VOCATIONAL TRAINING REPORT

INDIAN OIL CORPORATION LTD.

GUJARAT REFINERY

Submitted by:

S.Ashwin Balaji
Bachelor of Chemical Engineering, 3rd year
Department Of Chemical Engineering
NIT-Trichy
Trichy-620035

1 Vocational Training Report | Indian Oil Corporation, Gujarat Refinery

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Winter training at Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Gujrat Refinery was a wonderful experience
providing us with an insight and practical knowledge of the refinery process. Whatever learning
during the training period has been brought out in the form of this report. I hereby take the
opportunity to thank all the people who have helped me through this training period.

I bestow my gratitude towards Mr.A.C.Shekhar, Chief Manager (T&D) for granting me permission
to obtain training at Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Gujrat Refinery.

I would like all the staff and officials of Indian Oil Corporation Limited for their valuable time and
help they provide during the training.

2 Vocational Training Report | Indian Oil Corporation, Gujarat Refinery

 Table Of Contents

Content Page Number

Cover Page 1
Acknowledgement 2
Table Of Contents 3
Introduction 4-5
Gujarat Refinery, Overview 7-8
Units at GR, IOCL 9
Product-uses 10
Block Flow Diagram, GR, IOC 11
GRSPF 12
FPU 12
FCC 13
PFD-FCC 17
Product-Processing 18
CDU 19
VDU 24
OM&S 26
DCU 29
Learning 33
Bibliography 34

3 Vocational Training Report | Indian Oil Corporation, Gujarat Refinery

 1. INTRODUCTION
Indian Oil, the largest commercial enterprise of India (by sales turnover), is India’s sole
representative in Fortune's prestigious listing of the world's 500 largest corporations, ranked
189 for the year 2004. It is also the 17th largest petroleum company in the world. Indian Oil has
a sales turnover of ` 1, 20,000 crore and profits of ` 8,000 crore. Indian Oil has been adjudged
second in petroleum trading among the 15 national oil companies in the Asia-Pacific region. As
the premier National Oil Company, Indian Oil’s endeavor is to serve the national economy and
the people of India and fulfill its vision of becoming "an integrated, diversified and transnational
energy major."

Beginning in 1959 as Indian Oil Company Ltd, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. was formed in 1964
with the merger of Indian Refineries Ltd. (Est. 1958). As India's flagship national oil company,
Indian Oil accounts for 56% petroleum products market share, 42% national refining capacity and
67% downstream pipeline throughput capacity. IOCL touches every Indian’s heart by keeping the
vital oil supply line operating relentlessly in every nook and corner of India. It has the backing of
over 33% of the country’s refining capacity as on 1st April 2002 and 6523 km of crude/product
pipelines across the length and breadth of the country. IOCL’s vast distribution network of
over 20000 sales points ensures that essential petroleum products reach the customer “at
the right place and at the right tme”

Indian Oil controls 10 of India's 18 refineries - at Digboi, Guwahati, Barauni, Koyali, Haldia,
Mathura, Panipat, Chennai, Narimanam and Bongaigaon - with a current combined rated
capacity of 49.30 million metric tones per annum (MMTPA) or 990 thousand barrels per day.

Indian Oil’s world-class R&D Center has won recognition for its pioneering work in lubricants
formulation, refinery processes, pipeline transportation and bio-fuels. It has developed over
2,100 formulations of SERVO brand lubricants and greases for virtually all conceivable
applications - automotive, railroad, industrial and marine - meeting stringent international
standards and bearing the stamp of approval of all major original equipment manufacturers. The
center has to its credit over 90 national and international patents. The wide range of
brand lubricants, greases, coolants and brake fluids meet stringent international standards and
bear the stamp of approval of all major original equipment manufacturers.

Indian Oil operates 17 training centers throughout India for up-skilling, re-skilling and multi-
skilling of employees in pursuit of corporate excellence. Among these, the foremost learning
centers -- the Indian Oil Institute of Petroleum Management at Gurgaon, the Indian Oil
Management Center for Learning at Mumbai, and the Indian Oil Management Academy at
Haldia -- have emerged as world-class training and management academies. Indian Oil Institute
of Petroleum Management, the Corporation's apex center of learning, conducts advanced
management development programmes in collaboration with reputed institutes. It also offers a
unique mid-career International MBA programme in Petroleum Management.

Indian Oil aims at maintaining its leadership in the Indian hydrocarbon sector by continuous
assimilation of emerging Information Technology and web-enabled solutions for integrating and
optimizing the Corporation's hydrocarbon value chain. It is currently implementing an IT re-
4 Vocational Training Report | Indian Oil Corporation, Gujarat Refinery
 engineering project titled Manthan, which includes an Enterprise Resource planning (ERP)
package which will standardize and integrate the Corporation's business on a common IT
platorm through a robust hybrid wide area network with appropriate hardware.

Refineries
Digboi Refinery, in Upper Assam, is India's oldest refinery and was commissioned in 1901.
Originally a part of Assam Oil Company, it became part of IndianOil in 1981. Its original refining
capacity had been 0.5 MMTPA since 1901. Modernisation project of this refinery has been
completed and the refinery now has an increased capacity of 0.65 MMTPA.

Guwahati Refinery, the first public sector refinery of the country, was built with Romanian
collaboration and was inaugurated by Late Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India,
on 1 January 1962.

Barauni Refinery, in Bihar, was built in collaboration with Russia and Romania. It was commissioned
in 1964 with a capacity of 1 MMTPA. Its capacity today is 6 MMTPA.

Gujarat Refinery, at Koyali in Gujarat in Western India, is IndianOil’s largest refinery. The refinery
was commissioned in 1965. It also houses the first hydrocracking unit of the country. Its present
capacity is 13.70 MMTPA.

Haldia Refinery is the only coastal refinery of the Corporation, situated 136 km downstream of
Kolkata in the Purba Medinipur (East Midnapore) district. It was commissioned in 1975 with a
capacity of 2.5 MMTPA, which has since been increased to 5.8 MMTPA

Mathura Refinery was commissioned in 1982 as the sixth refinery in the fold of IndianOil and with
an original capacity of 6.0 MMTPA. Located strategically between the historic cities of Delhi and
Agra, the capacity of Mathura refinery was increased to 7.5 MMTPA.

