Ingenuity-Summer-2017

8 Pond | www.pondco.com blend butane with finished gasoline directly in the truck, bringing the gasoline up to the various regulated Reid vapor pressure (RVP) limits for the areas they serve. This increases profits, but this type of inline blending and onsite butane storage is extremely expensive. Because butane is a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), pressurized tanks and the associated infrastructure have to be installed for this type of on-demand system. As oil prices have fluctuated over the last few years, more and more midstream companies have shown significant interest in how to reliably decrease costs and increase revenue by blending butane and gasoline in-tank. One such midstream company decided that a recent rail spur upgrade would give them an ideal situation in which to introduce butane blending. They wanted to take advantage of the capacity they had with their rail spur, but had a strict budget to adhere to for the new butane facilities and did not want to take on the cost of storing the butane on-site. They turned to Pond, a specialty engineering and construction firm with whom they had worked on dozens of projects, to help them design the most efficient butane blending process they could obtain while still sticking to their bottom line. BLENDING OPTIONS There are three options for companies like Pond’s midstream client who want to blend butane at the terminal. The first is the turnkey “into-truck” process, which introduces the butane directly into the pipes in which the gasoline is being pumped into delivery trucks. This is the most efficient process from a vapor- control standpoint, as it allows closer tolerance in blending with an on-demand system. The time that the blend is in the pipe (rather than sitting in a large tank) also reduces the potential for butane to boil off. While this is the most efficient process, that efficiency comes at a much higher RIGHT-SIZING BUTANE SOLUTIONS: A MIDSTREAM BLENDING SYSTEM CASE STUDY As oil prices and the need to reduce costs at the pump have risen over the last 10 years, many midstream companies have taken advantage of butane blending to control costs and improve profits. S ome midstream companies have their butane off-loaded directly from the truck into their tanks, which is a very cost effective method to construct. However, with this method more butane tends to boil off in the tank prior to fully blending, resulting in excessive loss of product and profits. The blend accuracy also has a low tolerance due to the uncertainty of blend quality and completeness, which limits how much butane can be blended at a time. Other companies opt for a privately- patented system to receive, store and