Beyond Convention: Rethinking Refinery Capital Project Performance

Mar 05, 2026

The way refining companies spend capital is vital to their on-going organizational health.  Yet many decisions in early Front-End Loading (FEL) stages still rely on linear programming (LP) models built for speed rather than granularity. The result? Rework, constraint surprises, and regret capital that erodes ROI.

This whitepaper outlines a more disciplined approach: pairing an LP model with a physics-based simulation created in Petro-SIM® process simulation software. By grounding capital studies in thermodynamics, kinetics, and real unit constraints, refiners can surface bottlenecks sooner and move into FEED with greater confidence.

Early-stage simulation has been shown to reduce FEL rework by 20–30% and improve ROI by 3–5%.

Inside this whitepaper:

  • A real-world Gulf Coast refinery case study showing how early validation avoided capital
  • A 7-question practical diagnostic checklist to stress-test your current capital planning process
  • A clear analysis of where LP-only screening creates feasibility risk
  • A framework for integrating LP and physics-based simulation
  • Guidance for improving capital discipline from FEL-1 through execution

Download the full whitepaper to assess your capital planning risk before scope is finalized.