Refinery Calculator

Frequently Asked Questions

Got questions? We’ve got answers. Explore our comprehensive FAQ section to find quick and helpful solutions to all your queries.
GENERAL QUESTION
How many refineries are in the Refinery Calculator database?

We have just about 700 refineries configured in our database. Users can currently select all US and Canadian complex refineries (simple upgrader refineries require a special case run from a customer support staff member). For other refineries please contact a representative at Refinery Calc for further assistance.

How fast is a typical simulation?
On average the Refinery Calculator can simulate, optimize and provide the end user with a report within 22 seconds !
Can I purchase or license the Refinery Calculator?
Anything is possible, but why would you want to pay $$$,$$$ for a complicated refinery modeling software package and deal with the headaches of constant updates, training, yearly maintenance costs. Our approach is to simplify software for the user and provide you with the data from the tool at a fraction of the price.
What if I am not happy with my simulation results?
The team at Refinery Calc strives to provide the best customer user experience possible. We believe in continuous improvement and are constantly upgrading our products and services to better serve our customers. Refineries are complicated and although our product is simple to use, there are some configurations that users can come up with that can produce an error message (meaning that the refinery configuration is unfeasible). With any issue that you may have we kindly ask that you reach out to a customer support staff member via email.
How many refineries can a user pick and simulate at one time?
With an engine mode license users can select and run every refinery in the world in a couple of hours. With a standard mode license users can select up to 5 refineries at a time and simulate all 5 using different attributes for each refinery run. Also, the user can select the same refinery and run 5 different scenarios for each of the selected refineries (i.e. crude prices, product prices, crude types, cut points,…).
Can I insert my own model assumptions?
Yes, each user is able to utilize the standard assumptions the Refinery Calculator tool is pre-configured for or over ride those with user defined assumptions by simply typing in the information in the correct cells. We limit user selections to crude types, changes to the refinery configuration (on/off and +/- bias capacity), cut point adjustments, crude pricing and product pricing.
Does the Refinery Calculator use proprietary information from refiners?
No we use only publicly available information for our Refinery Calculator toolset and databases. However, we do allow users to customize each model run, so if the user has specific information for their refinery simulation they are able to insert the information and perform their custom simulation. Further, the Refinery Calc team is always there to help and offer support. We can create a specific custom solution and allow the user to insert advanced refinery unit information as well.
What is the functional purpose of Dashboard Live?
Great question ! Refinery Calc’s Dashboard Live for subscription holders allows our customers to be able to obtain (close to real time) information about nearly every refinery in the world. Yes, we run/simulate/update each major refinery in our database and at the Country Level to provide key information such as: Product Yields, Net Cash Margins, Refinery Utilization, Energy Usage, Sustainability Metrics and Industrial Gas Metrics. We perform the analysis for our customers and provide daily updates – again saving you time and money.
PRICE & SUBSCRIPTION
How Often Are Prices Updated?
The product prices are updated multiple times per day. If you need to know the price now, just click on the Update Now button while configuring the parameters for the calculator.
Does the Refinery Calc team sell reports and other Information?
Yes, for customers who would like their own custom reports created for them the Refinery Calc team can create a Custom Solution for you. We can run the refinery simulations for you and provide you with an excel spreadsheet and/or downloadable report at whatever frequency you desire to receive the information. Please contact a support member for pricing or fill out the form on the “Contact Us” page.
Refund Policy
We strive to provide 100% satisfaction to all of our users. We value all of our customers and kindly ask that each customer utilize the 1 Day Free Trial option to make sure they are satisfied with the product prior to using it. We can not offer a refund once a subscription is purchased. The subscriptions for simulation usage provides the user with the ability to use the simulator. All sales are final once purchased.
What are the Subscription Options?
The refinery calc team provides its members with ‘pay-as-you-go’, weekly, monthly and yearly membership options. Please select the “Pricing” page link for more information.
Renewal of Subscription or Cancellation
To make things easy as possible for our customers, your credit card will be automatically charged to renew your subscription. If you want to turn off this feature please contact support@refinerycalc.com (to cancel).
PROCESS & SIMULATION
Does Refinery Calc have every Refinery Configuration for over 700 refineries?
Refinery calc utilizes public information, refinery operations experience and refinery operations intelligence to formulate configurations for most refineries. There is not a perfect refinery database in the world that keeps up with every daily refinery configuration for each refinery in the world. The Refinery Calc team allows the users to modify any refinery configuration and users can even create a custom refinery.
How Often Are Crude Prices Updated?
Crude prices are updated about every eight hours using correlations from Brent and WTI to calculate (or approximate) what other crude prices cost. Users can enter in there own crude price assumptions and run the calculator.
What causes my simulation to "time out"?
There are several scenarios that can lead to unfeasible solutions that will in turn cause the calculator to time out. We caution users to be careful when shutting down various refinery process units. As an alternative, try reducing the capacity of the particular unit down to 100 bpd or a very small number instead of to 0 bpd and then re run the simulation. Some scenarios depending on the complexity of it can take longer than usual or can simply time out.
Why did my simulation produce an erroneous result when I shutdown a particular refinery process unit?
The Refinery Calc team has provided users with the ability to shutdown various process units per simulation. However, some resulting refinery configurations are simply not practical. If you encounter an erroneous result, please contact a member of the Refinery Calc team for assistance.
What is the difference between "Fixed" and "Optimized" mode?
When using the powerful Refinery Calc engine a user can select to run the refinery by fixing the crude diet percentages or select “optimized” mode in which, the RC Engine will optimize (choose between) light and/or heavy crudes. In optimize mode, the First Crude Selection is setup for a “light Crude Slate”, the second, third and fourth selections are setup for intermediate crude slate selections, which are fixed and the 5th crude slate selection is reserved for a “heavy” crude. The RC Engine will then optimize amongst the crude slate selections and solve to objective functions: 1.) Max Margin and 2.) Max Crude Throughput. In fixed mode, the RC Engine optimizes the refinery per the criteria above, but does not take into consideration optimization between the light and heavy crude selections (because they are “Fixed” by the user).