Gasoline Blending Case Study

Lee E.Curcio

Refinery Automation Institute, LLC

Morristown, NJ USA

Gasoline blending is growing reputation and appeal in the last years due the ability of making money with “low” effort.  Getting into this business doesn’t require a degree or a strong knowledge of the whole process but simply a willpower and willingness of making money that for sure all of us have.

The problematic of Gasoline Blending is ingrained in the process of selecting the right tools to help the user selecting the right components to make the most profitable blend.

There are several tools in the market and some of them work and some not.

Following is showed a case study to make a profitable gasoline batch, selecting the right components, in an easy way.

1. Smart Blend Optimizer

The goal of this “easy” example is to illustrate the ability and simplicity of using a Smart Blend Optimizer to make profitable gasoline blends.

The Optimizer uses Linear Programming (LP). The result of the optimization takes into account simultaneously:

1. Blend Properties, Specs,
2. Blend inventory
3. Blend prices.

It is a single Blend Optimizer, meaning it is optimizing one blend at the time. All the non-linear blend properties are calculated non-linearly, for example the RON and MON have built-in the RT-70 equation and the RVP the Chevron equation. The Optimizer has also integrated important features such as:

1. Calculating the blend properties after adding Ethanol;
2. Analyzing whether the optimized batch meets the EPA rules for reformulated gasoline;
3. Manual blending tool where the user can insert manually the blend recipe, and see the expected blend properties.

The user needs to add only few information and afterwards the optimizer processes all the parameters entered to come up with an optimized recipe.

• Enter the blend component properties

The user can add their own component properties, creating its own customized database.

• Select the blend specifications

This step is very important because depending in which country, state or region we are selling the gasoline, we must meet the specs, otherwise it’s not possible sell the final batch.

The specs also are very important because they are constrains adopted in the optimization.

•  Select Inventory and Price

This step is the most important one because we are doing this with the goal of making money. We have to select blend componentsand finish product price to determine whether or not after the optimization there is a profit.

•  Optimization

Here we go, this is the last step to determine if we are making a profitable batch. Optimize means maximizing blend profit while meeting all the constraints, e.g. specs, batch size, inventory and prices.

Using the Smart Blend Optimizer is easy and fast. After adding the main parameters (blend component properties, specs, inventory and prices) with a click we can estimate if we are making a profitable batch or not.

This and other cases study are analyzed in details during the Gasoline and Diesel Blending course that will be held November 7-9, 2017 in New York City.

We are going over on all the processes required to install the software and show how to optimize a blend.

We are going to teach how analyze the optimized results, making variations and getting several profitable batches changing variables.

We are going to show how to use it, but we also give to the students plenty of time to “play” with the software and learning it real time in the class, asking questions and interact with other students and teachers.

After attending the course you will be able to use the software by yourself and the important thing, making $-Money with blending.