PETROLEUM REFINING

PRESENTER : MUHAMMAD FURQAN KHAN

CCR ENGINEER
furqankhan@arl.com.pk
furqanfayaz2000@gmail.com
 Chapter 3
Atmospheric Crude Distillation
Unit
i. CDU’s Introductio n
ii. Crude Oil Desaltin g
iii. Types of Salts in Crude Oil
iv . Desalting Process
v. Distillation
vi. Types of Refluxes
vii. IBP and EBP controlling
viii. Distillation Tower Controlling
ix. Impor tant Indicators
x. General Properties of Petroleu m
Products
 Crude Distillation Unit
Crude oil distillation columns are in various sizes and the capacities for processing the feed range from 5,000 to barrels per day to 650,000 barrels
per day (Dangote Refinery for comparison, see below).

112.5 m

93 m
 Crude Distillation Unit

• Process economics favors large units, and the separations achieved with crude columns are independent of size, and the
strategies employed are common for all sizes.
• The CDU is accomplished in multi-draw columns for which all the heat is supplied to the feed.
• The products are condensed and withdrawn as side products, as the hot vapor portion of the feed are contacted with colder
liquid reflux flowing down the column. The reflux is provided at the top of the column by pumping some of the condensed
liquid back to the top tray.
• The reflux is also provided at intermediate locations in the column with pump-around cooling circuits.
• The hot liquid portions of the crude oil feed are stripped with steam to remove dissolved light hydrocarbons before leaving
the bottom of the column.
Atmospheric Distillation Tower
 Crude Oil Desalting

• Crude desalting is the first processing step in a CDU.

• This is carried out to remove the salts, suspended solids and water from the unrefined crude before introducing it to the
crude distillation unit (CDU).
• Salt is present in the crude oil in the form of dissolved or suspended crystals in water that is emulsified with the crude oil.
• The salt content of the crude measured in pounds per thousand barrels (PTB).
Poor desalting of the crude could adversely impact on the following:
o Corrosion of overhead equipment.
o Salt deposits inside the tubes of furnaces and tube bundles of heat exchangers. This causes fouling of the exchanger
and thereby reducing the heat transfer efficiency.
o Salts are carried with the products and can poi son the catalyst in the catalytic cracking unit.
 Types of Salt in Crude Oil

• Salts in the crude oil are mostly in the form of dissolved salts in fine water droplets emulsified in the crude.
• This is referred to as water-in-oil emulsion, where the continuous phase is the oil, and the dispersed phase is the water.
• The salt types are mostly
o Magnesium chloride (MgCl2 )
o Calcium chloride (CaCl2 )
o Sodium chloride (NaCl) (abundant type)
• These chlorides except NaCl hydrolyze at high temperatures to hydrogen chloride (HCl) that can cause severe corrosion in
overhead system, that’s why most columns equipped with injection of corrosion inhibitors and film forming chemicals to
protect overhead condensers and column top internal portions.
 Desalting Process
Water Washing and Heating
• Water is mixed with the incoming crude oil through a mixing valve. The
water dis solves salt crystals, and the mixing distributes the salts into the
water, uniformly producing fine droplets.
• Demulsifying agents are added to break the emulsion.
• The crude oil is injected with 5 to 6 liquid volume percent water at a
temperature 93 to 149 °C (accomplished by heat exchange with products).
 Desalting Process
Coalescence
• The water droplets are so fine in diameter in the range of 1–10 μm that they do not settle by gravity.
• Coalescence produces larger drops that can be settled by gravity. This is accomplished through electrostatic electric fields between two
electrodes.
• The electric field ionizes the water droplets and orients them so that they are attracted to each other.
• Agitation (vibration) is also produced and assists in coalescence.
• The force of attraction between the water droplets is given by Coulomb’s law:

4
𝑑
𝐹 = 𝐾𝐸 2 𝑑2
𝑠

F = Force of attraction between water droplets d = Drop diameter

K = Coulomb’s constant s = Distance between drops center
E = Electric field
 Desalting Process
Settling Time
• The settling rate is greatly affecting the desalting efficiency, however this variable can only be controlled either by size of
the vessel (desalter) or feed rate.
• According to Stoke’s law, the settling rate of the water droplets after coalescence is:

