Prediction of refining characteristics of oil

A characteristics prediction system (100) for predicting the refining characteristic of an oil sample of an unknown oil to plan, control, and optimize refinery operation of the unknown oil, the characteristics prediction system (100) comprising:

• a processor (104);
• an interface (106);
• and
• a memory (102) coupled to the processor (104), the memory (102) comprising:
• a receiving module (110) configured to receive values of a plurality of physical properties of the oil sample, wherein the physical properties includes at least one of
• Conradson Carbon Residue (CCR) content, Ramsbottom Carbon Residue (RCR) and Micro Carbon Residue (MCR);
• a regression module (112) configured to compute coefficients of regression based on correlation regression of the plurality of physical properties and refining characteristics of known crude oils stored in a Crude oil database (124);
• and
• a prediction module (114) configured to predict the refining characteristic of the oil sample based on the received values of the plurality of physical properties and the coefficients of regression, wherein the refining characteristic is a characteristic of the unknown oil used for planning, controlling, and optimizing refinery operation of the unknown oil.

An apparatus (1000) for testing an oil sample (1002) for predicting refining characteristics, the apparatus (1000) comprising:

• an API test cell (1004) configured to test the oil sample (1002) for determining API gravity of the oil sample (1002);
• a CCR test cell (1006) configured to test the oil sample (1002) for determining CCR content of the oil sample (1002);
• a Sulphur test cell (1008) configured to test the oil sample (1002) for determining Sulphur content of the oil sample (1002);
• wherein the apparatus (1000) is configured to provide the API gravity of the oil sample, the CCR content of the oil sample, and the Sulphur content of the oil sample to a characteristic prediction system (100) for predicting the refining characteristics of the oil sample;
• and
• wherein the refining characteristic is a characteristic of the unknown oil used for planning, controlling, and optimizing refinery operation of the unknown oil.