equipment_sizingcostingefuel
Pre-feasibility sizing and costing of an intermediate olefin pooling, buffering, and polishing system delivering a controlled feed to oligomerisation, with capacity scaling curves and levelized cost outputs.
Select a screening configuration affecting losses, consumables, and CAPEX reference levels.
Sum of all olefin-rich inlet streams entering the pooling/polishing system.
min 0.1 · max 300 · step 0.1 · t/h
Annual operating utilization including planned/unplanned downtime.
min 10 · max 100 · step 1 · %
Effective buffering time to equalise upstream fluctuations and maintain stable oligomerisation feed.
min 0.5 · max 48 · step 0.5 · h
Representative inlet pressure at battery limits.
min 1 · max 80 · step 0.5 · bar
Target outlet pressure to the oligomerisation feed system.
min 1 · max 80 · step 0.5 · bar
Representative inlet temperature at battery limits.
min -20 · max 120 · step 1 · C
Target outlet temperature for stable downstream operation.
min -20 · max 120 · step 1 · C
Blended site electricity price used for pumps, compressors, and temperature control auxiliaries.
min 0 · max 300 · step 1 · EUR/MWh
Real or nominal must be consistent with cost basis; used only for annualization via CRF.
min 0 · max 0.25 · step 0.005 · ratio
Amortization period for installed CAPEX.
min 1 · max 40 · step 1 · years
Pooled olefin outlet flow
After polishing losses, at nominal inlet flow
Annual pooled olefin mass
Outlet tonnes per year based on capacity factor
Annual losses
Purges, filters, adsorbent changeover, off-spec handling (screening)
Design basis capacity (inlet)
Nominal inlet throughput used for sizing and costing
Annual olefin-rich inlet
Total annual mass entering the pooling/polishing system (before losses)
Number of polishing/equalisation trains
Parallel trains required for the design throughput
Total plot space
Tanks + skids plus integration margin
Equipment purchase cost (EPC)
Excludes installation, indirects, owner costs
Total installed CAPEX
Installed/direct cost for pooling + polishing system
Fixed O&M cost
Labour, routine maintenance, inspections (fraction of installed CAPEX)
Annualized replacement cost
Adsorbent/media replacement (polishing section)
Levelized cost of pooled olefin
Cost per tonne of pooled olefin delivered to oligomerisation
Calculator context
This calculator screens an olefin pooling & polishing asset that receives one or more olefin-rich streams and delivers a flow-equalised, impurity-polished, pressure/temperature-adjusted feed to downstream olefin oligomerisation (commonly used within e-kerosene / e-SAF value chains). It estimates major sizing parameters (buffer storage, train count, plot space) and produces a pre-feasibility CAPEX/OPEX and levelized cost using standard chemical engineering scale-up practice.
Methodology follows widely used screening conventions: power-law cost scaling (a.k.a. six-tenths rule variants) and capital recovery factor (CRF) annualisation consistent with IEA/IRENA-style techno-economic reporting, complemented by process-plant cost heuristics (e.g., Peters & Timmerhaus-type factoring) and public e-fuels benchmarking ranges (IEA, IRENA, Concawe, Fraunhofer, FfE).
Key steps and equations (all variables defined in the UI or assumptions):
Throughput & availability
Buffer storage sizing (surge/pooling)
Asset count and plot space
Costing with scaling curves
Annualisation and levelized metrics
59 assumptions used in the calculations
Prevents division-by-zero and undefined CRF denominators.
Market range Not applicable (numerical)
Avoids inline numeric literals per spec.
Market range Not applicable
Avoids inline numeric literals per spec.
Market range Not applicable
Converts % inputs to fractions in all calculations.
Market range Not applicable
Standard TEA annualisation convention for continuous processes.
Market range 8760
Provides contingency between nominal and design throughput for screening sizing and modularisation.
Represents purge, filter backwash, and off-spec handling losses.
Higher-spec impurity control often increases purge and media changeover losses.
Used to convert buffer mass to tank volume for plot space and tank count screening.
Accounts for operating headspace, minimum heel, and control band for level control.
Adds capacity for surge, uncertainty, and usable volume vs nominal.
Used to determine tank count by ceiling division; site-specific constraints can change this.
Allows estimating footprint from volume using simple geometry.
Tank footprint geometry.
Market range Not applicable
Avoids inline numeric literals in geometry formulas.
Market range Not applicable
Used to estimate tank diameter from volume.
Market range Not applicable
Covers access, pipe racks, clearance, egress, and constructability margins.
Captures pumps/compressors, heat exchange, polishing vessels, metering/control cabinets footprint.
Anchors CAPEX and area scaling at a mid-scale olefin pooling system.
Footprint scales sublinearly with capacity due to shared infrastructure and equipment scaling.
Supports parallel train count estimation at screening stage.
Installed cost proxy for tanks + skids + instrumentation at pre-feasibility level.
Higher impurity control often requires larger polishing vessels, redundancy, and more instrumentation.
Represents economies of scale for process equipment and installation.
Prevents unrealistically low specific costs when extrapolating to very large capacities.
Prevents unrealistically high specific costs when extrapolating to very small capacities.
Converts equipment purchase cost to installed/direct CAPEX for a packaged process unit.
Captures routine maintenance, staff allocation, inspections, and overheads excluding electricity and variable consumables.
Allows slight reduction of O&M fraction at larger scale due to economies of scale.
Avoids underestimating fixed O&M at large scale.
Avoids overestimating fixed O&M at small scales beyond plausible staffing needs.
Represents average electrical auxiliaries without detailed hydraulics/heat-duty modeling.
Converts kWh to MWh for electricity cost calculations.
Market range 1000
Represents filters, sampling consumables, minor chemicals, and waste handling on a per-throughput basis.
Higher sampling frequency and tighter spec control can increase consumables and disposal costs.
Represents periodic replacement of guard bed media or adsorbent cartridges.
Tighter spec and higher loading often shorten media life.
Approximates media/catalyst/adsorbent cost relative to vessels/packaging for annualized replacement estimation.
Provides subsystem CAPEX breakdown at screening level without double-counting.
Represents guard beds/adsorbers, filters, and associated vessels/valving.
Represents circulation/transfer pumping and possible boosting compression.
Represents temperature trim equipment (exchangers, electric heaters, small chillers).
Represents flow meters, analysers, control valves, PLC/DCS cabinets, and instrumentation.
Converts tonnes to kilograms for LHV and stoichiometric calculations.
Market range 1000
Used to express implied cost per MWh-fuel consistent with e-fuels reporting.
Converts MJ to MWh for energy-based levelization.
Market range 3600
Used only to translate pooled olefin output into an equivalent e-kerosene energy basis for EUR/MWh reporting.
Provides contextual e-fuels stoichiometry (CO2 + 3H2 -> CH2 + 2H2O) for reporting consistency; not used in this asset's cost.
Provides contextual e-fuels stoichiometry consistent with common TEA reporting; not used in this asset's cost.
Capacity factor below 0% is physically impossible.
Capacity factor above 100% is physically impossible.
Negative buffer hours are not meaningful.
Non-positive absolute pressure is physically impossible.
Negative discount rates are disallowed in this screening calculator to avoid misinterpretation.
Lifetime must be at least 1 year for CRF to be defined.
Negative electricity prices are excluded for screening robustness.
Below this range, special materials/cryogenic design likely required; excluded for this screening scope.
Above this range, thermal cracking/polymerization and metallurgy considerations dominate; excluded for screening scope.
Negative mass flow is physically impossible.