(𝜌𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 − 𝜌𝑜𝑖𝑙 ) 2
𝑆𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 = 𝑘 𝑑
𝜇𝑜𝑖𝑙
k = Stoke’s law constant
d = Drop diameter
ρ = Density
 Desalting Process
Pressure Drop

• This variable can be optimized, which is across the desalter mix valve.
• The higher the pressure drop, the better the mixing and thus the improved removal of salts.
• However, too high a pressure drop can result in the formation of emulsion layers that are difficult to break.
• The optimal pressure drop depends on the types of crudes; thus, it is important to perform test runs at dedicated periods to
ensure that correct operation is achieved.

After desalting process, crude is heated and enters to distillation tower. Next slides will discuss the distillation process.
For detailed presentation regarding operation and distillation process click on
 Distillation

• Heated crude enters the distillation tower in flash zone.

• Here it mixes with steam and light hydrocarbons from the column stripping zone.
• The stripping steam also lowers the partial pressure of these hydrocarbons in the column flash zone. This in turn lowers the
temperature required to distill the overhead products from the column feed.
• The hot liquid from the flash zone drops through the column stripping section, where it is stripped by steam injected into
the bottom of the column.
• The hot vapors from the flash zone rise, contact the colder reflux flowing down the column which condenses out of the
side liquid products.
Distillation
• H eat ed cr u d e en t er s t h e d i s tillation t o w er i n f l as h zo n e.

• H er e i t mi x es w i t h s t eam an d l i g ht h yd r o carbons f r o m t h e co l u mn
s t r ipping zo n e.

• Th e s t r ipping s t eam al s o l o w er s t h e p ar t ial p r es s ure o f t h es e h yd r ocar bons

i n t h e co l u mn f l as h zo n e. Th i s i n t u r n l o w er s t h e t emp er ature r eq u ired t o
d i s till t h e o v er head p r o ducts f r o m t h e co l umn f eed .

• Th e h o t l i quid f r o m t h e f l as h zo n e d r o ps t h r ough t h e co l u mn s t r i pping

s ect i on, w h er e i t i s s t r i pped b y s t eam i n jected i n t o t h e b o t tom o f t h e
co l u mn.

• Th e h o t v ap ors f r o m t h e f l as h zo n e r i s e, co n t act t h e co l d er r ef lux f l o w ing

d o w n t h e co l u mn wh i ch co n d enses o u t o f t h e s i d e l i q uid p r o ducts.
Types of Refluxes in Distillation Tower
Pump back reflux

Pump around reflux

Typical Distillation Column

 Top tray reflux

• This reflux takes place at the top of the tray, and the
reflux is cooled and returned to the tower.
• In some towers/columns, no reflux is provided to any
other plate. Operating the tower only with top reflux has
some disadvantages.
• The heat input to the column is through heated crude at
the bottom, and removal is from the top. This creates a
large traffic vapor that requires a larger tower diameter.
• The recovery of heat is less efficient, but the unit is
simple in design and operation.
 Pump back reflux

• In this case, the reflux is provided at regular intervals as this

helps every plate to act as a true fractionator.
• The vapor load on the tower is fairly uniform and requires a
smaller column size.
• The rejected heat at the reflux locations can be effectively
utilized. Since the tower temperature increases down wards,
the reflux location can be placed where the temperature is
sufficient for transferring heat to another stream.
• Many refineries employ this arrangement as the towers
provide excellent service.
 Pump around reflux

• In this arrangement, the reflux from a lower plate is taken, cooled and fed into the column at a higher level by 2 to 3
plates.
• This creates a local problem of mixing uneven compositions of reflux, and liquids present on the tray.
• This can be over come by treating all the plates in this zone as a single plate, which results in an increase in the height and
the number of plates of the column.
• The function of pump around:
1. To remove latent heat from the hot flash zone vapors and help condense the side products.
2. To improve the efficiency of the crude, preheat train by allowing heat recovery at higher temperature levels than the
overhead condenser, thus reducing the required crude furnace duty.
3. To reduce the vapor flow rate through the column; this reduces the required size of the column.
 IBP and EBP controlling