Panipat Refinery is the seventh refinery of IndianOil. The original refinery with 6 MMTPA capacity
was built and commissioned in 1998. Panipat Refinery has doubled its refining capacity from 6
MMT/yr to 12 MMTPA with the commissioning of its Expansion Project.

Bongaigaon Refinery is the eight refinery of Indian Oil. It became the eighth refinery of Indian Oil
Corporation Limited after merger of Bongaigaon Refinery & Petrochemicals Limited with IOCL w.e.f.
25th March 2009. It is located at Dhaligaon in Chirang district of Assam, 200 Kms west of
Guwahati.The present crude processing capacity of the refinery is 2.35 MMTPA. The refinery has
two Crude Distillation Units of 1.35 MMTPA and 1.00 MMTPA capacities, two Delayed Coker Units
each of 0.5 MMTPA capacity, one Coke Calcination Unit of 0.075 MMTPA and Catalytic Reformer of
160,000 MTPA naphtha feed capacity and an LPG Bottling Plant.

Subsidiary refineries — Chennai Petroleum (9.5 MMTPA)

Indian Oil controls 10 of India's 18 refineries with a current combined rated capacity of
49.30 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA). All refinery units are accredited with
ISO 9002 and ISO 14001 certifications.

5 Vocational Training Report | Indian Oil Corporation, Gujarat Refinery

 GUJARAT REFINERY: AN OVERVIEW
The Gujarat Refinery at Koyali in Gujarat in Western India is Indian Oil’s largest refinery.
The refinery was commissioned in 1965. Its facilities include five atmospheric crude distillation
units. The major units include CRU, FCCU and the first Hydro- cracking unit of the
country. Through a product pipeline to Ahmedabad and a recently commissioned product
pipeline connecting to BKPL product pipeline and also by rail wagons/trucks, the refinery
primarily serves the demand for petroleum products in western and northern India.

When commissioned, the Gujarat refinery had a design capacity of 3.0 MMTPA. The capacity
has since been increased to its present capacity of 13.70 MMTPA by low cost debottlenecking.
The company has already commissioned the facilities for MTBE and Butene-1 production. The
refinery also produces a wide range of specialty products like Benzene, Toluene, Food Grade
Hexane, solvents, LABFS, etc. The Gujarat Refinery achieved the distinction of becoming the
first refinery in the country to have completed the DHDS (Diesel Hydro De-sulphurisation)
project in June 1999, when the refinery started production of HSD with low sulphur content of
0.25% wt (max.).

A project for production of high value LAB (Linear Alkyl Benzene -- which is one of the major
raw materials used in manufacturing detergents) from kerosene streams has been completed
recently and started on 15th August, 2004. In order to meet future fuel quality requirements,
MS quality improvement facilities are planned to be installed by
2006.

Some of the salient features of Gujarat Refinery are:

1) First Riser Cracker FCCU in the country
2) First Hydro Cracker in the country
3) First Diesel Hydro Desulfurisation Unit in the country
4) First spent caustic treatment plant in refineries
5) First automated rail loading gantry
6) First LPG mounded bullets in Indian refineries
7) State-of-the-art CETP
8) Quality Management System (ISO- 9001:2000)
9) Environmental Management System (ISO – 14001)
10) International Safety Rating System (ISRS) LEVEL 9(Highest) First
organization in country; one amongst 30 refineries in world

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7 Vocational Training Report | Indian Oil Corporation, Gujarat Refinery
UNITS AT GUJARAT REFINERY

1) GR1
§Atmospheric Distillation Units, AU1 & AU2 : 4.2 MMTPA
§AU5 : 3.0 MMTPA
§Catalytic Reforming Unit, CRU : 0.33 MMTPA

2) GR2
§ AU3 : 2.7 MMTPA
§ UDEX : 0.166 MMTPA
§ Food Grade Hexane, FGH : 0.03 MMTPA
§ Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether, MTBE : 47 MMTPA
§ BUTENE 1 : 2 MMTPA
§ Pilot Distillation Fraction, PDF

3) GRE
§ AU4 : 3.8 MMTPA
§ Vacuum Distillation Unit, VDU : 1.2 MMTPA
§ Bitumen Blowing Unit, BBU : 0.5 MMTPA
§ Visbreaker Unit, VBU : 1.6 MMTPA

4) GRSPF
§ Feed Preparation Unit, FPU-1 : 2.0 MMTPA
§ Fluidized Catalytic Cracking Unit, FCCU : 1.5 MMTPA

5) GHC
§ FPU-2 : 2.97 MMTPA
§ Hydrogen Generation Unit, HGU-1 : 38,000 MTPY
§ Hydro Cracking Unit, HCU : 1.2 MMTPA
§ HYDROGEN-2 : 10,000 MTPY
§ Diesel Hydro De-Sulfurization Unit, DHDS : 1.4 MMTPA
§ Sulphur Recovery Unit, SRU : 88 MMTPD
§ Nitrogen Unit

6) POWER GENERATION & EFFLUENT TREATMENT

§ Cogeneration Plant, CGP : 30*3 MW
§ Thermal Power Station, TPS : 12*2 + 12.5 MW
§ Combined Effluent Treatment Plant, CETP : 1500 M3/H

8 Vocational Training Report | Indian Oil Corporation, Gujarat Refinery

PRODUCT END USES
LPG Cooking Gas (marketed as ‘INDANE’)
Benzene Raw material for petrochemicals
Toluene Raw material for petrochemicals
Naphtha Raw material for petrochemicals
Motor Spirit (90 Octane) ‘Petrol’ for vehicles
Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) Fuel for jet aircraft
Superior Kerosene (SK) Illuminant, domestic purpose
High Speed Diesel (HSD) Diesel locos, trucks, buses, ships
Light Diesel Oil (LDO) Small engines attached to irrigation pumps
Low Sulphur Heavy Stoke (LSHS) Fuel in thermal power stations
Fuel Oil (FO) Industrial Furnaces/Boilers
Bitumen Road surfacing
n-Heptane As solvent
ARO Used in aluminium rolling industries
Linear Alkyl Benzene (LAB) Detergent Manufacture
Butene Co-polymer for producing polyethylene and
Polypropylene
Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) Blending in gasoline for increasing octane
number and oxygen content
Food Grade Hexane (FGH) Solvent for oil seed extraction.
Glues/Adhesives for foot wear Polymerization
reactions in industries like Pharmaceuticals &
printing ink. Retreading of car tyres

