1

Introduction

Modern renery operations are very complex and, to a person unfamiliar with the industry, it seems to be an impossible task to reduce the complexity to a coordinated group of understandable processes. It is the purpose of this book to present the renery processes, as far as possible, in the same order in which the crude ows through the renery in order to show the purposes and interrelationships of the processing units. The case-study method is best for quick understanding and we recommend that a crude oil be selected and yield and cost calculations be made as the rening processes are studied in order. An example problem is given in Chapter 17 for a renery of low complexity and the example problem starting in Chapter 4 and ending in Chapter 18 presents a complex renery typical of todays operations. The typical fuels renery has as a goal the conversion of as much of the barrel of crude oil into transportation fuels as is economically practical. Although reneries produce many protable products, the high-volume protable products are the transportation fuels gasoline, diesel and turbine (jet) fuels, and the light heating oils, No. 1 and No. 2. These transportation fuels have boiling points between 0 and 345C (30 to 650F). Light heating oils are not properly transportation fuels but the hydrocarbon components are interchangeable with those of diesel and jet fuels, only the additives are different. Although products such as lubricating oils, refrigeration and transformer oils, and petrochemical feedstocks are protable, they amount to less than 5 percent of the total crude oil charged to U.S. reneries. The process ow and products for a complete renery of high complexity are shown in Figure 1.1. (See also Photo 1, Appendix E.) The processing equipment indicated is for processing crude oils of average gravities and sulfur contents. Crude oils with low API gravities (high specic gravities) and high sulfur contents require additional hydrotreating equipment. The quality of crude oils processed by U.S. reneries is expected to worsen slowly in the future with the sulfur contents and densities to increase. The greater

Copyright 2001 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Figure 1.1 Renery ow diagram.

Copyright 2001 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

densities will mean more of the crude oil will boil above 566C (1050F). Historically this high-boiling material or residua has been used as heavy fuel oil but the demand for these heavy fuel oils has been decreasing because of stricter environmental requirements. This will require reneries to process the entire barrel of crude rather than just the material boiling below 1050F (566C). Sulfur restrictions on fuels (coke and heavy fuel oils) will affect bottom-of-the-barrel processing as well. These factors will require extensive renery additions and modernization and the shift in market requirements among gasolines and reformulated fuels for transportation will challenge catalyst suppliers and renery engineers to develop innovative solutions to these problems. The environmental impacts of fuel preparation and consumption will require that a signicant shift take place in product distribution (i.e., less conventional gasoline and more reformulated and alternative fuels). This will have a major effect on renery processing operations and will place a burden on renery construction in addition to the need to provide increased capacity for high sulfur and heavier crude oils. The language of the rening industry is unfamiliar to those not in it and to ease the entry into an unfamiliar world, feedstock and product specications are discussed before the renery processing units. Appendix A contains a glossary of rening terms and will assist in understanding the descriptions. In many cases, however, there is no standard denition, and a term will have different meanings in different companies, and even in different reneries of the same company. It is always important, therefore, to dene terms with respect to the individual writing or talking.

1.1 OVERALL REFINERY FLOW Figure 1.1 shows the processing sequence in a modern renery of high complexity, indicating major process ows between operations. The crude oil is heated in a furnace and charged to an atmospheric distillation tower, where it is separated into butanes and lighter wet gas, unstabilized light naphtha, heavy naphtha, kerosine, atmospheric gas oil, and topped (reduced) crude (ARC). The topped crude is sent to the vacuum distillation tower and separated into vacuum gas oil stream and vacuum reduced crude bottoms (residua, resid, or VRC). The reduced crude bottoms (VRC) from the vacuum tower is then thermally cracked in a delayed coker to produce wet gas, coker gasoline, coker gas oil, and coke. Without a coker, this heavy resid would be sold for heavy fuel oil or (if the crude oil is suitable) asphalt. Historically, these heavy bottoms have sold for about 70 percent of the price of crude oil.

Copyright 2001 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The atmospheric and vacuum crude unit gas oils and coker gas oil are used as feedstocks for the catalytic cracking or hydrocracking units. These units crack the heavy molecules into lower molecular weight compounds boiling in the gasoline and distillate fuel ranges. The products from the hydrocracker are saturated. The unsaturated catalytic cracker products are saturated and improved in quality by hydrotreating or reforming. The light naphtha streams from the crude tower, coker and cracking units are sent to an isomerization unit to convert straight-chain parafns into isomers that have higher octane numbers. The heavy naphtha streams from the crude tower, coker, and cracking units are fed to the catalytic reformer to improve their octane numbers. The products from the catalytic reformer are blended into regular and premium gasolines for sale. The wet gas streams from the crude unit, coker, and cracking units are separated in the vapor recovery section (gas plant) into fuel gas, liqueed petroleum gas (LPG), unsaturated hydrocarbons (propylene, butylenes, and pentenes), normal butane, and isobutane. The fuel gas is burned as a fuel in renery furnaces and the normal butane is blended into gasoline or LPG. The unsaturated hydrocarbons and isobutane are sent to the alkylation unit for processing. The alkylation unit uses either sulfuric or hydrouoric acid as catalyst to react olens with isobutane to form isoparafns boiling in the gasoline range. The product is called alkylate, and is a high-octane product blended into premium motor gasoline and aviation gasoline. The middle distillates from the crude unit, coker, and cracking units are blended into diesel and jet fuels and furnace oils. In some reneries, the heavy vacuum gas oil and reduced crude from parafnic or naphthenic base crude oils are processed into lubricating oils. After removing the asphaltenes in a propane deasphalting unit, the reduced crude bottoms is processed in a blocked operation with the vacuum gas oils to produce lubeoil base stocks. The vacuum gas oils and deasphalted stocks are rst solvent-extracted to remove the aromatic compounds and then dewaxed to improve the pour point. They are then treated with special clays or high-severity hydrotreating to improve their color and stability before being blended into lubricating oils. Each renery has its own unique processing scheme which is determined by the process equipment available, crude oil characteristics, operating costs, and product demand. The optimum ow pattern for any renery is dictated by economic considerations and no two reneries are identical in their operations.

Copyright 2001 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.