• The maximum boiling point of the liquid side products is controlled on the main column by their draw rates.
• For example, to increase the maximum boiling point of the kerosene product, it is necessary to decrease the flow of the
diesel product (which has a higher boiling range) and to increase the f low of the kerosene product. This adjustment
allows heavier components to travel up the column to the kerosene draw tray, thereby increasing the maximum boiling
point of the kerosene product.
• There may also be a decrease in the lightest portion of the diesel product because of this adjustment, but this effect is
small when compared to the effect of the diesel steam stripper.
• The number of side draws in a CDU column may be seven to eight; side steam strippers are provided to all crude
fractionation units to ensure proper control and products quality to the required specifications.
 Distillation Tower Controlling

• The top/external reflux flow is controlling the tower-top

temperature.
• If the pump around circulation rate is reduced, then less heat would
be extracted from trays 10 and 11. More and hotter vapor would
flow up the tower. The top reflux temperature control valve would
open. The top reflux rate would increase.
• The vaporization of reflux on the top tray would increase, and the
overhead condenser duty would increase.
• The decrease in the heat duty of the pump around heat exchanger
would equal the increase in the heat duty of the overhead condenser,
thus preserving the heat balance of the tower.
 Distillation Tower Controlling

• Another purpose of the pump around is to suppress top-tray flooding. For example, if tray 1 or 2 floods, the following
would occur:
1. The tower-top temperature increases.
2. The distillate product becomes increasingly contaminated with heavier components. In a refinery crude distillation,
the endpoint of the naphtha overhead product would increase.
3. The pressure drop (ΔP) across the top few trays would increase. The liquid level in the reflux drum would increase.
 Important Indications

• If the reflux rate is increased to reduce the tower-top temperature, the top temperature will increase further rather than
decrease. This is an indication of top-tray flooding. This is corrected by increasing the pump around duty. This can be done
by increasing the cold fluid flow through the pump around heat exchanger, or the pump around flow itself could be
increased.
• This subsequently decreases the flow of vapor flowing up to tray 9. The flow of vapor through trays 1 to 8 will also
decrease. The low vapor velocity will reduce the tray pressure drop, and the ability of the vapor to entrain liquid will be
reduced. The height of liquid in the down comer will decrease, and tray flooding is suppressed.
 Important Indicators
Tower Pressure Drop and Flooding

• A characteristic of process equipment is such that the best operation is attained at neither a very high nor a very low
loading. The intermediate equipment load that results in the most efficient operation is known as the best efficiency point.
• For distillation trays, the incipient flood point corresponds to the best efficiency point. Correlations have been carried out
to determine the best efficiency point for valves and sieve trays and are determined by:

(𝑁)(𝑇𝑠)(𝑆𝐺)
∆𝑃 = 𝐾
28
∆𝑃 = 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑝 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑦 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 (𝑝𝑠𝑖)
N = Number of trays
𝑇𝑠 = 𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑦 𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑔 (𝑖𝑛𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑠)
𝑆𝐺 = 𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑙𝑖𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑑 𝑎𝑡 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑠
 Carbon Steel Tray

• Flooding is caused by the type of material/alloys used for the trays. Carbon steel trays often enhance flooding when
the valve caps are also of carbon steel.
• The valves tend to stick in a partially closed position, which raises the pressure drop of the vapor flowing through the
valves. This pushes up the liquid level in the down comer draining the tray.
• The liquid can then back up onto the tray deck and influence jet flood due to entrainment.
• A reduction in the open area of the tray deck can be caused by dirt, polymers, gums or salts can promote flooding
• . Most trays flood below their calculated flood point due to these anomalies.
• Using mov able valve caps where deposits can accumulate on the tray decks will cause the caps to stick to the tray
deck. T his can be avoided by using grid trays with fixed cap assemblies.
 General Properties of CDU Products
Distillates

Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG)

