CDU

Crude oil from storage tanks 701,702,703,704,770,772 is the feed stock for the unit. Crude oil is then
preheated upto 140o C in preheater-I and fed to the Desalter.In the desalter salt and water is separated
from the oil. Desalted crude is preheated upto 195oC in preheater -II and enters into prefractionator
column C-101.

In C-101 prefractionator column separation of light gasoline from top and in case of lighter crudes, side
cut naphtha is also withdrawn for sending it to Naphtha pool after stripping in stripping column C-102.
To recover desired quantity of light gasoline from prefractionator, a sufficient quantity of stripping
steam is introduced at the bottom of C-101.The light gasoline from top is sent to stabilizer for separation
of LPG.The balance Naphtha potential in the crude is recovered from the top section of main
fractionator column C-01.

Pretopped crude from the bottom of prefractionator at about 180oC is further preheated in the
exchanger train to 260oC. It is then passed through the furnace F-01 and F-02 where it is partially
vaporised. Outlet temperature of crude oil from the heater is controlled at 370oC.

Heater outlet is sent to the bottom of (flash zone) fractionator column C-01. At C-01 fractionator column
bottom a sufficient quantity of stripping steam is given for removal of lighter hydrocarbons. This steam
also helps in valorisation of crude oil. The vaporised hydrocarbons rises through the upper section of the
column and separated into an overhead and four (4) side draw products.

Again naphtha obtained as overhead vapours are totally condensed. The condensed liquid is partly used
as top reflux to control the top temperature and the balance flows are sent to Naphtha pool. Heavy
naphtha, kerosene,LGO,,HGO products withdrawn as side draw off and further steam stripped in
individual strippers Hy.naphtha is cooled and mixed with HSD. SK is cooled and store in tanks. LGO and
HGO are cooled and sent to HSD/DHDS storage tanks.RCO can be routed at 150oC to VBU and VDU. It
can also be cooled as about 85oC and sent to storage tanks.

Three circulating refluxes are withdrawn from different trays, cooled and returned to column to remove
the heat and maintain the desired temperature profile in the column. The overhead product from top of
prefractionator column is preheated by heat exchanger and fed to stabilizer column. The overhead
vapour from this column is partly condensed. The uncondensed gases are sent to fuel gas system. The
condensed liquid (LPG) after partly being used as top reflux is sent for caustic and water wash .washed
LPG is routed to hortonsphere for storage and also can be used in LPG vaporiser for maintaining fuel gas
pressure.

The bottom product from the stabilizer i.e. stabilized naphtha is cooled, caustic and water washed to
remove mercaptans and sent to storage tanks.

Imported Naphtha is routed to GOP tanks(TAK 711,712,713) and BH Naphtha is routed to TK 714 for
reprocessing in AU-I/II through separate lines.

PROCESS DESCRIPTION

 The total process can be divided into following sections:

 Crude Feed to Unit

 The different types of crude i.e. Imported, Bombay High and South Gujarat are sorted in
different tanks . Before feeding to the unit ,water in the crude is separated by settling
(minimum 24 hours) and then drained to OWS.
 Booster pumps located in offsite area will take suction from the tanks and delivers into
the pump suction. Normally two of three pumps are running.
 For processing slop ,slop pumps are used to inject a measured quantity into the
discharge of booster pumps.
 In crude pump suction, demulsifiers (3 to 4 ppm), caustic solution(about 2%
strength),and wash water (2 to 3% on crude flow) are injected for effective desalter
operation.

 Crude Preheat-I

 There are total 15 nos. of heat exchangers in this section where crude is preheated to
135-140oC before going to desalter.
 Crude,which is at ambient temperature, goes to the heat exchanger where it is treated
against LGO and heated upto 60oC. Crude is further divided into two parallel passes with
the help of a differential temperature controller DTC(3way C/V).
 Both the passes travel through separate heat exchangers, exchange heat with products
and are heated upto 140 oC. Crude from the passes combine together and goes to
desalter.

