Vacuum Tower

Vacuum Tower

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1.3.7 Vacuum Tower.pdf

Vacuum Tower

Workshop
Vacuum Towers are commonly used in the refining industry to further
process the bottoms product of the Atmospheric Column. The Vacuum
Tower distills the atmospheric bottoms product under reduced pressure,
enabling further separation of the petroleum fractions.

Learning Objectives
Once you have completed this section, you will be able to:

Install a Vacuum Tower in HYSYS, with Side Draws and Pump

arounds.
Perform Tray Sizing and Rating calculations.

Prerequisites
Before beginning this section, you need to know how to:

Add Unit Operations to the PFD.

Add specifications to a column.
Add side operations such as Pump arounds to a column.

Process Overview

Column Overview

Vacuum Tower

Building the Simulation

The Vacuum Tower is a Column operation, with the configuration of an
Absorber with Pump Arounds. For this module you will continue
building on the case you worked on in the previous module (The
Atmospheric Crude Column). The bottoms product from the
Atmospheric Crude Column must be heated and its pressure must be
reduced prior to using it as the Feed stream to the Vacuum Tower. A
Heater will be installed upstream of the Vacuum Tower to perform both
of these tasks.

Add a Heater
The Atmospheric Crude Column should be converged using the Product
Flow specifications, not the Cut Point specifications.
Add a Heater operation and enter the following information:.
In this cell...

Enter...

Connections
Name

Vac Heater

Inlet

Atm Residue

Outlet

Vac Feed

Energy

Vac Duty

Worksheet
Temperature, Vac Feed

395C (740F)

Pressure, Vac Feed

15 kPa (2 psia)

Add the Steam Stream

Add a stream with the following data
In this cell...

Enter...

Name

Vac Steam

Temperature

150C (300F)

Pressure

150 kPa (21 psia)

Vacuum Tower

In this cell...

Enter...

Mass Flow

1800 kg/h (4000 lb/hr)

Composition

100% H 2O

Add the Vacuum Tower

1.

Add an Absorber Column and enter the following information:

In this cell...

Enter...

Name

2.

Vacuum Tower

Stages

Top Stage Reflux

Pump around (radio button)

Pump-around draw stage

Optional Inlet Streams

Vac Feed/8

Bottom Stage Feed

Vac Steam

Ovhd Vapour Outlet

Vacuum Ovhd

Bottoms Liquid

Vacuum Residue

Under the Optional Side Draws group add the following data:

Name

Type

Stage

LVGO

HVGO

Each side draw adds one degree of freedom and so requires one
specification.
3.

Click the Next button to move to the Pressure Profile page, and
enter the following values:

In this cell...

Enter...

Top Stage Pressure

11 kPa (1.6 psia)

Bottom Stage Pressure

13 kPa (1.8 psia)

Vacuum Tower

4.

Click the Next button to move to the Temperature Estimates page,

and enter the following values and click the Done button.

In this cell...

Enter...

Top Stage Temp

5.

120C (250F)

Bottom Stage Temperature

370C (700F)

PA Rate

275 m3/h (41510 barrel/day)

On the Specs page of the Design tab, add the following draw rate
specifications.

The draw rate for the Vacuum Ovhd is 2600 kg/h (5732 lb/hr)
The draw rate for the LVGO is 32 m3/h (4800 bbl/d)
The draw rate for the HVGO is 90 m3/h (13,700 bbl/d)

Ensure these specs and the top PA Rate spec is active and change the
default name to PA_1 Rate (Pa). Do the same for TopStagePA_Duty (Pa)
by changing the default name to PA_1 Duty(Pa).
6.

Go to the Side Ops tab and click the Side Ops Input Expert button.

7.

Click Next three times to move to the Pump-Around Input Expert

view.

8.

Change the default name TopStagePA to PA 1.

9.

Click the Return button to go back to the Column properties view.

Save your case!

10. Run the column.
1. What is the molar flow rate of Vacuum Residue?_____________________
2. What is the actual volume flow rate of Vacuum Ovhd? _______________
3. What is the Duty of PA 1? __________________________________________

Vacuum Tower

Add the Pump Arounds

Add two Pump Arounds to the column with the following information:
After making substantial changes to a column, it may be necessary to
click the Reset button before the Run button You may want to converge
the column after adding each Pump Around.