Sulphur Sulphuric acid and tyre manufacture

GUJARAT REFINERY (A Mother Industry)

IPCL NIRMA IFFCO GSFC

LAB, Cracked LPG LAB Naphtha Benzene, Sulfur,

Naphtha, FGH Naphtha

Gujarat Carbon Chemical Ind. Aluminium Ind. PowerPlants

BUTENE-2 Toluene LARO LSHS

9 Vocational Training Report | Indian Oil Corporation, Gujarat Refinery

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10 Vocational Training Report | Indian Oil Corporation, Gujarat Refinery

 LDO

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11 Vocational Training Report | Indian Oil Corporation, Gujarat Refinery

 GUJARAT REFINERY SECONDARY PROCESSING
FACILITIES (GRSPF)
FEED PREPARATION UNIT (FPU)

INTRODUCTION: Feed Preparation Unit ( FPU), a part of Gujarat Refinery Secondary Facilities
(GRSPF) was originally designed with a throughput of Processing 1.66 MMTPA of RCO. The
primary function of this unit was to produce 700,000 T/year of vacuum gas oil for feed to FCCU
along with vacuum diesel and vacuum residue. Later on, it was decided to revamp the Feed
Preparation Unit (FPU) to meet the increased VGO feed requirement in Fluidized Catalytic
Cracking Unit (FCCU), which was also revamped, to 1.5 MMTPA.

FEED: mixed RCO (MAX)

PRODUCTS: 1. Heavy Diesel

2. Vacuum Gas Oil

PROCESS: The process is same as that for vacuum distillation unit of GRE. Four side
draw products are obtained from the column:
1) Heavy diesel is obtained as the topside draw product.

2) Light vacuum Gas Oil (LVGO) is obtained as the second side draw product. The LVGO
pump around is used to generate LP steam after which it is returned to the column.

3) Heavy vacuum gas oil (HVGO) is obtained as the third side draw product. A pump around
reflux is also drawn off at this point. The HVGO product exchanges its heat with RCO after which
it is used to generate LP steam.

4) Slop Distillate is drawn as the fourth side draw product. The recycle stream is also drawn
off at this point and is mixed with RCO at the entry to the Vacuum furnace. The Slop Distillate
mixes with Vacuum Residue downs tream of MP steam generator or cooled in slop distillate
cooler and sent to GRE FO Pool.
FLUIDIZED CATALYTIC CRACKING (FCC)

INTRODUCTION: During 80's with increased processing of the North Gujarat and Bombay
High Crude’s, the production of LSHS had gone up. This increased production of LSHS should
have been suitably disposed off to enable the refinery to operate at its maximum throughput
for meeting requirements of the petroleum products. This LSHS, which is presently being
supplied as fuel for burning, has a good potential of being refined into high priced
distillates, which are in great deficit in our country. The steep increase in the prices of
crude oil and petroleum products in the past few years and government’s policy of
conservation of petroleum energy has changed the situation totally and it became
necessary to review the utilization of LSHS more economically and profitably.

Based on the above consideration, the various alternatives of Secondary Processing Schemes
were examined and it was decided to install Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCC) at Gujarat
Refinery. In 1982 Gujarat Refinery FCC Unit was commissioned with a capacity of 1 MMTPA.

HISTORY OF FLUIDIZED CATALYTIC CRACKER: Cracking is a phenomenon in which large oil

molecules are decomposed into small lower boiling molecules. At the time certain of these
molecules, which are reactive, combine with one another to give even larger molecules than
those present in the original stock. The more stable molecules leave the system as cracked
gasoline and reactive ones polymerize forming fuel oil and even coke. Although primary
objective in development of the cracking process had been to get more and more of gasoline,
all other oils having boiling ranges intermediate between fuel oil and gasoline is also
produced. The originally developed process of cracking was “Thermal Cracking”. Use of
catalyst for cracking was first investigated by HOUDRY in 1927. Catalytic cracking has many
advantages over Thermal cracking viz.
1) Catalytic cracking gives more stable products
2) For corresponding yield and quality of gasoline, catalytic cracking unit operates under less
severe conditions
3) Catalytic cracking gives high-octane gasoline (viz.91-94 octane).
4) It yields less gas viz. Methane, Ethane and Ethylene.

1) BATCH PROCESS: The first commercial Catalytic Cracking Unit was put into operation in
1936. It was a Fixed-bed Catalytic Cracking Unit. It consisted of a series of chamber / reactors,
wherein one of them is on-stream, the others will be in the process of cleaning, regeneration
etc. This type of process has a disadvantage of being an intermittent process having a
high initial investment and operating cost.

2) CONTINUOUS PROCESS: The advantages of continuous process led to the development of

the idea of a moving bed catalyst. Examples of this type are “Thermofor Cracking”;
“Thermofor Catalytic Cracking” and “Houndry Airlift” processes. In the Thermofor Catalytic
cracking, the palletized catalyst was conveyed between the reactors and regenerator by
means of Bucket Elevators. Higher investment by capacity limitations of Elevators/Air lift
systems together with other engineering and process difficulties led to the development of
latest concept in moving bed catalytic cracking i.e. Fluidized Catalytic Cracking.

FLUIDIZED CATALYTIC CRACKING: The radical development was made by Standard Oil Co.,
New Jersey, M.W.Kellogg and UOP in early 1940’s in which the catalyst in the form of fine
powder was held in suspension in gas stream. It was found that by carefully controlling the
catalyst particle size and the velocity of gas moving through it, a fluidized bed of catalyst
would form which has the properties of liquid. In the fluidized system, finely powdered
catalyst is lifted into the reactor by incoming oil, which immediately vaporizes upon contact
with the hot catalyst and after reaction is complete, it is lifted into the regeneration zone.
Catalytic crackers using powdered catalyst in this way are known as FLUIDIZED CATALYTIC
CRACKING UNITS.

