Hydrogen Management
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KBC offers a wide-ranging hydrogen system optimisation service to define strategies minimising our clients' operating costs and capital investment while meeting all targets for product quality and throughput. Our work combines H2 system management to maximise utilisation of available H2 with expertise in process design, where simple H2 management is insufficient to meet refinery processing goals. 
The KBC Hydrogen System Management approach systematically and simultaneously addresses all key parameters to maximise profitability: product yields are maximised, H2 supply costs minimised and investment reduced (or avoided). Our work provides refiners with decision support information in the form of a RoadMap, placing them in a position to select the most profitable route for both current and future H2 supply.

Key elements of the KBC approach include:
  • The system is modelled in our proprietary HydrogenPinch software to identify opportunities for improving H2 supply through re-use and regeneration.
  • Simulations using KBC SIM reactor models determine the yield impact of modifying H2 supply.
  • Combined with refinery-wide modelling, this adds a crucial dimension to the analysis as increasing yield or throughput brings significant economic benefits.
  • Opportunities for revamping existing H2 generation and purification equipment are identified, as well as the benefits of installing new processes.
  • All opportunities are considered simultaneously and the result is a set of projects that provide the optimum trade-off between investment and operating cost reduction.
  • Where management of available hydrogen is insufficient to meet a client's future processing needs, we call upon extensive refining expertise to identify the most cost-effective capital projects for achieving those aims.