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US 10,295,521 B2Granted
Methods and apparatuses for spectral qualification of fuel properties
AssigneeTesoro Refining and Marketing Company
InventorDaniel C. Mertens
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for determining property values of fuels may include using spectral data collected from one or more other fuels or fuel components. The method may include construction of spectral data representative of a fuel by weighting spectral data for another fuel and spectral data for one or more fuel components.
Claims20
A method of blending a fuel, the method comprising:
- obtaining first fuel spectral data for a first fuel;
- combining the first fuel spectral data with fuel component spectral data for one or more fuel components to construct spectral data representative of a group of second fuels, said construction comprising weighting the first fuel spectral data and the fuel component spectral data according to amounts of said first fuel and amounts of said one or more fuel components for making different members among said group of second fuels;
- determining one or more property values for member second fuels among said group of second fuels by comparing said constructed spectral data to calibration data derived from one or more reference fuels;
- qualifying one or more member second fuels from among said group of second fuels using said one or more property values so as to provide one or more qualified fuels;
- providing one or more blending models for blending at least one of said one or more qualified fuels while maintaining a property value of at least one intermediate-blended fuel within a property value range, above a minimum property value threshold, or below a maximum property value threshold;
- the one or more blending models including adding one or more amounts and types of at least one fuel component among said one or more fuel components in two or more blending steps to make said at least one of said one or more qualified fuels;
- selecting a blending model from among said one or more blending models for blending a qualified fuel;
- and
- blending said qualified fuel using the selected blending model.
6 more elements
A method of determining a property value of a property for a fuel and modeling blending steps for making the fuel, the method comprising:
- obtaining first fuel spectral data for a first fuel;
- combining the first fuel spectral data with fuel component spectral data to construct second fuel spectral data representative of a second fuel, said construction comprising weighting the first fuel spectral data and the fuel component spectral data according to amounts of said first fuel and amounts of said one or more fuel components for making said second fuel;
- comparing the second fuel constructed spectral data to calibration data relating one or more non-spectrographic properties to the constructed second fuel spectral data in order to determine property values for said second fuel;
- providing one or more blending models for making said second fuel;
- said one or more blending models comprising adding one or more amounts and types of at least one fuel component among said one or more fuel components in two or more blending steps configured to make said second fuel;
- and
- determining a blending model controlling at least one property value of at least one intermediate-blended fuel made in an intermediate step in making said second fuel.
4 more elements
A method for blending a fuel, the method comprising:
- spectrographically analyzing a first fuel to obtain first fuel spectral data;
- weighting said first fuel spectral data according to amounts of said first fuel specified for use in a second fuel to derive weighted first fuel spectral data;
- obtaining fuel component spectral data for one or more fuel components;
- weighting said fuel component spectral data according to amounts of said one or more fuel components specified for use in said second fuel to derive weighted fuel component spectral data;
- combining the weighted first fuel spectral data with the weighted fuel component spectral data to derive constructed second fuel spectral data representative of said second fuel;
- comparing the constructed second fuel spectral data to calibration data derived from one or more reference fuels in order to determine one or more values of a property for said second fuel;
- qualifying said second fuel using said one or more property values;
- determining a property value of at least one intermediate-blended fuel made during blending of said first fuel, the property value of said at least one intermediate-blended fuel determined using constructed spectral data for said at least one intermediate-blended fuel;
- and
- blending said second fuel using said first fuel and said one or more fuel components.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.