Pre-Heat Train 1

Pre-Heat Train

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© 2004 AspenTech, Inc. - All Rights Reserved
1.3.5 Pre-Heat Train.pdf
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Workshop
In this module you will continue to develop your ability to create HYSYS
simulations. Here, we will continue with the HYSYS case that was started
in the previous module.

Typically, after some preheating the first unit that a crude oil will pass
through is the desalter. This unit is responsible for removing salt, grit,
and other impurities from the oil. This unit is normally placed along the
Pre-Heat Train, needed to recover energy from products and to raise the
temperature of the oil stream before it enters the Atmospheric Crude
Column. In this module, you will learn how to build a Heat Exchanger in
HYSYS.

Logical operations and the Databook are also introduced in this module.

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

• Install and converge Heat Exchangers.

• Understand Logical Operations (Balances and Adjusts).
• Use the Case Study tool to perform case studies on your
simulation.

Prerequisites
Before beginning this section you need to complete the Oil
Characterization module.

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Process Overview
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Building the Simulation

For this module you will continue building on the case you worked on in
the previous module by adding a Heater Exchanger, a Desalter, two
simple Heaters and a Pre-Flash Separator, to complete a simple pre-heat
train.

1. Open the case you saved at the end of the previous module (Oil
Characterization).

Only the composition is known for stream Raw Crude. Add the following
data to it:

Temperature 15°C (60°F)

Pressure 1000 kPa (145 psia)
To add components to the
mass Flow 6e+05 kg/h (1.3e+06 lb/hr)
simulation, you must enter
the Basis Environment by
clicking the Basis
Environment icon.
Adding a Stream
You need to add a Water stream. Before adding it, you need to add Water
to the Fluid Package. Afterwards, create a material stream called Water,
at 15°C and a mass flow rate of 21600 kg/h (100% water). If you are using
Enter Basis Environment
icon field units it is 59°F and 47600 lb/hr.

Adding a Mixer
A mixer is added to combine the raw crude with water to represent the
oil sample entering the refinery. Downstream the free water is knocked
out with the three - phase separator.
Mixer icon

Add a Mixer with the following values:

In this cell... Enter...

Connections
Name Mixer
Inlets Raw Crude
Water
Outlets To Heater

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In this cell... Enter...

Parameters
Pressure Assignment Equalize All

Adding a Heater
The Pre-Heat Train consists of various heat exchangers. A heater will be
added to account for them and raise the temperature to 65°C (149°F).
Heater icon
Add a Heater, we will use a Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger later.

1. Complete the first view with the following names.

In this cell... Enter...

Connections
Name Simple Heater 1
Inlet To Heater
Energy H1 Q
Outlet To Heat Exchanger
Fluid Package Refinery

Figure 1

2. Enter a Delta P of 50 kPa (7.25 psi) in the Parameters view.

3. In the worksheet specify a temperature of 65°C (150°F) for stream To
Heat Exchanger.

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Adding a Stream
Before adding the Heat Exchanger, we need to define the Pumparound
stream, which will exchange heat with the Raw Crude.

1. Add a Material Stream.

2. Change the stream name to Hot Pumparound.

At this stage, we don’t know the pumparound composition. As a starting

point, we are going to use the same composition as the Raw Crude. Of
course, later, when we build the Crude Tower, we will change it to the
actual stream.

3. Click the Define from Other Stream button on the bottom of the
Hot Pump Around Stream view.
4. Highlight Raw Crude in the Available streams list.
5. Uncheck all the Copy Stream Conditions boxes except for
Composition. You will be specifying your own conditions in the next
step.

Figure 2

6. Click the OK button to return to the previous menu and enter the
following values in the Hot Pump Around stream: Temperature 180
C, Pressure 200 kPa and Std Ideal Liq Vol Flow of 175 m3/h. (356°F,
30 psia and 2.6e+04 barrel/day if you are using field units).

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Adding the Heat Exchanger

A Heater Exchanger is added to continue heating the crude stream. A
shell and tube heat exchanger will be used to preheat the crude with the
Pumparound, which is at 180°C (356°F).

The Heat Exchanger performs two-sided energy and material balance

calculations. The Heat Exchanger is capable of solving for temperatures,
pressures, heat flows (including heat loss and heat leak), material stream
flows and UA.

1. Double-click on the Heat Exchanger icon in the Object Palette.

2. On the Connections page, enter the following information.

Heat Exchanger icon In this cell... Enter...

Connections
Name Heat Exchanger
Tube Side Inlet To Heat Exchanger
Tube Side Outlet To Desalter
Shell Side Inlet Hot Pumparound
Shell Side Outlet Cold Pumparound

Figure 3

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3. Switch to the Parameters page. Complete the page as shown in the

following figure. The pressure drops for the Tube and Shell sides, in
field units, will be 35 kPa (5 psi) and 5 kPa (0.7 psi), respectively.