 Desalter

 The function of desalter is to remove salt and water, which always remains in the crude.
The removal of salt and water is very important as acid vapour is generated from these
salts at higher temperature at fractionator top portion.
 Salt also creates fouling problem in the exchanger at higher temperature. The desalting
process consists of three main stages-heating , mixing and separation.
 For effective separation of salt and water from crude oil ,it is heated upto about 140 oC
thoroughly mixed with extra water(3-4% on crude flow)by passing through mixing valve
at the inlet of desalter (mixing valve pressure drop is generally kept at about 1.0
(kg/sq.cm).
 The extra water is added to collect and dissolve all the water soluble salts in the crude.
 The rate at which water is injected into the crude is dependent primarily upon the salt
and BS&W content of crude being treated.
 In some instances, it is not possible to achieve sufficient mixing across the mixing valve
alone; provision is thereforegiven to inject water ahead of desalter heat exchangers.
This water is preheated to 100 oC .
 The mixing valve, with isolation and bypass facility, is located at the inlet of the desalter.
By varying pressure drop across the valve the desired mixing can be achieved. The
normal operating pressure is 10.5 to 11.0 kg/sq.cm(g).
  The salt and water is removed from crude oil by creating 18000 volts between two grid
electrodes inside the desalter located one above the other.
 Water containing salts separateout at bottom of desalter and crude at top.
 Demulsifiers use to break the oil water emulsion. Caustic solution is injected to maintain
pH 8.5 to 9.

 Crude Preheat-II

 Buster pump pumps crude from desalter outlet to one of the heat exchangers where
crude is treated against keep CR.
 At outlet, the crude flow is divided into two parallel passes by DTC. Crude in both the
passes exchanges heat with LGO and RCO respectively. Both the passes combine in the
end where the crude temperature is around 175oC.
 The two passes that combine are again divided into two passes, and is treated against
HGO CR ,LGO CR and HGO.
 Crude after passing through a series of heat exchangers is fed to the flash zone of
prefractionator column at a temperature of 225oC.

 Prefractionator

 In this column, light Naphtha is removed to reduce load on subsequent equipment I.e.
heat exchangers, heaters and column etc. There are 22 valve trays in the column. Feed
enters at the 8th tray.
 The lighter vapours travels up in the column and at the top light Naphtha vapours are
condensed in a series of heat exchangers. Condensed liquid is collected in the reflux
drum and the uncondensed vapours are released to the flare /GR fuel gas network.
 The top products i.e. Light naphtha (containing LPG) goes to the stabilizer for LPG
recovery. From 14th tray ,side naphtha cut is withdrawn at 176 oC . The side cut is
stripped in the stripper C-102 and its bottom is pumped to naphtha pool or diesel pool
via cooler.
 Top temperature of the column is to be maintained at about 134 oC for Imported and
144 oC for BH crudes(temperature should be at least 15 oC above dew point). Top
pressure is maintained at 3.6 kg/sq. cm (a) by split range control with flare and hot
vapour bypass.
 For maximizing recovery of light naphtha, stripping steam is introduced below 1St tray of
column at desired rates.

 Crude Preheat-III

 In this section crude from pre-fractionator bottom at about 207 oC is further preheated
to 207-280 oC before going to heater.
 The crude from pump discharge goes to a set of heat exchangers where the crude is
treated against LGO CR.
  Outlet crude flow is divided into two passes by DTC . Here crude exchangers
heat with hot RCO.
 At outlet of both the passes crude is preheated upto about 275 oC. At two
outlets passes combine and go to the heater.

 Heaters(Furnaces)

 In the heaters ,crude is further heated and partially vapourised by rising

temperature from 270-370oC in case of Imported and upto 355 oC in
case of BH/SG crude.
 Here F-01 furnace is a box type, horizontal tubes,balanced draft
furnace. Crude Feed flows to the heater in four passes . The four passes
join together and combine at the outlet to go to the distillation column.
There are total 20 nos. Of dual(oil and gas) fired burners and one gas
burner in the heater.
 Fuel oil pressure of 6.0 kg/sq. cm is maintained by the controller. The
atomizing steam pressure to the burners is 1 to 1.2 kg/sq.cm controlled
by differential pressure controller.
 Fuel gas is supplied to the heater at about 3.4 kg/sq.cm.
 If fuel gas pressure falls below 1.8 kg/sq.cm low pressure alarm Will
sound in the control room and a safety shutdown valve SDV will
automatically cut off fuel gas flow to the heater, thus eliminating the
possibility of back fire.
 A return is provided on the fuel oil heater. A 1:1 ratio of fuel oil
consumption to return is provided in the design to obtain a good control
on firing and prevent congealing of the internal fuel oil(IFO) system.
 The globe valve provided on the IFO return line should be adjusted to
give the desired circulation rate. For recovering heat from fuel gases,
boiler feed water is circulated through BFW coils at convection section.
 Furnace F-02 is cylindrical type, vertical coils and balanced draft with
two pass system.

