Aspen Fired Heater Models Embedded in HYSYS

Simulations

Tutorial High Level Outline:

Load HYSYS simulation of crude distillation system processing

a medium crude
Set up a fired heater model to replace the simple heating
utility
Import a Aspen Fired Heater rigorous model of the
atmospheric crude heater
Explore the detailed modelling results
Change the crude to a heavy blend
Consider potential revamp options to maintain production with
heavy crude blend

Linking our Rigorous Fired Heater Model

Load the HYSYS Case: CDU_AFH_EXAMPLE_1.hsc

Make sure you have allowed for multiple stream connections. Go to Tools |
Preferences | Options and check the box for Allow Multiple Stream
Connections.

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Aspen Fired Heater Models Embedded in HYSYS

Simulations

Double click on the rigorous pre-heat train sub-flowsheet to open it. Click on the
Parameter tab and check the box for Ignored. Then close the sub-flowsheet.

From the HYSYS pallet select the fired heater unit operation and place it on the
flowsheet at a suitable spot.

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Double click your fired heater unit op. to open and for the radiant zone inlet stream
select Warm Crude .

For the radiant zone outlet select Hot Crude.

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Simulations
For the fuel stream allocate the name Fuel and for the air stream type the name
Air.
Type the name Flue Gas against the Combustion Products stream as shown.

Now go to the Design tab and on the Parameters ply select EDR Fired Heater
from the drop down list.

On the Worksheet tab and the Composition ply set the Air composition to 0.78 N2
and 0.22 O2. Then set the Fuel composition all Methane.

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Simulations

On the Conditions ply set the Air temperature to 25C and the pressure to 1 bar.
Set the Fuel temperature to 25C and 2 bar.

Go to the EDR FiredHeater tab and click the Import button.

Select the FiredHeater (.EDR) file from the location you have elected to stored it:
AFH_Twn_Cabin1
The flowsheet will converge rapidly with Aspen Fired Heater modelling the heater
performance and calculating the fuel flow requirement to meet the specified inlet
and outlet conditions on your HYSYS case.
Click on the Fired Heater Unit operation, go to the EDR FiredHeater tab and the
Summary ply.

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Simulations

Here you can see some of the key performance results for your Aspen Fired Heater
detailed model. The calculated duty should be very close to the simple HYSYS
heating utility, which originally modelled the fired heater, is almost 66MW. The
calculated overall efficiency is 84.7% and the required fuel flow to achieve that is
5607 kg/hr. You may like to note that the peak tube wall temperature indicated for
tubes in the heater firebox is 404C. You can see how the furnace duty divides
between the two tube banks of the convection section and the firebox.

Exploring the Model

Now let us look at the heater model we have imported to understand its geometry.
Click on the EDR Browser button.
The user interface of Aspen Fired Heater will open so that you can see geometry,
modelling options and calculated results in more detail.
Go to Input | Heater Geompetry | Firebox and the Layout tab.

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Simulations

We have a twin box (or twin cabin) construction with each box 8m high, 20m long
and 4m wide. If you go to the Firebox Diagram tab you will see that each box has
3 paths (or passes) on each wall with 28 vertical hairpin tubes in each path. You
may like to explore the other tabs here.

Go to Input | Heater Geometry | Convection Banks and the Connections

diagram tab
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This shows the warm crude stream flows through the heater elements from the 2 nd
convection bank to the 1st and then into the firebox.
Click on the Layout tab.

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This shows how the process flow through the heater has been specified by the flow
history specifications for each bank. We have a simple arrangement with one
stream and have used the default selections.
If you click on Bank Details tab you will see illustrated how the tubes of the two
convection banks are arranged.

You may also like to look at the other tabs to see the precise tube geometry that has
been defined for bank 1 (3 rows of shield tubes) and bank 2 (6 rows of finned
tubes).
You may also like to explore the detailed results. Look at Results | Results
Summary | Overall Summary.

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Note that the peak tube metal temperature in the firebox here is given as 404C.
In Results | Calculation Details | Stream Details you will find information for
each tube including calculated temperatures, heat transfer coefficients and twophase flow patterns.

Refining the Modeling

Now lets refine our modelling approach.
Click on the simple HYSYS heating utility and delete it. You may also whish to delete
the energy stream associated with this unit operation.
Return to the rigorous pre-heat train model we elected to ignore initially and uncheck the Ignored box.
The simulation may take a minute or so to converge. Now click on the Fired
Heater model and go to the Worksheet tab. You will see that the pressure of the
warm crude has been specified as well as the pressure for the hot crude leaving the
heater. Aspen Fired Heater used these values to scale the pressure drop in the
rigorous model. Now lets delete the inlet pressure value and allow fired heater to
calculate what the inlet pressure would (or could) be.

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Aspen Fired Heater Models Embedded in HYSYS

Simulations

This may take some minutes to converge and shows that FiredHeater can achieve
the required outlet pressure if the Warm Crude was supplied at 13.18 bar.

Heavier Crude Blend

No lets explore what would happen if we had to process a heavier crude blend.
Click on the Assay Feeder at the far left of the flowsheet. You will see the bend is
100% Iranian Heavy Crude. Set up the blend to contain 0.8 Iranian Heavy, 0.1
Soroosh and the balance will automatically be made up of Petroleum Assay-1.

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Aspen Fired Heater Models Embedded in HYSYS

Simulations
You may find it takes some time to converge with this change. You ,may prefer to
load a converged case: CDU_AFH_EXAMPLE_1_Hvy_Blend.hsc.
This blend is harder for the pre-heat train to heat and so the heater inlet
temperature is reduced from around 254.7 C before to 249.7 C.
Click on our FiredHeater model. If we look at the

The heater duty has increased from 65.9MW to 68.1MW. The fuel flow has
correspondingly increased from 5607kg/h to 5795kg/h. This would correspond to a
3.4% increase in operating cost. You can also see that the peak metal temperature
for firebox tubes has increased somewhat. In some cases this may well constitute
an operational limit.

Consider Revamp Options

If we could revamp the heater is there a way we could process this blend and
recover our operating efficiency?

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Aspen Fired Heater Models Embedded in HYSYS

Simulations

Increasing the number of finned tube rows in convection bank 3(from 6 to 12) allows
us to almost recover our operating efficiency. The fuel flow hence the operating
cost is only 0.6% higher with this blend. Adding more rows has a diminishing return
as we start to get pinched on the flue gas temperature difference. More tubes per
row add surface but reduced velocities and hence local heat transfer coefficients
and so this is not an effective option to add more duty.
You may like to look at other options:

Smaller tube diameter and more tubes (need to be careful with the process
pressure drop)
Air pre-heat (can be an expensive option requiring new burners, an induced
draft fan and a lot of duct-work)

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