Figure 4

The Exchanger Design models are defined as follows:

• Weighted. The heating curves are broken into intervals, which

then exchange energy individually. An LMTD and UA are
calculated for each interval in the heat curve and summed to
calculate the overall exchanger UA. The Weighted method is
available only for Counter-Current exchangers.
• Endpoint. A single LMTD and UA are calculated from the inlet
and outlet conditions. For simple problems where there is no
phase change and Cp is relatively constant, this option may be
sufficient.
4. Choose Exchanger Design (Weighted) in the Heat Exchanger Model.
5. Go to the Specs page.

In order to solve the Heat Exchanger, unknown parameters (flows,

temperatures) are manipulated by the solver. Each parameter
specification will reduce the degrees of freedom by one. The number of
constraints (specifications) must equal the number of unknown
variables. When this is the case, the degrees of freedom will be equal to
zero, and a solution will be calculated.

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Two specifications are needed for this exchanger:

• Heat Balance = 0. This is a Duty Error specification and is

needed to ensure that the heat equation balances. This is a
default specification that is always added by HYSYS so you do
not need to supply it.
• Min Approach = 30°C (54°F). This is the minimum temperature
difference between the hot and the cold stream.

You can have multiple Estimate specifications. The Heat Exchanger will
only use the Active specifications for convergence.

6. You will first need to deactivate the UA specification. To do this,

remove the X from the Active checkbox for the UA specification so
that the view is the same as below.

Figure 5

7. To add a specification, click the Add button, the Exchanger

Specification view displays.
8. Provide the following information using the drop-down list to
specify the Type and Pass:

In this cell... Enter...

Name Temp Approach
Type Min Approach
Pass Overall
Spec Value 30°C (54°F)

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When you change the type of specification, the view will change
accordingly. Once all the information has been provided, the view will
be as below. Close the Temp Approach window.

Figure 6

The completed heat exchanger Specs page should look like this:

Figure 7

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Adding the Desalter

The Three-Phase Separator divides the vessel feed into vapour, light
liquid and heavy liquid (Aqueous) phases.

1. Add a Three-Phase Separator with the following information.

In this cell... Enter...

Three-Phase icon Connections
Name Desalter
Inlet To Desalter
Vapour Ovhd Vapour
Light Liquid Crude
Heavy Liquid Desalter Water

Figure 8

What is the Molar Flow rate of Crude?__________________________________

What is the Molar Flow rate of Desalter Water?__________________________

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Finishing the Simulation

You need to add the last three units before the crude enters the
Atmospheric Column: two heaters and a Preflash separator to reduce
the light components in the feed. Since you already know how to use
shell and tube heat exchangers, we will simulate these heaters in a
simplified mode.

Adding the First Heater

Add a Heater with the following values:

In this cell... Enter...

Connections
Name Simple Heater 2
Inlet Crude
Outlet To Preflash
Energy H2 Q
Parameters
Delta P 375 kPa (54 psi)
Worksheet
To Preflash Temperature 175°C (347°F)

The Delta P represents the result of the pressure drop along the various
heaters.

Adding the Pre Flash

Click on the Separator icon from the Object Palette.

In this cell... Enter...

Separator icon Connections
Name Pre-Flash
Inlets To Preflash
Vapour Outlet Light Prod
Liquid Outlet Bttm Liq

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Adding the Last Heater

Add a Heater with the following values:

In this cell... Enter...

Connections
Name Furnace
Inlet Bttm Liq
Outlet ATM Feed
Energy H3 Q
Parameters
Delta P 250 kPa (36 psi)
Worksheet
ATM Feed Temperature 400°C (752°F)

Save your case!

Adding the Balance

The Balance operation provides a general-purpose heat and material
balance facility. There are different Balances available in HYSYS.

• Mole. An overall balance is performed where only the molar flow

of each component is conserved. Outlet streams will have the
same molar flow rate and composition as the inlet stream, but will
contain no vapour fraction, temperature, or pressure values.
• Mass. An overall balance is performed where only the mass flow
is conserved. The outlet stream will contain no composition,
vapour fraction, temperature, or pressure.
• Heat. An overall balance is performed where only the heat flow is
conserved.
• Mole and Heat. An overall balance is performed where the heat
and molar flow is conserved.

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Look at the Vapour Fraction for stream To Desalter. The feed to the
Desalter has to be liquid, in this case it is, but it could change with the
pressure. The stream parameters are calculated so there is no way you
can force the stream to calculate a bubble point. Adding a Mole Balance
allows you to create a second steam with the same molar flowrate and
composition as To Desalter, but no vapour fraction, temperature or
pressure.

1. Double-click on the Balance icon in the Object Palette.

2. Add the following information

In this cell... Enter...

Connections
Balance icon Name Bubble Point
Inlet Streams To Desalter
Outlet Streams Bubble Temperature
Parameters
Balance Type Mole

3. Specify a Pressure of 915 kPa (133 psia) for the stream Bubble
Temperature.
4. Set the Vapour Fraction to calculate the bubble point temperature.