FEED:
VGO and VR from FPU. The feed is characterized by following:

1) CARBON RESIDUE: Carbon residue of the feedstock is determined by CCR and it

indicates the coke-forming tendency of feed. Values for good cracking feedstock are
0.2% wt or less.
2) METAL CONTENT: Most crude oils contain metallic compounds which can enter the
catalytic cracker either by entrainment or because the compounds are themselves volatile
and actually distilled in the feed preparation units. Ni, Fe, Cu are particularly harmful.
Cleanliness of a charge stock with respect to metals is judged by its metal factor, which is
defined as:
FM = Fe +V +10(Ni+Cu)
where, Fe ,V , Ni and Cu are the concentrations of these metals in ppm in the feedstock. FM
below 1.0 represents acceptable feedstock.
3) SULPHUR: It is undesirable in catalytic cracker charge as it is in the feed to any refining
unit since it causes corrosion of the equipment. Also it increases difficulty of treating
products and lower lead response of catalytic cracker gasoline.

CATALYTIC CRACKING REACTIONS:

Catalytic cracking reactions produce unsaturated short chains like ethylene, excellent
high-octane components like benzene and iso-octane and lower molecular weight gas oils like
cetane. During cracking, apart from basic reaction of breaking of big molecules to small ones,
other reactions like isomerization, cyclization, alkylation, polymerization etc also take place.

CRACKING CATALYST: The catalyst used in catalytic cracking process is a fine powder made
up primarily of Alumina and Silica. Basically there are two types of catalyst
-amorphous and zeolite. Zeolite catalyst contains molecular sieves and varying quantities of
rare earths. These are formed through reaction of reactive forms of Alumina and Silica.

PRODUCTS: The FCC unit catalytically cracks the vacuum gas oil (VGO) from vacuum
distillation unit (VDU) and feed preparation unit (FPU) to various high priced hydrocarbons.
These hydrocarbon vapors are separated into the following products in the fractionating and
gas concentration section-
a) Fuel Gas
b) LPG
c) Gasoline of high octane number
d) HSD components
e) LDO components
f) Fuel oil components

PROCESS: FCC consists of three sections:

1) Catalyst section
2) Fractionating section
3) Gas concentration section

Catalytic section consists of the Reactor and the Regenerator. Feed to the Reactor is
obtained by the vacuum distillation of atmospheric residues in FPU. Hot feed from
FPU and balanced cold feed from the storage tank is collected in a Raw Oil charge
drum. The raw oil from the surge drum passes through a series of heat exchangers
where it gets heated against hot products i.e. heavy naphtha, LCO, HCO, CLO and
slurry. The temperature of the feed is raised to around 300- 315 deg C. The combined
feed enters the reactor riser at the bottom. The hot regenerated catalyst at 600 deg C
from regenerator vaporizes the feed, raises it to reaction temperature and supplies
the necessary heat of cracking.

REACTOR: The reactor riser is a vertical pipe in which all the cracking reactions take
place. Hot catalyst enters the cold wall “wye” section at the bottom of the riser, and
meets the raw oil and riser steam. The flow of catalyst is controlled to maintain
the desired reaction temperature. The raw oil and the riser steam are premixed in a
feed distributor to form an emulsion. The raw oil /riser steam emulsion vaporizes
upon contacting the hot regenerated catalyst, accelerating the catalyst and
hydrocarbon vapors up the riser. Cracking reactions are carried essentially to
completion in the riser with a minimum of over cracking and coke formation. Catalyst
and oil contact time using this system is approximately 3 seconds. Catalyst and
hydrocarbon vapors exit the riser into the reactor through the down turned
disengaging arm. The disengaging arm provides the quick method of separating the
catalyst and hydrocarbon vapors. Catalyst falling from the disengaging arm combines
with the catalyst recovered from the reactor cyclones to enter the reactor stripping
section.

Reactor is a cylindrical vessel with a conical bottom. It provides disengaging space

for the separation of catalyst from the oil vapor. Catalyst after disengaging from oil
vapors falls down and enters the stripper. Oil vapor along with the catalyst particle
travels up and enters two single stage cyclones provided at the top of reactor.
Entrained catalyst is separated in Cyclones and returned to reactor bed through
cyclone dip legs. Flapper valves are provided at the end of dip legs to avoid entry
of vapors through dip legs. Vapors from top of both the cyclones leave the reactor
separately and join vapor line, which carries vapors to the fractionator.

Catalyst disengaging from the down turned arm disengager and reactor cyclones dip
legs passes into the catalyst stripper, which surrounds the upper portion of the riser,
where it flows over stripping grids, counter current to riser steam .The stripping
steam displaces the oil vapor from the catalyst particle and returns the vapor to the
reactor for separation in the cyclones.

REGENERATOR: Coke is deposited on the circulating catalyst in the reaction zone.

Spent catalyst flows from the reactor to the regenerator through the spent catalyst
slide valve (SCSV). The pressure difference across SCSV is around 0.4 kg/cm2. In the
regenerator coke is burnt off with controlled combustion air. Air from air blower is
sent to a direct fired air heater where it is heated to around 230 deg. C by fuel gas
combustion. This air burns off the coke to CO2 and CO. The heat of combustion
raises the catalyst temperature to 640 - 660 deg. C range. This hot catalyst supplies
heat to the reactor. The catalyst is recirculated to the reactor through a regenerated
catalyst slide valve (RCSV). The pressure drop across RCSV is 0.3 kg/cm2. The
regenerator also houses 3 sets of 2 stage cyclones, which separates any entrained
catalyst particle from the overhead flue gas.
ORIFICE CHAMBER: The purpose of orifice chamber is to reduce the pressure drop
across the flue gas slide valve. The high-pressure drop across the slide valve would
cause excessive noise and erosion problems. Orifice chamber helps to reduce these
problems and brings down the flue gas pressure from 3.4 to 0.3 kg/cm2, which is just
sufficient for CO boiler. The gases CO and CO2 come out of 3 sets of stage cyclones in
regenerator and leaves from the top. The gases pass through the orifice chamber
where a series of restriction orifices reduces the gas pressure. A two-port slide valve
(TPSV) installed at the bottom of the orifice chamber diverts the flue gas either to CO
boiler or to stack.

