Petroleum Refinery

MAIN Separation – distillation process

Crude Distillation Unit (CDU)
Crude Oil Desalting
The salt content should be lowered to between 5.7 and 14.3 kg/1000 m3 (2 and 5 PTB). Poor desalting has the following effects:

Types of Salts in Crude Oil

Desalting Process Description of Desalter

Desalter Operating Variables

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Crude Distillation Unit (CDU)
Crude Oil Desalting
mostly magnesium, calcium and sodium chlorides with sodium chloride being the abundant type.
Types of Salts in Crude Oil These chlorides, except for NaCl, hydrolyze at high temperatures to hydrogen chloride:
Salt removal requires that these salts be ionized in the water. Hence, wash water is added to the crude
to facilitate the desalting process.
NaCl does not hydrolyze. HCl dissolves in the overhead
system water, producing hydrochloric acid, an extremely
corrosive acid.

Desalting Process

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Crude Distillation Unit (CDU)
Crude Oil Desalting
Description of Desalter For effective desalting the electric fields are applied
as follows:

Desalter Operating Variables

For an efficient desalter operation, the following variables are controlled:

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Crude Distillation Unit (CDU)
Crude Oil Desalting
Desalter Operating Variables
For an efficient desalter operation, the following variables are controlled:

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Crude Distillation Column
 Crude Distillation Unit (CDU)

• Nearly 50–60% of the crude oil is vaporized in the flash zone of the tower
• A pre-flash tower is sometimes added before the atmospheric column, if the crude oil contains
appreciable amounts of lighter products.
• The bottom temperature is bounded in the range of 700-750 °F. This is done avoid cracking.
• The superheated steam required to boil off the crude bottoms is usually at about 600 °F.
• The steam consumption is usually 5–10 lb/bbl of stripped product.

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Crude Distillation Unit (CDU)

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Crude Distillation Unit (CDU)
Operation of Crude Distillation Units
Fractionation
Cut Points
Degree of Fractionation - Vapor & liquid flowrates in the column zone between these two streams
- Number of trays
- Heat extracted by the pumparound
- Formulated in term of gap-overlap product  zero gap-overlap means
perfect fractionation
Overflash providing liquid wash to the vapours going up the column from the flash
zone, and improving fractionation on the trays above the flash zone, thereby
improving the quality of the HGO and reducing the overlap with the bottom
products below the flash zone.
Column Pressure
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Crude Distillation Unit (CDU)
Operation of Crude Distillation Units
Overhead Temperature

The overhead temperature must be controlled to be 14–17oC (25–31oF) higher than the dew
point temperature for the water at the column overhead pressure so that no liquid water is
condensed in the column.

This is to prevent corrosion due to the hydrogen chloride dissolved in liquid water (hydrochloric acid).

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Crude Distillation Unit (CDU)
Operation of Crude Distillation Units

Pre-flash Columns and Crude Column Capacity

• The capacity of the column is limited by the vapour flow rate with a velocity
between 2.5 and 3.5 ft/s (0.76 and 1.07 m/s).
• The vapour flow rate increases as the vapours rise from the flash zone to the
overhead
• To keep the vapour velocity within the limits mentioned above, the
pumparounds, which are installed at several points along the column, extract
heat from the column  condensing the rising vapours and reducing the vapour
velocity
• To expand crude capacity, the most used technique is to introduce a pre-flash
column before the crude heater.
• The crude oil after preheating in the hot products and pumparound heat
exchangers is flashed into a column where the lightest products are removed.
• The bottoms from the pre-flash column are introduced into the crude heater
and then to the crude column.
• The amounts of the light ends in the crude are now less, and this reduces the
vapour loading up the column.
• Pre-flash columns are also introduced in the original design of the CDU when the
crude oil is light, and when it contains a lot of lightBEST
ends inFOR
the naphtha
You range.
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Crude Distillation Unit (CDU)

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 Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU)
The temperature required at the furnace outlet for atmospheric crude distillation unit (CDU) will be excessive if the
heavier fractions will be distilled in the CDU. This will be resulted in thermal cracking and loss of the product and
fouling of the equipment. This necessitates the use of vacuum distillation column where the distillation occurs under
sub-atmospheric conditions.

• Furnace outlet temperatures are usually in range of 730–850 °F

(388–454 °C).
• The pressure in the flash zone is around 25–40 mmHg.
• The effective pressure for hydrocarbon vaporization is reduced
by using stripping steam in the furnace as well as at the tower
bottom.
• The steam added to the furnace increases the velocity of the
fluid and decreasing the coke formation.
• The steam consumption is usually 10–50 lb/bbl of feed.
• The lower pressure in the tower increases the diameter of
column. A higher pressure increases the boiling temperatures
and difficulty of separation.
• Vacuum distillation columns have large diameters and the
diameter may easily reach 40 ft.
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Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU)

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Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU)

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 Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU)

• “It is essential to design the fractionator tower, overhead lines, and

condenser to minimize the pressure drop between the vacuum-inducing
device and the flashzone. A few millimeters decrease in pressure drop will
save many dollars”.
• Structured packings may be employed in the column as having high HETP
and offer low pressure drop.
• “The desired operating pressure in column is maintained using steam
ejectors and barometric condensers or vacuum pumps and surface
condensers. For a flash zone pressure of 25 mmHg, three ejector stages are
usually required”.
• “The vacuum produced is limited to the vapor pressure of the water used in
the condensers”.

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 Crude Distillation Material Balance

Crude Assay Data

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 Crude Distillation Material Balance

Crude Assay Data

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Crude Distillation Material Balance

Material Balance

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 Crude Distillation Material Balance
Sulphur Material Balance

If sulphur content data are not available the estimation of the sulphur
content of petroleum fractions can be calculated using the following
equations in the two ranges of molecular weight M:
For fractions with M < 200

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Design of Crude Distillation Units Using
Process Simulators (optional)

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Design of Crude Distillation Units Using
Process Simulators

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“Light End” Gas Processing

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“Light End” Gas Processing

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“Light End” Gas Processing

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 “Light End” Gas Processing
Variable operasi dan pengaruhnya terhadap kualitas produk.

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 “Light End” Gas Processing
Agar didapatkan product Light End cair yang stabil maka suhu penyimpanan adalah suhu ambient. Tekanan yang diperlukan untuk
mendapatkan phase cair dari light end product pada suhu ambient adalah tekanan tinggi antara 6 – 20 kg/cm2.

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“Light End” Gas Processing

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Homework 2#

4.5 Please give the process description of atmospheric crude distillation unit
(CDU) from the crude oil feed and also process description of vacuum
distillation unit (VDU) from its feedstock.

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Thank You
Ika D.W., MS.
+62 85813659134
Ika.widharyanti@universitaspertamina.ac.id
chemeng.universitaspertamina.ac.id
elearning.universitaspertamina.ac.id