Pump Around 2
In this cell...
Name

Enter...
PA 2

Return Stage

Draw Stage

Rate

265 m3/h (40,000 bbl/d)

Duty

-3.2e7 kJ/h (-3.0e7 Btu/hr)

Pump Around 3
In this cell...
Name

Enter...
PA 3

Return Stage

Draw Stage

Rate

330 m3/h (50,000 bbl/d)

Duty

-1.2e7 kJ/h (-1.137e7 Btu/hr)

Return to the Design tab, Monitor page. Check that the Degrees of
Freedom is equal to zero. Make sure that the PA_1 Duty specification is
not active. Click the Run button to converge the column.
1. What is the flow rate of Vacuum Residue now? ______________________
2. What is the flow rate of Vacuum Ovhd now? _________________________
3. Did these values change from before? _______________________________
4. Why were the Pump Arounds added then? ___________________________

Vacuum Tower

We have converged this column using an Overhead Gas Flow Rate.

Perhaps a better specification to try is a top temperature. Change the
overhead vapour product rate specification to the top temperature
specification by adding a Column Temperature spec and name it
Temperature. Select 1_TS-1 as the stage and enter a spec value of 120C
(250F). Remember to deactivate the Vacuum Ovhd spec before you run
the column.
What is the new Overhead Gas Flow? _________________________________

Save your case!

Tray Sizing
In the second part of this module, you will learn how to size columns.
While HYSYS is able to size and rate tray sections, the values that it
provides are only a rough estimation and should be treated as such.
There are two ways of performing this design:

Design Mode
Rating Mode

Use of the tray sizing utility requires a converged column.

Column Sizing in Design Mode

In design mode, HYSYS allows you to perform a design sizing based on
the vapour and liquid traffic in the tower. Available design specifications
for trayed and packed sections include the type of tower internals,
maximum allowable pressure drop, and maximum allowable flooding.
1.

Select Tools / Utilities from the Main Menu bar, or press the hot key

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Vacuum Tower

CTRL U.
2.

Select Tray Sizing from the list of available utilities and click the Add
Utility button.

3.

Click the Select TS button, and select Vacuum Tower as the

Flowsheet and TS-1 as the Object.

HYSYS allows users to select Tray Sections and not entire columns so
Side Strippers may be sized independently from the Main Column.
4.

Click the Add Section button. In the Setup Section group, change
the Internals from Valve (default value) to Packed.

HYSYS will calculate the dimensions of the column using present values
for the column internals and for the various parameters.
5.

On the Specs tab you can select the tower internals. Change the
Packing Type to Ballast Rings (Plastic, random) 1_inch.

6.

On the Performance tab, a summary of the calculations is

presented. Choose the Packed radio button to see the detailed
calculation.
1. What is the Vac Column diameter? _________________________________
2. What is the HETP? ________________________________________________
3. What is the pressure drop? _________________________________________
4. What is the total section height? ____________________________________

Column Sizing in Rating Mode

In rating mode, HYSYS allows you to perform rating calculations based
on a specified tower diameter and fixed tray configuration. If desired,
some of the tray dimensions may be left unspecified and HYSYS will
automatically calculate design values for them.
1.

On the Specs page, set the Mode to Rating.

2.

Enter a diameter of 5 m (16.4 ft) to calculate the pressure drop.

What is the Section Delta P? _________________________________________

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Vacuum Tower

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Exploring the Simulation

In this exercise, the effect of packing type on column operation is
investigated. HYSYS uses the vapour and liquid traffic results from the
converged column and will report information such as flooding and
pressure drop.
Obtain the flow parameters and pressure drops for a column that uses
the different packing as given in the table below.
1

Ballast Rings Metal (1 inch)

Pall Rings Plastic (1 inch)

Ballast Rings Metal (1.5 inches)

The following requirements must be met for optimal column operation.

Maximum % Flood = 85

1.

On the Specs page, set the Mode to Rating.

2.

Set the diameter to 5.5 m (18 ft).

3.

For each case, change the packing and note the results on the
Design tab Specs page.

4.

Complete this table with the information provided by HYSYS.

Case #

Flooding (%)
Total delta P (kPa)

Save your case!

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Vacuum Tower