CO BOILER: The CO boiler is just like any other conventional water tube boiler
consisting of two drums and one superheater disposed at the flue gas path. It is a
front wall fired, medium pressure (MP) & temperature, natural circulation boiler.

The upper drum, which is called steam drum but essentially contains steam and
water both, is fed with hot feed water (130-140ºC) supplied through a feed control
valve. The colder water form the upper drum flows to lower water drum through a
bunch of tubes called “Down Comers” which are disposed at the lower temperature
zone of the furnace. The water contained in the furnace wall tubes or riser tubes is
heated by the heat released in the furnace on combustion of fuel. The heated water in
the riser tubes becomes lighter and moves up into the upper drum. These riser tubes
are disposed in such a fashion that it makes a closed envelope of the furnace covering
all the six sides of the furnace so as to pick-up maximum possible heat. In this way the
water circulates from the upper drum to the lower drum through the down comers
and from the lower drum to the upper drum through the water wall or riser tubes.
This circulation in a boiler is called of natural circulation, which is based upon the
principal of ‘Thermosyphon’.

The furnace where the combustion of fuel takes place is an integral part of the boiler.
The boiler tubes are used to make the enclosure for the furnace followed by
insulation and outer sheeting. The space between the tubes is closed with the help
of metallic strips, which are welded to the tubes. Hence entire furnace is of welded
construction.
FURTHER PROCESSING OF PRODUCTS: The main products from FCC unit are gasoline and
LPG. After these products are separated through fractionation and stabilization section, they
are given some chemical treatment like caustic wash and water wash to remove the
impurities still present.
Following chemicals are used in FCC/GCU:

1. Caustic Soda.
2. Tri-Sodium Phosphate
3. Hydrazine
4. Ahuralan

1) CAUSTIC SODA: Caustic soda is used for LPG and gasoline caustic wash. It removes H2S and
lighter mercaptans from these streams. Caustic with approximately 40-45 % strength is
received from LPG station through a 2” line into tank. This caustic is diluted to (10-15 %) by
adding water to tank.

2) TRI SODIUM PHOSPHATE (TSP): Tri-Sodium phosphate is added to MP steam generators. It

helps in reducing scale formation in the steam generators by forming sludge with the scale
forming salts. This sludge goes out of the system during blow down operations. Solid TSP is
received in gunny bags. Required quantity of TSP is added to chemical mixing tanks and
solution is prepared by adding DM water and mixing with the help of motor driven mixer
provided on the tank. The normal strength of the solution is 5%.

3) HYDRAZINE (N2H4): While major portion of dissolved oxygen is removed from boiler
feed water in deaerator, residual oxygen in boiler feed water is scavenged with the help of
hydrazine.
N2H4 + O2 » 2H2O + N2
23 % solution of hydrazine is received in drums/jerry cans of 50 kg. Hydrazine solution of 5
% strength is prepared in chemical mixing tank by adding DM water. The tank is provided with
a motor driven mixer.

4) AHURALAN: It is an organic chemical, which acts as a corrosion inhibitor by forming a

continuously renewable monomolecular layer on the metal surface with corrosive elements,
present in the system.

GRE
 CRUDE DISTILLATION UNIT
  VACCUM DISTILLATION UNIT
 VISBREAKER UNIT
 BITUMEN BLOWING UNIT

CRUDE DISTILLATION UNIT (CDU)

The crude oil distillation unit (CDU) is the first processing unit in virtually all petroleum
refineries. The CDU distills the incoming crude oil into various fractions of different
boiling ranges, each of which are then processed further in the other refinery processing
units. The CDU is often referred to as the atmospheric distillation unit because it
operates at slightly above atmospheric pressure.
Below is a schematic flow diagram of a typical crude oil distillation unit. The incoming
crude oil is preheated by exchanging heat with some of the hot, distilled fractions and
other streams. It is then desalted to remove inorganic salts (primarily sodium chloride).

Following the desalter, the crude oil is further heated by exchanging heat with some of
the hot, distilled fractions and other streams. It is then heated in a fuel-fired furnace
(fired heater) to a temperature of about 398 °C and routed into the bottom of the
distillation unit.
The cooling and condensing of the distillation tower overhead is provided partially by
exchanging heat with the incoming crude oil and partially by either an air-cooled or
water-cooled condenser. Additional heat is removed from the distillation column by a
pump around system as shown in the diagram above.
As shown in the flow diagram, the overhead distillate fraction from the distillation
column is naphtha. The fractions removed from the side of the distillation column at
various points between the column top and bottom are called sidecuts. Each of the
sidecuts (i.e., the kerosene, light gas oil and heavy gas oil) is cooled by exchanging heat
with the incoming crude oil. All of the fractions (i.e., the overhead naphtha, the sidecuts
and the bottom residue) are sent to intermediate storage tanks before being processed
further.
Overview of Crude Units
Crude units are the first units that process petroleum in any refinery. There objective is
to separate the mixture into several fractions like naphtha, kerosene, diesel and gas oil.
A schematic diagram of an atmospheric crude fractionation unit is shown in Figure 1-1.

water
naphtha
PA1

steam
PA2 kerosene

steam

PA3 diesel
water DESALTER

Crude steam
HEN
gas oil
steam
sour water HEN FURNACE
Residue to Vac. Tower

Figure 1-1: Atmospheric Crude Unit.

