Jonathan Peters Miguel Bagajewicz

Conventional Distillation Pre-flash Fractionation Previous Work Mission Statement Optimization Results: Light Crude Results: Heavy Crude

Inject steam in the bottom Feed is desalted and heated 5 products

ASTM standard - specifies product purity Defined as a percentage of the product that boils at a specific temperature Naphtha 95% D86 182oC

Light Crude 95% D-86 Points ( C) Naphtha 182 Kerosene 271 Diesel 327 Gas Oil 410 Residue 820

Heavy Crude 95% D-86 Points ( C) Naphtha 182 Kerosene 271 Diesel 327 Gas Oil 390 Residue 1220

Minimum gap refers to the lowest temperature difference required to obtain the desired separation

Gaps greater than the minimum are acceptable

Boiling Point Temp.

Light Crude Gaps (oC) Naphtha-Kerosene 16.7 Kerosene-Diesel 0 Diesel-Gas oil -2.9

Conventional Distillation Products

6.00E+03

Light Crude

5.00E+03

4.00E+03

Barrels/Day

Naphtha
3.00E+03

Kerosene Diesel

2.00E+03

Gasoil Resid Crude Feed

1.00E+03

0.00E+00 50.00 73.00 -164 -42 13.2

378.00

100.00

128.00

155.00

183.00

211.00

239.00

266.00

294.00

322.00

350.00

405.00

439.00

495.00

549.00

597.00

663.00

NBP of Component (C)

781.00

Heavy Crude Gaps ( Naphtha-Kerosene Kerosene-Diesel Diesel-Gas oil

C) 30.8 4.4 -6.6

4 trays No reboiler or condenser Inject steam to control separation Draw from column Return to tray above draw

return

draw

steam

product

Add side columns

Add pumparounds to reduce heat utility

Simulation PFD for conv. optimization

Heat Demand-Supply Diagram

Heat supply and demand are represented by areas. Supply can only cover demand on the left. Uncovered demand is satisfied by utilities (red area).

Shift heat from condenser to PA1 to reduce Utility

Heat Demand-Supply Diagram

Shift heat from PA1 to PA2

Heat Demand-Supply Diagram

Shift heat from PA2 to PA3

Heat Demand-Supply Diagram

Some heat demand still remains

Heat Exchanger Network

Crude Unit PFD with HEN

Pinch Calculator

Replace HEN with a black box

Pinch Calculator

Add a preflash drum

Tray 1

Tray 15

Heated to 163oC Send vapor to Tray 15

34 Trays Total

Pre-flash reduces vapor-liquid holdup

Residue/feed ratio decreases with an increasing K value

Concluded that pre-flash was only more energy efficient if gas oil yield was reduced Steam cannot replace all carrier effect of light components

Previous work studied pre-flash fractionation with the addition of one flash drum This work studies the effect of pre-flash fractionation with the addition of multiple flash drums in both light and heavy crude systems

Systematic optimization of pre-flash fractionation

Set pre-flash temperature

Vapors are sent to column

Set pumparound duty

Red - simulation did not converge, readjust

Blue simulation converged

Light Crude Heavy Crude

In the process of investigating this, a new design was proposed Technical details of this new design cannot be made public at this time We will only disclose the impact of the new design in terms of new flow rates of products and the economics

Flow Rates (m3/hr.)

300

250

200

Naphtha Kerosene

150

Diesel Gas Oil

100

Residue

50

0 conv.

For the light crude, the new design increases gas oil yield from pre-flash design, but not from conventional

tray-10

tray-15

tray-20

tray-25

2 flash

4 flash

new design

Min. Heat Utility (MW)

83 78 73 68 63 58 53 conv. tray-10 tray-15 tray-20 tray-25 2 flash 4 flash new design

New design reduces min. heat utility

Steam Usage (lb/hr.)

30000

25000

20000

15000

10000

5000

0 conv. tray-10 tray-15 tray-20 tray-25 2 flash 4 flash new design

New design steam usage is about the same as conv.

Flow Rates (m3/hr.)

120

100

80 Naphtha 60 Kerosene Diesel 40 Gas Oil

20

0 conv. tray-10 tray-15 tray-20 tray-25 2 flash 4 flash new design

New design increases gas oil yield over the conventional case

Min. Heat Utility (MW)

83 78 73 68 63 58 53

conv.

tray-10

tray-15

tray-20

tray-25

2 flash

4 flash

new design

New design reduces min. heat utility

Steam Usage (lb/hr.)

13400 13200 13000 12800 12600 12400

12200
12000 conv. tray-10 tray-15 tray-20 tray-25 2 flash 4 flash new design

New design steam usage is about the same as conv.

Light Crude
Process 1 flash tray-15 2 flash 4 flash new design Utility Cost Increase -$690,000 $3,280,000 $7,790,000 -$1,980,000 Profit Increase -$17,220,000 -$19,520,000 -$395,350,000 -$14,270,000 Gross Profit Increase -$16,530,000 -$22,790,000 -$403,150,000 -$12,290,000

Heavy Crude
Process 1 flash tray-15 2 flash 4 flash new design Utility Cost Increase $2,120,000 $2,580,000 $2,490,000 -$1,110,000 Profit Increase -$4,310,000 -$3,080,000 -$4,400,000 $7,160,000 Gross Profit Increase -$6,430,000 -$5,660,000 -$6,890,000 $8,270,000

New design increases profit from conv. for heavy crude

Multiple pre-flashing does not reduce the minimum heat utility

Gas Oil flow rate is reduced and Residue is increased

The new design shows noticeable energy improvement and gas oil recovery from conventional distillation for heavy crudes Further studies are warranted

1. Bagajewicz M. and S. Ji. Rigorous Targeting Procedure for the Design of Crude Fractionation Units with Pre-Flashing or Pre-Fractionation. Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, 41, 12, pp. 3003-3011 (2002). 2. Bagajewicz M. and S. Ji. Rigorous Procedure for the Design of Conventional Atmospheric Crude Fractionation Units Part I: Targeting. Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research. Vol. 40, No 2, pp. 617-626 (2001).

Stephanie English Jesse Sandlin Ernest West Chris Wilson Su Zhu Dan Dobesh