 Main fractionator

 Partially vapourised crude from the heater outlet enters into the flash zone of the main
fractionator column. In this column, there are total 42 nos. of valve trays . Feed enters
at 6th tray from the bottom.
 From the flash zone ,vapour portion goes up and while going up it comes into contact
with cooler liquid coming from the upper trays (called internal reflux) at each tray.
 In this way heavier liquid falls below the next tray and the lighter vapours goes up in the
next tray. This different fractions are separated in different trays depending upon the
temporary of the tray.
  In the flash zone, unvapourised portion i.e. RCO goes to the bottom as product. To help
vaporizations and thereby more recovery of lighter products, stripping steam is given at
the bottom of the column.
 If the transfer temperature is 370oC,flash zone temperature will be about 360 oC.
Reduced crude product is pumped out from the bottom of the column by RCO pumps
under level control.
 The liquid from 7th tray is withdrawn entirely, measured by flow metre and put back into
the column above 6th tray.
 The amount of flow is a measure of over flash, which is desirable for proper
fractionation and recovery of the distillates.
 To maintain the heat balance in the column, circulating refluxes are withdrawn from the
column, cooled in the heat exchangers and return back to the column. There are total
three refluxes (HGO,LGO,KERO)and one top reflux is used.
 HGO product and HGO reflux are withdrawn from tray no 11 at a temperature of about 327oC
and
return to no 14. LGO product and LGO CR are withdrawn from tray no 19 at a
temperature of about 282 oC and return back to tray no 22 at a temperature of about
225 oC. KERO product and KERO CR are withdrawn from tray no 29 at a temperature of
about 202 oC and return back to tray no 32 at 155 oC. Above kerosene, Heavy Naphtha is
withdrawn from tray 37 at about 140 oC.
 The top temperature and pressure is maintained at about 107.4 oC and 1.9 kg/sq. cm(a)
respectively.
 From the top, naphtha vapour goes overhead condenser, the condensed liquid is
collected in reflux drum from where a part goes as product to Naphtha pool and is
routed to diesel pool.
 The top pressure is maintained by the pressure controller with the help of flooding C/V
located at the inlet of reflux drum and the reflux drum pressure is controlled by split
range controller with C/V on fuel gas make up and flare line
 Reflux drum pressure is maintained at 1.4 kg/sq.cm(a). The column flash zone pressure
and temperature are normally at about 2.15 kg/sq.cm(a) and 360 oC.
 Pressure safety valve releasing to L.P flare header are provided at the top of the column
to protect it from over pressure.
 The column is cladded internally with 29mm 410 SS from bottom as a measure against
corrosion. To control the flash point of products, Heavy Naphtha, Kero ,LGO and HGO
are steam stripped in their respective strippers.

 Stabilizer

 In the stabilizer,LPG separated from the Light Naphtha is obtained as top product. The bottom
product is stabilized Naphtha and goes to Naphtha pool.
 Feed to the stabilizer is pre- fractionator top product i.e. Light Naphtha. It is first preheated to
about 85 oC. Column's bottom temperature is maintained at about 162.5oC by two reboilers.
 The column's top temperature is maintained at about 60.2 oC (28th tray temperature) to
maintain LPG weathering at +2oC maximum. The top pressure is maintained at 8.8 kg/sq.cm(g).
 At the top,LPG vapour goes to the condenser from where LPG in the form the liquid is collected
in the reflux drum id pumped to the top reflux and to the run down.
 From the bottom of the column,naphtha first goes to the cooler . The cooler outlet goes to the
naphtha caustic wash section.