Crude oil contains salts which can be harmful to downstream equipment and must be
removed. To remove the salts, water is mixed with the crude oil and typically heated to
o o
temperatures between about 215 F to about 280 F and allowed to separate in the
desalter. The desalted crude enters another heat exchanger network. Both heat
exchanger networks make use of the vapors of the main column condenser, the pump-
around circuit streams (PA1, PA2 and PA3), and the products that need to be cooled.
o
Then, the preheated crude enters the furnace, where it is heated to about 340-372 C
o
(644-700 F). The partially vaporized crude is fed into the feed region (called flash zone)
of the atmospheric column, where the vapor and liquid separate. The vapor includes all
the components that comprise the products, while the liquid is the residue with a small
amount of components in the range of gas oil. These components are removed from the
residue by steam stripping at the bottom of the column. Products are withdrawn from
the side of the column and side strippers are used to help controlling the composition of
light components. In addition, to more effectively remove heat, liquid is extracted at
various points of the column and cooled down to be reinjected at a different position on
the column. Cooling water and sometimes air coolers are used in the heat exchangers
PA1, PA2 and PA3, but it is always more advantageous to have these streams release
their heat to the raw crude oil in the heat exchanger networks (HEN), usually called pre-
heating trains. Several different designs and configurations for the heat exchanger
network in the conventional crude oil distillation unit are possible. Figure 1-2 shows one
particular instance of a preheating train, not necessarily the best or most recommended
one (efficient ones are discussed later). In addition, in some oil distillation units, gas oil is
not produced and instead becomes part of the residue. Such units contain one less side-
stripper and one less pump- around than those shown in Figure 1-1 and Figure 1-2.
Further, in units in which gas oil is not produced, the diesel may be further separated
into heavy and light diesel.

Figure 1-2: Atmospheric Crude Unit-with preheating train.

The topped crude leaving the atmospheric tower still contains significant amount of
valuable oils. These oils cannot be distillated at atmospheric pressure because the
temperature required would be so high that severe thermal cracking takes place.So they
are sent to the Vacuum Distillation Unit.
In the preheating train, the crude is under pressure to suppress vaporization. In the case
of a light crude, the pressure required to suppress vaporization is too high. The solution
is to separate some light components before heating the crude further in the preheat
train (Figure 1-4 ). The light components separated in the pre-flash drum are sent to the
column directly.

condenser

naphtha
PA1

steam
PA2
Crude Oil kerosene
vapor
Desalter steam
PA3
diesel

steam
sour water gas oil
steam
Preflash drum
Furnace AR to Vac. Tower

Figure 1-4 : Pre-flash design

In the pre-fractionation design (Figure 1-5), the light components are separated in a
pre-fractionation column. Thus, in the pre-flash design, components in the range of
naphtha are condensed in the condenser of the atmospheric tower, while in the pre-
fractionation design, these components are split into two fractions: light naphtha
condensed in the condenser of the pre-fractionation condenser and heavy naphtha
condensed in the condenser of the atmospheric tower.
 condenser

heavy naphtha
PA1
light naphtha
steam
PA2
Crude oil kerosene
desalter steam
PA3 diesel

steam
sour water gas oil
steam
prefractionation Furnace residue
tower main tower

Figure 1-5: Pre-fractionation design

The pre-fractionation design, however, is considered to be similar to the pre-flash design when energy
consumption is considered (Bagajewicz and Ji, 2002). Because the condensation heat for naphtha (or
light naphtha plus heavy naphtha) is constant, the only difference is that the pre-fractionation design
provides this heat in two condensers with different temperatures. When there is significant heat
surplus in the temperature range of the condensers (intermediate and light crudes), the difference does
not affect energy consumption.

VACUUM DISTILLATION UNIT (VDU)

INTRODUCTION:
The Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU) was designed to process 8,00,000 TPA of RCO (370°C + 50:50 North
Rumaila & Arab Light). After low cost 1999 revamp VDU can process 1.2 MMTPA of RCO, Heavy Diesel
as top product is used as HSD, LVGO+HVGO used as VGO for FCCU feedstock. Presently there is a provision
for withdrawal of three side cuts.

FEED:
The Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU) was originally designed to process Reduced Crude Oil (RCO) obtained
ex CDU (Crude Distillation Unit) while processing imported crude (50: 50 mixture of North Rumaila and Light
Arabian Crude Oils). However, RCO obtained from various imported crudes and indigenous crudes (Bombay
High, North Gujarat, and South Gujarat Mix.) has been processed successfully.

PRODUCTS:
By distilling the RCO under vacuum in a single stage column, it produces Light vacuum Gas Oil (LVG0),
Heavy Vacuum Gas Oil (HVGO) and Vacuum Residuum (VR). Slop cut (distillate between HVGO and VR)
production facility has been provided since 1988.

LVGO - used as blending component for LDO or HSD or as feed component for FCCU along with HVGO.

HVGO - used as a feed component for FCCU.

VACUUM RESIDUUM (VR) - (Imported) is used as feed for Bitumen Unit.

Excess VR and HVG Oil can be used as feed components to the Visbreaker Unit. Surplus BH VR (while
processing Bombay High RCO in VDU) is used as blending component for LSHS.

PROCESS FLOW DESCRIPTION:

Reduced crude oil, RCO is received in feed surge drum from storage tanks. Hot RCO can be received from
CDU. RCO is pumped by charge pumps to a series of preheat exchangers and then to furnace from
where feed goes to column. At the end of preheating by preheat exchanger train feed gets heated up to
305°C in case of hot feed and up to292°C in case of cold feed.

Preheated RCO is split into two passes and introduced to Vacuum Heater/Furnace under pass flow
control for each pass. MP steam is injected in each pass to encourage vaporization of feed in the coils.
Coil outlet temperature of 395 -398°C is maintained. The partially vaporized RCO is introduced in flash
zone of column. LP ste a m superheated up to 350°C in the heater is used as stripping steam in the
stripping section of the vacuum column. Vaporized RCO along with steam rises through the vacuum column
and is fractionated into two side withdrawals.

VR along with quench stream is withdrawn from the column bottom by pumps. After preheating feed, a
quench stream is routed back to the column to maintain bottom temperature of 355°C to avoid coking in the
column boot. Further VR goes to LP steam generator and gets cooled up to 150 0C. VR routing is as follows:
 (1) Hot VR to BBU,
(2) Hot VR to VBU,
(3) Hot VR to VR burning facility,
(4) Hot VR to IFO drum,
(5) Direct VR injection in BBU after cooling,
(6) After cooling in tempered water cooler VR is routed to storage at 150°C.

