the
cracked hydrocarbon molecules.

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Background

• Composition analysis of LPG is typically carried out by

gas chromatography (GC).
• LPG - need to control the purity of both Butane and
Propane for the export market as well as to stabilize
the process unit.
• The LPG analyses must work for the entire operating
range of the HCU.
• The goal is to measure the concentrations of the C1-
C4 alkanes in liquid phase.

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Measurement Locations

A multi-channel Near-Infrared analyzer was

installed on the Hydrocracker fractionation unit
(HCU) on following columns:
1. Main fractionator unit (Naphtha) ; NIR Analyzer
2. Main fractionator unit (light distillate) ; NIR Analyzer
3. Main fractionator unit (Heavy distillate) ; NIR Analyzer
4. De-propanizer bottoms stream (Butane analysis) ; GC
5. De-ethanizer bottoms stream (Propane analysis) ; GC

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 Measurement Locations

• GCs installed for Analysis of

Butane and Propane
De-ethanizer/De-propanizer
streams.

• Suncor shifted to NIR

technology for these LPG
measurements.

• Due to the need to improve

on quality, uptime and to
reduce analyzer
maintenance costs

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NIR Review

• Suncor intends to economically optimize the HCU

using the NIR measurements on all streams.

• An HCU multi-variable controller is incorporated for

QC using five NIR measurement points.

• NIR allows Suncor to achieve speed of quality

control at a much reduced cost over the long term.

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 Measurement Details
• NIR Spectroscopy
 Powerful measurement technology for either gas or liquid phase
samples
 Allows for remote placement of sample interface via fiber optics
 Multiple property predictions (HC’s,vapor pressure, 90%
distillation,etc).
 Rapid Analysis of sample streams
 Instantly reveals plant upsets/product quality drop-off, etc
• Liquid phase measurements
 Short pathlengths, easy to clean and maintain
• Gas phase measurements
 Long pathlengths required to achieve low detection limits
 Probes more costly, more difficult to clean
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Typical Liquid Alkanes NIR Spectra
Pentane through Hexadecane

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 Short Chain Alkanes – Gas Phase
NIR Spectra
VAPOR PHASE NIR SPECTRA OF ALKANES
Bandwidth = 7.0 nm, Pathlength = 25 cm, Pressure = 10 kPa
0.065
Methane
0.055 Ethane
Propane
Butane
0.045
Iso-Butane
Absorbance/AU

0.035

0.025

0.015

0.005

-0.005
1550 1575 1600 1625 1650 1675 1700 1725 1750 1775 1800 1825 1850
Wavelength/nm

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Measurement Hardware & Software

• Guided Wave M412 xNIR Spectrometer

• 10 mm multi-purpose flow cell on each stream
(CRN certified - 500psi at 200°C [392°F])
• Sample conditioning / collection system
• Single strand fiber optics between flow cell and
M412 analyzer
• Guided Wave Class-PA process monitoring
software
• Unscrambler® multivariate models
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 Sample Collection

Flow out

Sample Bomb
Filter

Flow cell

Heater (Canada)
Flow in

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Sample
Collection

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NIR Measurement

• Conditions
– 10 mm pathlength
– Temperature depends on stream
– Pressure is sufficient to maintain liquid state
– 4 co-adds
– Range 800-1700 nm
• Challenges
– Cell not full (mixed gas / liquid)

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Raw Data

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Segregate spectra when cell is not full

Not full
Full

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Full Cell Spectra – Propane / Butane line

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Models

• C2 (ethane) [for propane stream only]

• C3 (propane)
• iC4 (iso-butane)
• nC4 (normal butane)
• C5+ [for butane stream only]

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Modeling

• All models generated with the Unscrambler® software

• Pre-processing standardized at 1st deriviative
• All models are PLS-1
• Some parameters have a limited concentration range

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Model – C3 / Propane stream

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 Model – nC4 / Butane stream

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Models - Summary

Range Principal
Stream Parameter (vol%) #Samples Components RMSEP
Propane C2
Propane C3 77-99 113 3 0.36
Propane iC4 0-22 120 3 0.40
Propane nC4 0-3 117 2 0.15
Butane C3 0-3.5 119 4 0.22
Butane iC4 11-55 145 4 0.55
Butane nC4 61-88 141 3 0.95
Butane C5

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Results

• The following slides are online trend charts from the NIR
with lab values superimposed.
• The points are one hour apart
• Spikes – most likely due to bubble formation during
measurement

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 C3 in Propane Stream
110

105

100

95

90
NIR (vol%)

85
NIR
Lab
80

75

70

65

60
2/5/2015 3/17/2015 4/26/2015 6/5/2015 7/15/2015 8/24/2015 10/3/2015
Date / Time
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 iC4 in Propane Stream
50

40

30
NIR (vol%)

20
NIR
Lab

10

-10
2/5/2015 3/17/2015 4/26/2015 6/5/2015 7/15/2015 8/24/2015 10/3/2015
Date / Time
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 nC4 in Propane Stream
10

6
NIR (vol%)

NIR
4
Lab

-1
2/5/2015 3/17/2015 4/26/2015 6/5/2015 7/15/2015 8/24/2015 10/3/2015
Date / Time
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 C3 in Butane Stream
4.5

3.5

2.5
NIR (vol%)

2
NIR

1.5 Lab

0.5

-0.5
2/5/2015 0:00 3/17/2015 0:00 4/26/2015 0:00 6/5/2015 0:00 7/15/2015 0:00 8/24/2015 0:00 10/3/2015 0:00
Date / Time
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 iC4 in Butane Stream
35

30

25

20
NIR (vol%)

NIR
15 Lab

10

0
2/5/2015 0:00 3/17/2015 0:00 4/26/2015 0:00 6/5/2015 0:00 7/15/2015 0:00 8/24/2015 0:00 10/3/2015 0:00
Date / Time
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 nC4 in Butane Stream
85

80

75

70

65
NIR (vol%)

NIR
60
Lab

55

50

45

40
2/5/2015 0:00 3/17/2015 0:00 4/26/2015 0:00 6/5/2015 0:00 7/15/2015 0:00 8/24/2015 0:00 10/3/2015 0:00
Date / Time
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Conclusions

• NIR composition measurement of the LPG streams has

allowed Suncor to achieve speed of quality control at a
much reduced cost over GCs.
• For LPG analysis – Suncor was able to control the purity
of both Butane and Propane for their export market as
well as to stabilize the process unit.

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 Questions?

For any questions, please contact us.

Guided Wave Inc

3033 Gold Canal Drive
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670
916-638-4944
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