The Roles of
Oil-Soluble Magnesium
in Refining and Beyond

PRODUCT: LMG-AF20™

 

Oil Soluble Magnesium has proven to have several functions in the processing of oil and in the refined oil uses related to combustion.  The primary functions are listed below:

Oil Soluble Magnesium:

  • Can prevent Asphaltene Agglomeration and deposition.
  • Can destabilize Asphaltenes that have already lain down and help allow removal online.
  • Can trap vanadium before it fouls catalyst.
  • Can combine with Vanadium to prevent High Temperature Corrosion and Slagging in combustion applications like Oil Fired Boilers, Industrial Diesel Engines and Turbines firing Heavy Oil.

Combining all of these capabilities can yield tremendous payouts for the refiner and oil consumers.  The single most important characteristic of the Magnesium’s behavior is that when introduced to a hydrocarbon stream that is distilled, it will concentrate in the heaviest fraction and proceed wherever that stream may go.  Some examples of the multiple benefits of this characteristic can most easily be described by going through some typical refining process schemes and listing the benefits in each unit.

Examples:

Crude Units:

  • Feeding oil soluble Magnesium to the crude between the Desalter and the Crude preheat will take advantage of the Magnesium’s effect on Asphaltene and prevent fouling in exchangers and, because agglomerated Asphaltenes are the precursors to Coke formation, it can prevent or reduce coking in the Crude heater and inlet sections of the Distillation Column.  Oil soluble Magnesium will concentrate in the Residual stream leaving the bottom of the Crude column and provide antifoulant benefits to the heat exchange associated with this stream.

Vacuum Units:

  • Because the feed to the Vacuum Unit already contains the Magnesium from the Crude Unit bottoms stream little or no additional feed of Magnesium may be needed to continue to reap the benefits of the functionality of the chemical. Asphaltene related Fouling in the Feed preheat exchangers can be reduced or eliminated.  Asphaltene laydown in the Feed heater can be reduced or eliminated thereby significantly reducing the coking problems in the heater and may even allow the reduction of steam to the feed ahead of the heater which, in turn can reduce the overhead load on the vacuum system.  As the feed enters the vacuum column and is fractioned off the Magnesium is concentrating in the Vacuum Residuum or Bitumen.  
  • The Magnesium can reduce fouling in the bottom of the Vacuum Column and reduce or prevent Asphaltene related fouling and coking in the bottom of the tower as well as the heat exchange.  There are many options for the usage or further processing Vacuum Bottoms.  They can become an Asphalt final product where there are no known benefits of the Magnesium content.  They can become Feed to a Visbreaker, where Magnesium’s benefits are well documented.  They can become the major blend component in #6 oil, or “Bunker Fuel” where the oil soluble Magnesium products were originally applied, and the benefits have been known for more than 50 years.  They may be fed to a Visbreaking unit where the benefits have been well known in Europe for several years.  They may also partially be fed to an FCC Unit where the benefits have only recently been discovered. Each of the Alternatives that show benefits will be discussed below by Use.

Bunker Fuels:

  • Because we have already seen the previous benefits to the Refining processes, and because the Magnesium is still in the fuel, we can trim the concentration of the Magnesium to suit the actual use.  The three primary uses for this fuel are:

    • Oil Fired Boilers
    • Medium and Low Speed Industrial diesels (2 and 4 stroke engines)
    • Oil Fired Gas Turbines

    (One caution needs to be made if the fuel is to be used for gas turbine fuel: since gas turbine fuel is normally water washed just prior to use, some magnesium may be removed by contact with substantial quantities of water.  Any magnesium lost in this procedure may need to be replaced before the fuel can be burned. Similarly for all combustion uses of magnesium, appropriate levels of use may be different from what arrives with the pretreated fuel.)  All of these uses and guidelines are described in individual sections on this Website.

Visbreaking:

  • Feed coming from the Vacuum Bottoms will already contain the Magnesium.  The economics of using this chemistry in the Visbreaker alone are well documented.  The benefits are those of the Asphaltene antifoulant properties and the resulting reduction in Coking.  The larger economic benefits come from the flexibility these factors provide in allowing Refiners to operate their Visbreakers at higher severities.  Even incremental increases in Visbreaking severity will yield significant payout.

Conclusions:

The benefits of Oil Soluble Magnesium are diverse and so wide spread that they are difficult to totally quantify.  Often only one of these benefits will cover the entire cost of the program and, unfortunately, many justification exercises stop as soon as an acceptable payout is documented.  Those Refiners willing to complete the evaluations of the entire payout scenarios including those gained by the end users of the Bunker Fuels will realize the real value of this particular chemistry and it’s very real financial benefits.

 


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