Developing a Model to Estimate Hydrogen Consumption of Vacuum Gas Oil Hydrocracking Plant

Due to the growing demands for light oil products such as gasoline and diesel, and also increasing heavy fractions of crude oil, processes such as vacuum gas oil (VGO) hyrocracking are significant in modern refineries to achieve clean fuel without sulfur. Therefore, in this study, based on pilot tests using vacuum gas oil feed taken from an Iranian Isomax unit and commercial catalysts, a model for estimating flow rate of light and heavy products, hydrogen sulfide and ammonia, the amount of aromatic content of product and hydrogen consumption is provided. The results showed that the model can predict the mentioned hydrocracking variables with absolute average deviation (AAD%) of 10.75%, 4.1%, 1.4%, 27.71%, 6.54% and 7.99%, respectively. Additionally, the sensitivity analysis performed by the proposed model shows that increasing the space velocity, hydrogen pressure and temperature on product have a great impact on the quality and quantity of hydrocracking products.