 Naphtha Caustic Wash

 To remove corrosive sulphur compounds i.e. Mercaptans, caustic wash is given. Main
fractionators overhead Naphtha and AU-3 Naphtha combine together and go to drum(D-1) for
caustic wash.
 For washing, caustic circulation pump is used. Caustic and Naphtha is mixed in the mixing valve
before entering into D-1.
 In the vessel, caustic separates out and goes to the bottom and Naphtha overflows from the
top. Continues make-up and draining of caustic is done through level control valve.
 After caustic wash, Naphtha goes for water wash for removing any carryover of caustic. This is
done in drum D-2 in the same way as in D-1.
Here also fresh water is added continuously and the same amount is drained out.
 After water wash Naphtha goes to run down tanks.

 LPG Caustic Wash

 To obtain copper strip corrosion, the dissolved H2S and Mercaptans in LPG are removed by
caustic wash.
 In this system, LPG run down is received in the surge drum from where it is pumped to caustic
wash system.
 Drums D-2 and D-3 are used for LPG Caustic and water wash respectively. About 50% caustic
level is maintained in the flare knock out drum. For caustic circulation, pumps are used.
 At the inlet of the flare knock out drum LPG and caustic are thoroughly mixed in the mixing valve
and orifice mixture for removing H2S and Mercaptans. In the vessel, caustic separates out and
goes to the bottom and LPG overflows from the top.

CHEMICAL INJECTION FACILITIES

 De-mulsifier:-

 De-mulsifier is injected in the crude pump suction to break oil and water emulsion in
desalter. Normal injection rate is 4 to 5 ppm. However,if coil is observed in desalter
drain water , de-emulsifier injection rate has to be increased.
 De-mulsifier chemical is brought in drums and offloaded into the vessel.The de-mulsifier
injection pumps are dosing pumps provided with a safety valve. The rate of injection can
be varied by adjusting the knob on the pump.
 Caustic Solution:-

 Caustic is injected in the crude pump suction, as water separation from oil in the
desalter becomes better in alkaline medium. For this,brine water pH is maintained at
about 8.0 to 9.2 to 3% wt. caustic solution is prepared in the tank and injected by
pump.
 At the desalter outlet also, the same caustic is injected to neutralize the chloride salt.
The chloride salt in the crude produces HCl(hydrochloric acid) at higher temperature.
 This HCl is highly corrosive to column overhead, vapour line and the reflux drum. Hence
caustic is injected to neutralize HCl to Nacl(sodium chloride).
 Finally the Nacl goes out from the bottom of the main fractionator along with RCO. Any
left over HCl vapour goes to the top and finally comes along with sour water.
 Hence, if sour water chloride contents are reported more than 6 ppm, caustic injection
post desalter has to be increased. Also sour water pH is to be maintained at 6.5 to 7.0
with the help of ammonia Injection.

 Ammonia Injection:-

 Ammonia solution is injected in the crude fractionating column overhead and in pre-
fractionator column to neutralize highly corrosive acid HCl.
 Ammonia converts HCl to ammonium chloride(NH4Cl). About 1% strength ammonia solution
is injected in the top vapour line and in the top reflux line.
 It is very important to know that the use of excessive ammonia will cause leak in the
overhead condenser tubes. This is because ammonia reacts very fast with the brass metal
and eats away the metal.
 Hence, sour water pH to be maintained strictly not more than 6.5 . Ammonia is brought in
the unit in cylinders. Water is received in the two solution vessels.
 Ammonia solution is prepared by injection of ammonia from ammonia cylinder into the
solution vessel. A pressure gauge and safety valve are provided on the ammonia connection
manifold.
 To prevent cooling and icing of the cylinders when preparing ammonia solution, a
connection to spray water is provided. The solution vessels are provided with seal to
minimize the loss of ammonia.

 Corrosion Inhibitor Injection

 Corrosion Inhibitor is an organic chemical ( i.e. Ahuralan ). It act as corrosion Inhibitor by

forming continuously a monomolecular layer on the metal surfaces, by direct contact between
metal and the corrosive elements present in the system.
 This is injected at the top of the vapour line of the crude fractionating column overhead and in
the stabilizer column to protect vapour line and condenser.
Normal injection rate of 4 to 6 ppm is maintained by the pump.