Petroleum Coke Services

Key Challenge

Some oil refineries use delayed coking units (DCUs) to extract additional high value fuels from residues left after the normal oil refining process. This “bottom of the barrel” residue is heated to extremely high temperatures in coke drums to capture additional gasoline and diesel fuels.  The delayed coking process is a batch process that produces coke drums full of petroleum coke, or petcoke, a coal-like substance that must be transferred from the coker to barges or terminals as quickly as possible in order to maximize coker throughput (i.e. reduce cycle times) and ensure constant operation of upstream process units. Reliable turnaround of coke drums is critical to ensure the continuous operation of a refinery and to maximize the value of every barrel of oil.

Solution

Marsulex Petroleum Coke Services (MPCS) provides a complete in-refinery petroleum coke handling solution to refinery customers.  Solids handling is MPCS’ core business and a non-core activity for oil refiners.  Our operators cut the petcoke out of the coke drums using high pressure water and handle all of the logistics involved with moving the petcoke from the active cutting area to terminals, railcars or barges for eventual marketing to other industries as a fuel.  Marsulex provides predictive, preventative and reactive maintenance for the coke handling equipment it operates.  Our employees are fully integrated with refinery operations personnel, participating in all customer DCU turn-arounds and expansion planning efforts. As a full-time in-refinery service provider, Marsulex meets or exceeds its customers’ requirements for safety performance.  As a result of our strong safety focus, MPCS has received numerous safety awards including the Houston Business Roundtable’s Best in Category Award for outstanding safety performance.

Result

• Marsulex provides a reliable and efficient service, maximizing the amount of time that a DCU is online.
• By extending the amount of time a DCU is online, refiners are able to increase residual coker throughput, enabling them to process greater volumes of heavy crudes and increase refinery profits.
• Marsulex’s focus on preventative maintenance ensures maximum availability of coker handling equipment.
• Marsulex is the only company to have participated in six (6) new coker startups over the last six (6) years.  This experience can prove invaluable to refineries and upgraders with less experience in design and operations of delayed coker process units.
• Marsulex’s world-class safety record provides our customers with confidence that our operators will hold their safety and the safety of refineries’ personnel in the highest regard.
• With MPCS managing the coke handling system, refineries can concentrate on their core business of producing liquid hydrocarbon fuels.