The desired vacuum is created in the vacuum column by the vacuum system consisting of multistage ejectors,
precondenser, intermediate condenser, after condenser and hot well. The hot well is located at grade level and
correspondingly ejectors are elevated to provide barometric legs. Small amount of oil carried over with
steam from the column is removed from the seal pot by pump and is routed to slop or to HSD. Sour water
from the seal pot is pumped out by pumps to sour water system.

To Ejectors

VLGO

VHGO
Topped crude

VR

Oil Movement and Storage (OM&S)

Introducton:
The Oil Movement and Storage is a part of the Production Department which is headed by the chief Production
Manager. It consists of three divisions

 RECEIPT
 DISPATCH
 LPG

RECEIPT:

The receipt department performs the following functions

 Receipt, storage, accounting, sampling of crude oil.

 Crude and LABFS tank preparation and uninterrupted feeding to processing units.
 Receipt, storage and accounting of finished products and intermediaries
 Supply of intermediaries to processing units
 Preparation of finished products tank for dispatch. Sampling for quality Certificate and accounting.
 Product dispatch by pipeline, T/W&TTL.
 Excise and customs formalities and co-ordination with central excise &custom officials for carrying out
day to day operations.
 Unloading the rail wagons declared either sick by railway or contaminated by marketing
 Unloading of trucks of different chemicals
 Preparation of tank for cleaning, maintenance, inspection and repair.
 Co-ordination with Technical Services and Marketing for planning and supply of finished products.

Storage

All petroleum stocks from crude oil to its lightest volatile fraction must be stored between production,
transportation, refining, blending and marketing. Hence for this purpose, different types of tanks and vessels suit
different characteristics of the product to be stored

TYPES OF TANKS:

The Storage tanks are of the following types:

 Fixed roof tanks for storing heavier products

 Floating roof tanks for storing lighter products
 Floating cum fixed roof tanks.

Less volatile petroleum products are stored in floating roof tanks and highly volatile products like LPG are stored
in Moulded Bullets.

FLOATING ROOF TANKS:

These are vertical cylindrical welded steel tanks with open tops equipped with Floating roofs which cover and
ride up and down, on the liquid stored in the tank. It helps in reducing evaporation loss.

In Floatng roof tank consists of the following accessories

 Tank Pad
 Tank Insulaton
  Steam coils
 Inlet, outlet and Mixer Nozzles
 Staircase
 Reference Height
 Earthing
 Lightening arrestor
 Dykes
 Open surface drains
 Swing arm
 Tank mixers
 Side mixers
 Jet mixers

TYPES OF FLOATING ROOF TANKS

 Pan type
 Pontoon type
 Double deck type

PONTOON TYPE:

The roof has an annular pontoon around the outer edge of the roof and a deck of single thickness at the centre.
The top of the pontoon is sloped downwards to the centre of the tank. In addition to addition to buoyancy the
pontoons provide air-space insulation from the sun’s heat, thus reducing evaporation losses. The pontoon is
divided into several compartments with redial bulkheads, which allow the roof to remain afloat even if the centre
deck or any of the compartments develop leakage. Each compartment is provided with a manhole or inspection
hatch. In some cases, the cover is bolted while in other, loose covers are provided.

DISPATCH:

For efficient functioning of the refinery one of the major factors is to regulate off take movement of products.
Since large volumes of high priced products are involved, utmost care is called in for handling of products during
dispatch. Dispatch of products by different modes depending upon a number of factors like market requirement,
product availability etc. is an important exercise for the Oil Movement and Storage Section. To achieve the
smooth functioning if dispatch systems, a close co-ordination between Marketing, Railways and other agencies
involved in the process is called for. A product becomes ready for dispatch only after getting the quality
certificate form laboratory and after complying with the necessary excise formalities.

There are three modes of transport operating in this refinery for the dispatch products. They are,

 Pipeline
 Road
 Rail

LPG

The LPG section collects and stores LPG in bullets before dispatch. Frequent removal of water is required from
the bottom of bullets which is done through a set of piping and valves. Care must be taken to prevent its
leakage, which must be vented to flare immediately.

NORTH BLOCK
 Delayed Coker Unit( DCU)

 VGO-HDT

 DELAYED COKER UNIT

WHAT IS DELAYED COKING?

 Delayed coking is a thermal cracking process used in petroleum refineries to upgrade and convert petroleum
residuum (bottoms from atmospheric and vacuum distillation of crude oil) into liquid and gas product
streams leaving behind a solid concentrated carbon material, petroleum coke. A fired heater with horizontal
tubes is used in the process to reach thermal cracking temperatures of 485 to 505 oC (905 to 941oF). With
short residence time in the furnace tubes, coking of the feed material is thereby “delayed” until it reaches
large coking drums downstream of the heater. Three physical structures of petroleum coke: shot, sponge, or
needle coke can be produced by delayed coking. These physical structures and chemical properties of the
petroleum coke determine the end use of the material which can be burned as fuel, calcined for use in the
aluminum, chemical, or steel industries, or gasified to produce steam, electricity, or gas feedstocks for the
petrochemicals industry.
MODERN DELAYED COKING PROCESS

The delayed coker is the only main process in a modern petroleum refinery that is a batch-continuous process.
The flow through the tube furnace is continuous. The feed stream is switched between two drums. One drum is
on-line filling with coke while the other drum is being steam-stripped, cooled, decoked, pressure checked, and
warmed up. The overhead vapors from the coke drums flow to a fractionator, usually called a combination tower.
This fractionator tower has a reservoir in the bottom where the fresh feed is combined with condensed product
vapors (recycle) to make up the feed to the coker heater.

Delayed Coking Drum Cycle

Since the feed stream is regularly switched between drums, a cycle of events will occur on a regular interval
depending on the delayed coking unit feed rate, drum size, and throughput capacity. Most typical delayed cokers
currently run drum cycle times of about 16 hours with one drum filling on-line while its counterpart is off-line for
stripping, cooling, and decoking. Drum cycle event approximate time requirements for such a cycle are shown
below in Table 1. Shortening the cycle time is one method of increasing throughput on delayed coking units. One
refinery regularly runs 12 hour drum cycles and has attempted 10 and 11 hour cycles, but cycles this short are
extremely difficult due to minimum time requirements for each of the steps of the drum cycle. Some of the more
important drum cycle steps are described in detail in the following sections.

