Refinery water management
Waste minimisation and loss prevention for improving effluent water quality
and rendering more water suitable for reuse are discussed
Gert-Jan Fien KBC Energy Services
M
ore refiners are finding reason to ration-
alise their water consumption. However,
so many issues impact the amount and
quality of water required that most are unaware
of their own performance and of the opportuni-
ties to improve. A 360-degree approach to
improving water management in oil refineries
has therefore been implemented, ranging from
benchmarking issues to typical inefficiencies
encountered in water usage and incorporating
best practice improvements. This approach has
been successfully applied to several refineries.
Changing conditions
Compared to other industries, oil refiners have
had relatively few concerns about water usage.
However, the situation is changing. Factors
contributing to a growing need for better water
management are:
Processing dirtier crudes With specific gravities
closer to water, (slop) oil is harder to separate from
(waste) water and desalting is more difficult. Sour
crudes cause more waste water contamination
Clean fuels production More desulphurisation
can overload sour water strippers and sulphur
recovery units, thus impacting waste water quali-
ties. Often, deeper conversion requires site
expansion and increased water consumption
Stricter emissions regulations There are more
gas flows to scrub and more waste water contam-
inants to remove
Climatic changes Increased rainfall can reduce
residence time in waste water treatment (WWT)
and even overflows, whereas reduced rainfall can
mean less dilution of final effluent
Less rainfall, falling ground water levels and
higher municipal and/or agricultural consumption
These factors can also reduce fresh water
availability
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Greater public awareness of environmental
issues Often, public sentiment urges the reduc-
tion of water consumption and effluent.
The availability of fresh water and the licence
to discharge effluent directly both affect sustain-
able operation and are, therefore, worth much
more than the annual cost of water import or
disposal.
Benefits
Better water management may enable expansion
or higher throughput by freeing up fresh water. It
can also improve effluent quality due to reduced
contamination, better waste water segregation
and longer residence time in treatment units. It is
also likely to reduce operating costs associated
with water purchase, pumping, treatment (chemi-
cals, resin, air compression) and heating (steam
use, boiler blow-down).
Possible additional benefits include less fouling
and corrosion in process equipment, better
desalting of crude oil, colder cooling water
(better vacuums, higher LPG recovery) and an
improved public image.
Challenges
With the proprietary WaterPinch methodology
and software, KBC Energy Services carried out
water minimisation projects in many branches of
industry, including oil refining, which presents
particular challenges due to:
Distribution of water consumption Typically,
cooling towers and steam generation account for
8085% of water consumption. Most other users
are relatively small and widespread
Complex water chemistry Refining processes
release a great variety of contaminants, each of
which can determine the reusability of water for
certain applications and cause problems with
PTQ Q4 2008 1
 neglect of water-related systems,
BFW this also hinders numerical analysis
Vents/losses Relatively low cost of water This
can make it hard to justify water-
Demin. Deaerator Boilers Steam saving projects
Blow
down Generally conservative attitudes
Cond.
Weve always used this amount/
rtm. type of water, so we must need it.
Service With water becoming a bigger
Evap./drift water
Water issue, a good methodology is needed
intake Clarifier/ Cooling
filter towers
Slops
system
to benchmark water efficiency and
analyse where improvements can
UF/RO
Fire water/
realistically be made.
CPI
domestic/labs

Benchmarking
WWTP Waste
Quantitative benchmarking of a
water

Storm water
Tank water/
refinerys water consumption implies
flares the calculation of objective water
Discharge
efficiency and compares this to a
database of results from other refin-
Figure 1 Water-related utility systems in oil refining eries, such as the KBC Best
Technology (BT) analysis for energy
usage. Ideally, as in the case of BT
analysis, it should also provide an
BFW objective refinery-specific best prac-
tice target in terms of tonnes of
Service
water
Reformer Amine
plant
Desuperheating water imported per barrel of crude
& waste-heat
boilers processed. To do this, the calcula-
FCC (+HDS)
coking/ SRU tions need to account for differences
Washing, CDU/VDU/
pump seals, visbreaking HDS in:
etc.
Cooling water systems Once-
through cooling water, as opposed
SWS
to make-up for a circulating system,
is normally not counted in the water
Steam SWS consumption per tonne of crude oil
and should therefore lead to a lower
Indirect
heating
Live
steam
target
Excess
SSW Refinery configuration Clean fuels
Desalters
Cond. Spent production requires more contami-
rtm. Process caustics
condensate nant removal. Coking processes are
Waste
dirty and cause swings in waste
water water production, while downstream
(chemical) processes add their own
complications
Figure 2 Generic water consumption in oil refining processes Quality of imported water (for
example, saline or potable) The proc-
effluent discharge. Contaminant interactions ess of preparing water for use in boilers and
pose threats of VOC emissions, scale formation, processes gives reject flows that depend in size
corrosion, bio-fouling, sludge build-up and more, on the quality of imported water.
making the application of quantitative tools very Water usage is further affected by:
difficult Crude types processed (sweet or sour, light or
Poor metering Usually caused by relative heavy) This determines how much contamination