The gases from the crude distillation unit are ethane (C2H6), propane (C3H8) and n-butane (nC4H10). These products cannot be
produced directly from the CDU and thus require high-pressure distillation of overhead gases from the crude column. C3 and
C4 are recovered and sold as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), while C1 and C2 are used as refinery fuel.
 General Properties of CDU Products
Light Distillates

Jet Propellant (JP)

1. Jet A-type, a kerosene-type fuel having a maximum freeze point of -40 °C. Jet A-type fuel is used by mainly domestic
airlines of many countries, where a higher freeze point imposes no operating limitations.
2. Jet A-1, a kerosene-type fuel as Jet A, but with a maximum freeze point of -47 °C (-53 °F). This fuel type is used by most
international airlines. Jet A and Jet A-1 generally have a flash point of 100 °F (38 °C)
3. Jet B is a wide-cut gasoline-type fuel with a maximum freeze point of -58 to–72 °F (-50 to–58 °C). The fuel is of a wider
cut, comprising heavy naphtha and kerosene and is meant for military aircraft.
Some additives are used in aviation turbine fuels; the type and concentration of these additives are closely monitored by
appropriate fuel specifications.
 General Properties of CDU Products
Light Distillates

Jet Propellant (JP) additives

1. Antioxidants: Its use is mandatory in fuels produced by a hydrotreating process to prevent the formation of hydrogen
peroxide (H2O2), which can cause rapid deterioration of nitrile rubber fuel system components.

2. Fuel System Icing Inhibitor (FSII): The main purpose of FSII is to prevent fuel system blockage by ice formation from
water precipitated from fuels in flight. Because of the biocidal nature of this additive, it is very effective in reducing
microbiological contamination problems in aircraft tanks, and ground fuel handling facilities. However, the use of FSII is
only confined to military fuels as the most commercial aircraft are provided with fuel filter heaters and therefore, have no
requirement for the anti-icing properties.
 General Properties of CDU Products
Light Distillates

Jet Propellant (JP) additives

3. Static dissipators: Referred to as anti-static additives or electrical conductivity improvers. Its use is mandatory to increase
the electrical conductivity of the fuel, which in turn promotes a rapid relaxation of any static charge build-up during the
movement of fuel.

4. Corrosion inhibitor/lubricity improver: Its use is optional to protect storage tanks and pipelines from corrosion and
improve the lubricating properties of the fuel.
 General Properties of CDU Products
Reduced (topped) Crude Oil
A residual product that remains after the removal by distillation of an appreciable quantity of the more volatile components of
crude oil. The long residue is fed to a vacuum distillation for further processing or sold as residual fuel. The vacuum still
bottoms can be processed in a Vis breaker, Coker or deasphalting unit to produce heavy fuel oil or cracking or lube-based
stocks. For asphalt crudes, the residuum can be processed further to produce road or roofing asphalts.
General Properties of CDU Products
 Sections

Vacuum Distillation Unit

Types of Vacuum Tower

Steam Ejector

Trouble Shooting
 Chapter 4
Vacuum Distillation Unit
i. Vacuu m Distillation Unit (VDU)
ii. Types Based on Products
iii. Types Based on Operatio n
iv . Wash Grid
v. Steam Ejector
vi. Trouble Shooting
 Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU)

• In refineries, the vacuum distillation unit (VDU) follows the atmospheric or the crude distillation unit (CDU). The
bottom of the atmospheric distillation is known as the reduced crude or topped crude.
• In this stage, the heavier fractions (e.g., high boiling points) such as gas oil and lube oil are removed from the reduced
crude without cracking taking place.
• With boiling occurring at a low temperature, heavy fractions are distilled from the reduced crude.
• Superheated steam is often introduced at the bottom of the column to separate more of the heavy gas oil.
• Superheated steam causes large quantities of gas oil to boil off that otherwise would not have boiled off at the low
temperature.
• Thus, steam stripping eliminates the need to operate the vacuum column at high temperature, which could result in
cracking of the reduced topped crude. Cracking often results in plugged trays due to coke deposition.
 Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU)
Types Based on Products
1. The most common operation extracts gas oil/long residue for charge to downstream cracking units in the refinery
where it is converted to light gases and liquids, gasoline and heating oil. The vacuum distillation unit is referred to as
fuels type.

