The perfect blend of gasoline
The ABB FTIR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) analyzer is at the heart of a new blend property control system that was commissioned in November 2008 at the 250,000 barrel a day oil refinery of Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) in the Middle East.
BAPCO produces a broad range of petroleum products at the refinery including low sulphur diesel, aviation fuel and other high-value refinery products, most of which are exported to markets in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
The ABB solution enables BAPCO to make uniquely fast and accurate predictions of 13 critical gasoline properties within three minutes, using only one analyzer and operating in a closed loop – one of only a few installations in the world with closed loop capability.
Conventional methods of analyzing blending components - which are still used at many refineries - take as long as 45 minutes and require one analyzer for each property analyzed.
The single multi-variable analyzer in the ABB solution feeds the predictions continually into the blend control system, which adjusts and optimizes the blend components according to the predictions made – thereby achieving blending precision and the target properties without octane giveaways or re-blends.
Speed and precision are key in gasoline blending. A refinery that produces 95.1 or 94.9 octane instead of the required 95 can lose millions of dollars a year in octane giveaways or re-blends, the former caused by excess quality, the latter by imprecise blending.
Continually supplied with fast and accurate data from the FTIR, the blend property control system uses global optimization algorithms to achieve other process improvements and cost reductions at the BAPCO refinery.
It takes parameters like gasoline grade, blend components, production capacities and tank farm availability to enhance production planning and make refinery operations more efficient and cost-effective. It also analyzes all feasible routes and recipes for blending a product and selects the most economical way to achieve the target properties.
ABB has the largest and most extensive range of online analytical instrumentation in the industry and is helping oil and gas majors and petroleum refiners like Exxon Mobil, Petronas, Total and Saudi Aramco (at its huge Ras Tanura refinery) improve their blending operations and save millions of dollars in costs.
ABB control system helps turn food waste into fuel
St1 Biofuels Oy is the only bioethanol producer in the world making biofuel from food waste. The originators of the process say the fuel can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 80 percent.
The food-waste fuel is 85 parts ethanol blended with 15 parts gasoline components and additives, and is sold in Finland as Refuel or RE85. It requires a so-called "flex-fuel" vehicle - millions of which are already in use around the world - but in return the consumer gets a break at the gas pump.
RE85 is approximately 30 euro cents per liter cheaper than regular 95 octane unleaded gasoline, says Mika Aho, managing director St1 Biofuels Oy.
"Motorists now have a tangible means of cutting carbon dioxide emissions that accelerate global warming," he said. "We can influence climate change by our everyday choices."
In contrast to systems of mass production seen in major markets like the United States, the St1 biofuel plants are located near the food waste source they need, usually on the sites of pastry, candy or potato manufacturers. The food waste used in the process is not edible.
The small Ethanolix processing units devised by St1 create a dilute biofuel using a process that is controlled by ABB's Extended Automation System 800xA.
From St1's headquarters in Hamina, Finland, System 800xA communicates with the waste plants via a private virtual network, collecting plant data with ABB’s real-time database system for continual monitoring, reporting and analysis. It controls everything from when valves open and close, to the activation of safety locks and automatic cleaning.
The biofuel mixture is later concentrated at ST1's central dehydration plant at Hamina Harbor. Here it is blended with gasoline components and additives before being delivered to pumping stations around Finland as RE85.
St1 says its small biofuel production plants are more economical than larger ones, because their locations at or near the sources of raw food waste mean less transportation, equipment and energy per liter of product is needed.
For additional cost savings, the biofuel stations operate without staff, although an operator makes weekly visits for maintenance.
St1 is eyeing potential gains in market share as countries around the world face tighter emission standards to slow global warming.
A European Union directive expects the market share of biofuels and other renewables against total gasoline and diesel sales should top 5.75 percent by the end of 2010. A similar target in Finland is now four percent, but is expected to keep pace with the EU directive.
Two St1 production sites, at Lappeenranta and Hamina, use waste from manufacturers of candy and baked goods. Each produces a million liters of ethanol per year from about 5,000 tons of inedible food waste like bakery paste, non-baked or baked bread that doesn't meet standards for consumption.
A third site at Närpiö is located on the site of a potato processor, creating a million liters of ethanol a year from potato slurry and starch waste water.
St1 hopes to have from 10 to15 automated bioethanol plants in operation by 2014. A fourth site for food waste is in the works in Vantaa and a fifth, in Lahti, Finland.
In addition, the company will launch a new fuel process using biodegradable municipal waste in spring 2010 in Hämeenlinna, Finland. This is expected to produce a million liters of bioethanol and 5,000 tons of biofuel for heat and electricity from 15,000 tons of municipal biowaste previously composted to enrich soil.
The distillation process uses only renewable fuels.
"With all these processes we can produce about 100,000 cubic meters of ethanol per year in Finland by 2015,” says Dr. Antti Pasanen, a key player at St1 Biofuels Oy who developed the food-waste production method as a researcher with the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT).