2 PTQ Q4 2008 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000197

ends up in waste water and how
hard it is to treat that water
Climatic conditions (tempera- Process name
ture and precipitation) Effective Water in feed 0 Feed = t/h FI-130 5 Condensate export
handling (and reuse) of rain Steam
Steam import 15 use 8 0.5 To atmosphere
water can offer opportunities, HP/MP/LP FR-101
while optimal air cooling can FR-103
 1.5 To sour water stripping
reduce make-up water for cool- 5
1 To waste water treatment
ing towers.
3 15 Steam export
There are also minor influ- 8 HP/MP/LP
ences from on-site or off-site FI-127
Demin water 20 FR-133 9
power generation, economies of Steam
Generation Blowdown 1 To sewer
scale and site layout. All of this 10%
makes objective benchmarking Cleaning
11
of a refinerys water efficiency a
Drinking water 0.5 11.6 To sewer
challenge. A benchmark that
Process water 0 0 To sewer
only considers a certain combi-
nation of common process units Pump seals 40 To sewer
would fail to identify the
Cooling water 800 40 760 Return to cooling tower
(generally much larger) ineffi-
ciencies and losses that exist in + +
the utility systems (power plant,
Sum 836 Sum 836
demin plant, cooling towers).
+ Blue font indicates a reliably metered flow

Developing a base case Other blue fonts are trustworthy flow estimates
Red fonts indicate guessed values
To find a refinerys specific Black fonts indicate calculated values

water consumption (tonnes of Blow-down flow was estimated using a reasonable blow-down percentage
Water in the feed is thought to be negligible
water imported per barrel of Drinking water was estimated from person equivalents
crude processed), one must be
clear about which battery limit Figure 3 A sample process unit water balance
water flows should be counted.
Water or steam going to associated petrochemi- for data collection; often a single summer month,
cal processes, or to third parties, should be during which all the major water-consuming
disregarded. processes are running normally.
A site-wide water balance is not strictly Due to insufficient flow metering, achieving a
required, since we are only talking about (fresh) balance may require many types of information,
water imports. However, to verify key measure- such as stoichiometry, valve openings and
ments and help with sifting out the non-refinery pipe diameters, concentrations or temperatures
water flows, it is a great tool. For finding before and after mixing, design values pro-rated
improvements at a later stage, it is to current production and more. KBC recom-
indispensable. mends documenting each data source and
Producing a useful water balance is challeng- its reliability.
ing in this branch of industry. Water, although Figure 3 shows a well-documented water
used in many ways (Figures 1 and 2), has histori- balance around a process unit. Separate process
cally been of little concern. The upkeep of water balances like this should be combined into a site-
systems and reliable metering are generally wide balance and resulting flows cross-checked
found wanting. The strategy presented here is to against main meters on water import, demin
actively involve all relevant staff and start from production, steam generation and waste water
both ends simultaneously the utility systems flow.
and the processes. Eventually, both will have to
meet and be reconciled. Improvement opportunities
A good base-case time period must be chosen A holistic approach to water reduction requires

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000197 PTQ Q4 2008 3

 are arranged as levels, corre-
sponding with the previous
Good housekeeping
discussion.
Corporate Operator training
Water utilities
Process units
Between process units Key processes to focus on are
crude and vacuum distillation,
Within process units coking and FCC. It is important
(including tank farm, cooling towers)
Maximise condensate return to have a close look at desalters,
Optimise consumption
Avoid pollution
which are significant users of
water, as well as sources of (oily)
Increase reuse, improve SWS
waste water, and they are often
Improve fresh and waste water treatment under considerable strain from
Enable recycle dirtier crudes and higher
Leak reduction 3rd -party incentives
Metering and monitoring throughputs. Further attention
goes to processes with considera-
ble water/steam injection,
Figure 4 Levels of water-reducing activities notable amine consumption or
with water-cooled process pumps.
effort and expertise at four levels, as illustrated Throughout this, the questions are:
in Figure 4. Is the right amount of water used?
At the centre is the optimisation of water usage Could cheaper water be used?
at unit level, requiring an understanding of proc- Could effluent water be cleaner?
ess needs and constraints. The next level Is effluent routed correctly?
addresses inter-unit integration of water streams, Along with the processes, it will always be more
with or without intermediate water regeneration, important to investigate the utility systems,
which may be facilitated with high-level tools where most water is used or treated.
such as WaterPinch. Next comes the improve-
ment of efficiency and effectiveness of water Cooling towers
treatment facilities, and all of these should be For decent performance, refiners should aim at
supported by a corporate culture of awareness concentration ratios between 4.0 and 5.0. Due to
and incentives to save water. diminishing returns, higher ratios are not
With site-wide water balances in hand, an normally worthwhile. In practice, many sites still
assessment can be made of where to focus atten- operate at ratios below 3.0. Discussions with
tion. Typically, the key water-saving cooling tower personnel, outsourced treatment
improvements (such as those with a real impact specialists and process operators will be required
and acceptable payback times) are few and to reveal the reasons for low ratios, whether they
conceptually simple: are poor-quality make-up water, large losses of
Better recovery of condensate to deaerators cooling water (CW), contamination by process
Maximum reuse of stripped sour water leaks or ineffective chemical treatment.
Higher concentration ratios in cooling towers Proper maintenance and operation of CW
Reuse of treated waste water. systems is necessary to bring blow-down under
However, to realise these concepts affordably control and maximise temperature drop in the
and minimise the cost of new water treatment, towers. Colder CW is often worth much more
you will need to: than just the value of water saved due to better
Avoid water contamination efficiency of condensing turbines and better LPG
Improve maintenance, monitoring and control recovery.
of water systems
Improve effectiveness of existing waste water Sour water stripping
treatment. Stripped sour water is normally a significant part
This represents a concerted effort and exper- of overall effluent. Good stripping practice can
tise of refinery operations. The following sections do much to offload the WWTP and provide water