2. The second type of operation extracts petroleum cuts from the topped crude oil that are suitable for production of
lubricating oils. This column is referred to as lubes types.
 Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU)
Types Based on Operations
1. Wet type: The wet type unit uses steam to reduce the partial pressure of oil in the flash zone of the column to the
required level. The wet type unit requires a huge quantity of steam, which is dependent on the amount of vacuum.
The wet vacuum type has a pre-condenser to remove excess water from the column overhead prior to being fed to the
ejectors. There is always a back pressure on the column overhead equal to the vapor pressure of water at the
condensing temperature in the pre-condenser. The total steam injected into the coil plus stripping zone is in the range
of 0.3 to 0.5 lb/gallon of vacuum residue (36 to 60 kg/m3 ).
Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU)
 Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU)
Types Based on Operations
2. Dry type: The dry type unit depends solely on the effectiveness of the vacuum inside the column to vaporize the
heavy oil. It has a boot cooler since the flash zone is hotter than a wet unit for the same service. The dry vacuum type
has a higher flash zone temperature than the wet vacuum unit for the same service, and as it provides a boot cooling
circuit to keep the column boot from coking and becoming plugged. The boot cooler sub cools the liquid from the
flash zone and prevents coking.
Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU)
 Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU)
Wash Grid
• Both units have a wash grid above the flash zone; the feed to the column enters the flash zone at very high velocity,
and a high amount of heavy liquid is entrained in the flash zone vapor.
• The heavy gas oil that is returned to the column over the wash grid washes down the entrained liquids.
• Metals and con-carbon are also washed back in the grid.
 Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU)

Question: Why the vacuum tower consists of packing at top section and trays at the lower section?

Vacuum distillation columns are equipped with packing for fractionation, and heat exchange zones. This is in order to
reduce the pressure drop in the column, which is important for creating a low vacuum in the lower section of the column.
The bottom zone is equipped with valve trays. The vapors from the flash zone rise up a wash and fractionation zone
where the sections are condensed with HVGO reflux. Further up the column sections (consisting of a heat exchange and
fractionation zone) are separated by sprays of liquid from the pump-around or the internal reflux.
 Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU)
Steam Jet Ejector
• Steam jet ejectors are employed to recompress low pressure steam to a higher-pressure steam. They are sometimes
used to compress low-pressure hydrocarbon vapors to higher-pressure hydrocarbon gas.
• The convergent-divergent steam jet is rather like a two-stage compressor with no moving parts. Figure shows a
simplified steam jet ejector, where high-pressure motive steam enters through a steam nozzle.
• As the steam flows through this nozzle, its velocity greatly increases as it flows to the condenser.
• The condenser condenses the steam at a low temperature and low pressure. The steam accelerates toward the cold
surface of the tubes in the condenser, where its large volume will disappear as the steam turns to water.
• The motive steam accelerates to such a great velocity. This high increase in velocity of the steam represents a
tremendous increase in kinetic energy of the steam. The source of this kinetic energy is the pressure of the steam.
• As the high-velocity steam enters the mixing chamber it produces an extremely low pressure.
 Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU)
Steam Jet Ejector
• The gas flows from the jet suction nozzle and into the low-pressure mixing chamber. The rest of the jet is used to
boost the gas from the mixing chamber up to the higher pressure in the condenser, which is carried out in two
compression steps: converging and diverging.
• Vacuum distillation units have a system to create the vacuum that uses either ejectors or a combination of ejectors
and liquid ring pumps. Ejectors recompress the gases through a nozzle where vapors from the column are sucked into
the venturi section of the nozzle by a stream of medium- or low-pressure steam.
• The vapor phase at the ejector exit is partially condensed in an exchanger with cooling water. The liquid phase flows
to the overhead drum. The vapor phase goes from the condenser to another ejector-condenser stage.
Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU)
Trouble Shooting
Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU)
Trouble Shooting
THANK YOU

Muhammad Furqan Khan

+92-340-2844900

furqanfayaz2000@gmail.com

furqankhan@arl.com.pk