ABB irrigation control solution saves water and energy in Spain
The ABB solution controls the irrigation system for 10,700 plots of land in a 210 square-kilometer belt of prime agricultural land in the Zujar Canal region of western Spain, where local farmers grow sweet corn, tomatoes, olives, rice and a variety of other fruits and vegetables.
Prior to ABB’s involvement, many farmers had to drive up to 40 kilometers to irrigate their land. They had to open the water valves by hand, and remain on site until it was time to close them. Because of the travel distances involved, many farmers chose to irrigate their crops during the day and lose water to evaporation, instead of irrigating at night when conditions are ideal.
The energy cost of pumping water during peak daytime power tariffs was a financial burden, while the awkwardness and inefficiency of traveling to their plots and remaining on site was deeply inconvenient. In addition, the farmers’ cooperative association, which represents all 8,500 plot owners, wanted to optimize water use by charging each member for the real cost of the volume consumed.
Another solution was clearly required, and the cooperative asked ABB to provide a complete, single-source irrigation control system.
The solution is based on ABB’s Neptuno 4H wireless irrigation system which uses state-of-the-art ABB remote terminal units and the GPRS telecommunications network to provide a highly flexible and low-cost remote-controlled solution for small to large-scale irrigation projects.
Some 7,900 RTUs control the 10,700 sets of water valves and counters. Powered by small solar panels, they communicate wirelessly with a central ABB SCADA control center using a private and secure wide area network (WAN) system built on the GPRS network.
This enables each of the 8,500 users to program the solution so that each crop receives the optimal amount of water at the correct time of day and when tariffs are most economical. Parameters can be securely accessed and modified by remote using a mobile phone or Internet web browser.
As a result, the farmers no longer have to travel to their land each day, and they receive alarms and maintenance messages on their mobile phones and computers.
After only one irrigation season the solution has produced some remarkable results.
Electrical energy costs have been cut by 30 percent by pumping water when energy tariffs are lower, output has risen by 25 percent due to highly optimized and effective irrigation, and the association’s water consumption has been drastically cut by 47 cubic hectometers a year, which according to the United Nations is enough to meet the minimum water needs of 2.3 million people over a whole year.
Users can open and close the valves remotely, read pressure and water counters, monitor water consumption and water flow, execute up to four irrigation programs a day based on time intervals and/or water volume supplied, and receive alarms and maintenance messages
The system can be expanded with features such as video surveillance, reservoir and gate monitoring, water quality control, weather information and irrigation recommendations with automatic adjustments according to area and crop, mobile phone payments, etc.
ABB is a world-leading supplier of power and automation solutions for the entire water cycle - for pumping stations, water transportation and distribution networks, water and wastewater treatment plants, and desalination plants.
ABB helps secure Hungary’s power supply
Built in the 1970s and equipped with four Soviet-designed reactors, the 1,860-megawatt Paks nuclear power plant in central Hungary generates around 14,800 gigawatt-hours of electricity a year, which is more than 40 percent of the country’s total power generation capacity.
The power is fed into the Hungarian high voltage grid via the plant substation, which consists of ten gas insulated switchgear (GIS) bays, each rated at 420 kV. After some 20 years of service the reliability of the switchgear – which performs the vital function of disconnecting and isolating faults and maintaining grid stability – was in question.
The plant and grid operator - the state-owned power company MVM - turned to ABB to solve the reliability issue and ensure trouble-free transmission from the nuclear power plant to the national power grid.
To prevent switchgear faults from escalating into plant shutdowns, ABB proposed phasing out the 15 non-ABB circuit breakers in the switchgear bays (1.5 breakers per bay) and replacing them with ABB's flagship ELK-3 gas insulated switchgear.
Over the past eight years ABB has replaced five of the 15 GIS breakers and built an additional four GIS bays to increase transmission capacity and reliability. ABB is in the process of replacing another five GIS circuit breakers to secure switchgear reliability.
ELK-3 is part of ABB’s portfolio of gas insulated switchgear, which covers a vast range of ratings from 52 to 1100 kV and is by far the most extensive on the market.
Exceptionally compact and renowned for its reliability and long, maintenance-free service life, the ELK-3 is designed for transmission systems of 420 to 550 kV and was the first GIS to be developed for this rating.
Well-known ELK-3 installations include the two largest GIS substations in the world: the 73 bays at the Three Gorges power plants in China which went into operation in 2008, and the 51 bays at the Itaipu hydropower plant on the Argentine-Brazilian border – still operating trouble-free after almost 30 years.
ABB has a long track record of extending the reach of GIS technology into ever more powerful voltages. World-first achievements include those for 110 kV in 1965, 170 kV in 1966, 550 kV in 1976, 800 kV in 1987 and, most recently, a record-breaking 1100 kV pilot installation for the State Grid Corporation of China.
ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 120,000 people. ABB has a full range of business activities in China, including R&D, manufacturing, sales and services, with 15,000 employees, 27 joint ventures and wholly owned companies, and an extensive sales and service network across 60 cities.