Software approach on crude oil yields prediction: A case study of Tema Oil Refinery

Yield prediction is an integral part of every refinery process due to the intricacy of the process and composition of crude oil. Inability to sufficiently predict the yields before refinery process creates challenges such as inadequacy in planning the operating conditions to meet product target, product optimisation failure and inability to meet product market specification. Predicting yields using a yield pattern model practised by the Tema Oil Refinery is economical; however, it is time consuming and tedious. This paper focused on using a Visual Basic 6.0 programming language to predict product yields that is based on kinetic reaction models. A user friendly and efficient software application has been developed to predict product yields within a short time. This software is compatible with all windows platforms and satisfactorily predicts crude oil yields with a certainty range of 94.0 to 99.0%. Key words: Crude oil, crude oil yield, yield correlations, visual basic 6.0.