Up to what Temperature can the Feed be heated in the Pre-heat Train so that
it remains liquid?____________________________________________________

Adding the Adjust

The Adjust operation is a Logical Operation: a mathematical operation
rather than a physical operation. It will vary the value of one stream
variable (the independent variable) to meet a required value or
specification (the depend variable) in other stream of operation.

We are going to use this tool to optimize the heating-train, by specifying

the Flowrate of Light Prod in the Pre-Flash, which depends on the
temperature of the feed stream.

The Adjusted Variable must always be a user specified value.

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1. Double-click on the Adjust icon in the Object Palette; the Adjust

property view displays.

Figure 9
Adjust icon

2. Click the Select Var… button in the Adjusted Variable group to open
the Variable Navigator.
3. From the Object List select To Preflash. From the Variable List,
which is now visible, select Temperature.

Figure 10

Always work left to right in the Variable Navigator. Don't forget you can
use the Object Filter on the right-hand side when the Object list is large.

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4. Click the OK button to accept the variable and return to the Adjust
property view.
5. Click the Select Var button in the Target Variable group.
6. Select Light Prod Molar Flow as the target Variable.

Figure 11

7. Enter a value of 200 kgmole/h (440 lbmole/hr) in the Specified

Target Value box.
8. The completed Connections tab is shown below.

Figure 12

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9. Switch to the Parameters tab, and leave the parameters at the

default values. Note the Tolerance and step Size values. When
considering step sizes, use larger rather than smaller sizes. The
Secant method works best once the solution has been bracketed
and by using a larger step size, you are more likely to bracket the
solution quickly.

When adjusting certain variables, it is usually a good idea to provide a

minimum or maximum that corresponds to a physical boundary, such
as zero for pressure or flow.

10. Click the Start button to begin calculations.

11. To view the progress of the Adjust go to the Monitor page.

Figure 13

Note how the Secant method works.

What is the To Preflash Temperature to achieve the Light Prod Flow

specification?________________________________________________________

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Using the Case Study

The Case Study tool allows you to monitor the steady state response of
key process variables to changes in your process. You select
independent variables to change and dependent variables to monitor.

HYSYS varies the independent variables one at a time, and with each
change, the dependent variables are calculated.

Instead of using the Adjust to find a feed temperature to achieve a

required flowrate you can use the Case Study to examine a range of
temperatures and flow.

Before installing the Case Study, the Adjust has to be turned off so that it
does not conflict with the Case Study.

Any Unit Operation can be temporarily removed from the calculations

by selecting the Ignore check box.

1. Open the Adjust property view.

2. Check the Ignored checkbox.
3. Close the Adjust property view.
4. From the Tools menu select Databook, or use the CTRL D hot key, to
open the Databook.

Both the independent and the dependent variables are added to the
Databook from the Variables tab.

Figure 14

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5. On the Variables tab, click the Insert button to open the Variable
Navigator.
6. Select the Object as To Preflash and choose Temperature as the first
variable.
7. Click the Add button to add the variable. This will leave you in the
Variable Navigator to add the second variable.
8. Select Light Prod - Molar Flow and click the Add button.
9. Close the view to return to the Databook.
10. In the Databook, switch to the Case Studies tab.
11. Click the Add button to add a new Case Study.
12. Select To Preflash Temperature as the Independent Variable and
Light Prod - Molar Flow as the Dependent Variable.

Only user supplied variables can be selected as Independent Variables.

Figure 15

13. Click the View button to setup the Case Study.

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14. Enter values for Low Bound, High Bound, and Step Size of 150°C
(300°F), 250°C (482°F) and 10°C (18°F) respectively.

Figure 16

15. Click the Start button to begin de calculations.

What is the influence of temperature in Light Prod flowrate?______________

Once you have finished the Case Study, activate the Adjust operation by
unchecking the Ignored box.

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Set icon
Use a spreadsheet to create
this new variable.
Pre-Heat Train 21
Exploring with the Simulation
Exercise 1
When you added the Balance, a new stream was created, and then you
introduced a value of 915 kPa for the pressure, because it was that of To
Desalter stream. But the pressure in the To Desalter stream could
change, and consequently the bubble point. There is a tool in HYSYS,
which allows you to set the pressure of Bubble Temperature as a
function of To Desalter pressure. It is a Logical Unit Operation called Set.
The Set is a steady-state operation used to set the value of a specific
Process Variable (PV) in relation to another PV. The relationship is
between the same PV in two like objects; for instance, the temperature
of two streams, or the UA of two exchangers.
In this case we want it to be the same, but in other cases, it could be
useful to use a linear dependency.
Try to use this option to set the Bubble Temperature pressure.
Exercise 2
You are very concerned about the behaviour of the Pre-flash. You want
to achieve a good separation of the light components. Although you
adjusted the temperature to the required flowrate, usually this value of
the molar flow is not known, and the specification is a desired molar
fraction of light products in the stream entering the Atmospheric
Column.
Use the Adjust to achieve a molar fraction of light products (C1, C2, C3,
i-C4, n-C4, i-C5, n-C5 and Water) in the Bttm Liq of 0.12.
Save your case!
What is the required temperature?_____________________________________
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