4 PTQ Q4 2008 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000197

directly for other purposes, such as desalting or
in-line washing of overhead condensers.
Segregation of sour waters, monitoring of
performance, stable operation and preventive
maintenance are essential. In addition, the
handling of stripper off-gases (eg, in sulphur
recovery) may need attention to resolve bottle-
necks in that area.
Steam system
Efficient steam and condensate systems are
important for overall water efficiency. With
around 80% of the water intake going to boilers
and cooling towers, it follows that energy-saving
programmes can notably reduce overall water
consumption. Improved heat integration can
reduce steam consumption and CW require-
ments, while rationalising the utility system may
cut steam venting, debottleneck condensate
return systems and help to move away from
condensing turbines.
Proper handling of steam condensate deserves
much attention due to its double value as a high-
quality water and energy carrier. Any steam vents
or leaks constitute water and energy loss, while
poor steam trap maintenance can lead to steam in
the condensate headers, causing hydraulic bottle-
necks and reduced condensate return. The
segregation of clean and suspect condensate and
the use of distributed quality monitoring can
avoid the need for dumping large amounts.
Note that savings in demin water consumption
are inversely amplified by the efficiency of
demineralisation. Reducing boiler blow-down
and condensate losses may also lower overall
waste water temperatures and thus improve
WWT performance.
Fresh water treatment
Depending on the type of imported water, fresh
water treatment can consist of many stages, each
with its own reject stream and/or chemicals
consumption. Water for human consumption
and sanitation are normally imported separately,
leaving two main qualities to be produced
on-site:
Process water that is just good enough to be
used for the cooling towers, fire system and
equipment/floor washing. Part of this may be
recovered waste water
Demineralised water for steam generation:
higher pressure steam requires cleaner water. If
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large amounts of steam are generated at distinctly
different pressure levels, it can make sense to
provide demin water with different qualities.
For producing steam at 4060 barg, it is
generally good practice to have reverse osmosis
(RO) followed by mixed-bed ion exchange (IX)
polishing. The regeneration of IX resins
consumes a lot of water and can often be opti-
mised by improved scheduling and cascading of
rinse water flows.
Waste water treatment
Recovering treated effluent is essential for high
water efficiency. Avoiding water contamination
in the first place and then segregating different
types of effluent will ease the task of WWT and
increase the availability of recoverable water.
Specifically, it is important to have separate
primary treatments for spent caustics, oily water
and other waste water. Next, residence time in
treatment units must be maximised. Keeping oily
and other water separate will help, as will good
sludge removal and a reduction in the flow rates
arriving from the processes.
To improve oil/water separation, the emulsifi-
cation of oily water (due to pumping shear or
surfactants, for instance) should be avoided.
Dosing control and mixers in air flotation units
and biological treatment must be optimised.
Generally, treatment units should be kept in
good mechanical condition. To minimise site-
wide water consumption, the inspection and
optimisation of WWT is essential.
Loss prevention
Reducing oil losses to waste water, along with
good slop oil recovery, saves money and
improves waste water quality. Tank draining and
cleaning procedures and desalter operations can
often be improved, while oil skimming devices
may need repair.
Refinery-wide programmes for loss control,
leak repair and good housekeeping, with clear
targets, incentives and responsibilities, should be
part of managements commitment and reviewed
in a complete water project. This includes the
preparation/review of operating procedures and
appropriate training of operators.
Summary
For many reasons, oil refiners may need to
improve their water utilisation. Best practice
PTQ Q4 2008 5
 refinery water management requires many WaterPinch is a mark of KBC Advanced Technologies plc, and it is
aspects of the process and utility systems to work registered in various territories.
together, as well as aspects of waste minimisa-
tion and loss prevention, to improve the overall Gert-Jan Fien is Senior Consultant in the KBC Energy Services group.
Email: gfien@kbcat.com
effluent water quality and render more water
suitable for reuse.
The approach taken here focuses on practical
in-process improvements rather than on the Links
start- and end-of-pipe solutions in which some
companies specialise. Also, it does not rely on
More articles from: KBC Advanced Technologies
proprietary chemicals/resins for water treat-
ment, or on exotic equipment and materials of More articles from the following category:
construction. It does, however, require a project Water/Wastewater Management
team with a variety of skills and experience.

6 PTQ Q4 2008 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000197