Table 1. Typical Short Cycle Coking Operatons

Drum Cycle Hours

Steam to Fractionator 0.5
Steam to Blow Down 0.5
Depressure, Water Quench and Fill 4.5
Drain 2.0
Unhead Top and Bottom 0.5
Cutting Coke 3.0
Rehead / Steam Test / Purge 1.0
Drum Warm-Up (Vapor Heat) 4.0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------
Total Time 16.0

Drum Warm-Up (Vapor Heat). To prepare the cold empty coke drum to be put back on-line to receive
the hot feed, hot vapors from the on-line drum are circulated into the cold empty drum. The hot 415 C (780F)
vapors condense in the cold drum, heating the drum to a target temperature of around 340C (650F). While the
drum is heating, the condensed vapors are continuously drained out of the drum.

On-line Filling. After the cold drum has been vapor heated for a few hours, hot oil from the tube furnace
at about 485C) is switched into the drum. Most of the hot vapors condense on the colder walls of the drum, and
a large amount of liquid runs down the sides of the drum into a boiling turbulent pool at the bottom of the drum.
The drum walls are heated up by the condensing vapors, so less and less vapors are condensing and the liquid at
the bottom of the drum starts to heat up to coking temperatures. A main channel is formed similar to the trunk
of a tree. As time goes on the liquid pool above the coke decreases and the liquid turns to a more viscous type
tar. This tar keeps trying to run back down the main channel which can coke at the top causing the channel to
branch. So the limbs of the “tree in the drum” appear. This progresses up though the coke drum. Sponge coke,
which includes needle coke, is formed from this liquid which remains in a quiescent zone between the main
branches or channels up through the coker.

Water Cooling / “Drum Bulging.”. The rate of cooling water injection is critical. Increasing the flow of
water too rapidly can “case harden” the main channels up through the coker without cooling all of the coke
radially across the coke bed. The coke has low porosity (the porosity comes from the thermal cracking) which
then allows the water to flow away from the main channels in the coke drum. Porosity of delayed coke has been
measured experimentally in the past by measuring water flow through cores about the size of hockey pucks cut
from large chunks of needle coke from different areas of a commercial coke drum. Most of the coke cores were
found to have no porosity except the coke right at the wall which had some porosity . This explains problems that
have been found to occur with drums bulging during cool down. If the rate of water is too high, the high pressure
causes the water to flow up the outside of the coke bed cooling the wall of the coke drum. Coke has a higher
coefficient of thermal expansion than does steel (154 for coke versus 120 for steel, cm/cm/C x 10 -7)
Schematc flow diagram and descripton

The flow diagram and description in this section are based on a delayed coking unit with a single
pair of coke drums and one feedstock furnace. However, as mentioned above, larger units may
have as many as 4 pairs of drums (8 drums in total) as well as a furnace for each pair of coke
drums.

A typical schematic flow diagram of a delayed coking unit

Residual oil from the vacuum distillation unit (sometimes including high-boiling oils from other
sources within the refinery) is pumped into the bottom of the distillation column called the main
fractionator. From there it is pumped, along with some injected steam, into the fuel-fired furnace
and heated to its thermal cracking temperature of about 480 °C. Thermal cracking begins in the
pipe between the furnace and the coke drums, and finishes in the coke drum that is on-stream.
The injected steam helps to minimize the deposition of coke within the furnace tubes.
Pumping the incoming residual oil into the bottom of the main fractionator, rather than directly
into the furnace, preheats the residual oil by having it contact the hot vapors in the bottom of the
fractionator. At the same time, some of the hot vapors condense into a high-boiling liquid which
recycles back into the furnace along with the hot residual oil.
 As cracking takes place in the drum, gas oil and lighter components are generated in vapor
phase and separate from the liquid and solids. The drum effluent is vapor except for any
liquid or solids entrainment, and is directed to main fractionator where it is separated into
the desired boiling point fractions.
 The solid coke is deposited and remains in the coke drum in a porous structure that allows
flow through the pores. Depending upon the overall coke drum cycle being used, a coke
drum may fill in 16 to 24 hours.
 After the drum is full of the solidified coke, the hot mixture from the furnace is switched to
the second drum. While the second drum is filling, the full drum is steamed out to reduce
the hydrocarbon content of the petroleum coke, and then quenched with water to cool it.
The top and bottom heads of the full coke drum are removed, and the solid petroleum
coke is then cut from the coke drum with a high pressure water nozzle, where it falls into a
pit, pad, or sluiceway for reclamation to storage.

Uses of petroleum coke

The product coke from a delayed coker has many commercial uses and applications.The largest use
is as a fuel.
The uses for green coke are:

 As fuel for space heaters, large industrial steam generators, fluidized bed
combustions, Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) units and cement kilns
 In silicon carbide foundries

 For producing blast furnace coke

The uses for calcined coke are:

 As anodes in the production of aluminum

 In the production of titanium dioxide

 As a carbon raiser in cast iron and steel making

 Producing graphite electrodes and other graphite products such as graphite brushes used
in electrical equipment

 In carbon structural materials

 LEARNING

I have gained knowledge by this training in various aspects as an engineer, as I had

firsthand experience in Indian Oil Corporation Limited.

Training here, has enhanced my cognition, as the employees have explained, with
commitment, all the doubts and questions that arouse in my mind. This chance thrown
at me, was a boon as I had only seen and read about all the equipments used in industry,
which now, I am able to distinguish well enough. This was not possible with the bookish
knowledge.

I heartly thank all the employees of IOCL to have helped me all throughout my training.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. IOCL MANUALS
2. www. petroleumrefining.com, Petroleum Refining Engineering Website.
3. Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering by Dennis C. Prieve, Pittsburg.
4. www.engineeringtoolbox.com, Chemical Engineering Website
5. Petroleum Refining by James H. Gary, Colorado