Energy Conservation in Atmospheric Distillation Columns by Modifying

Vapour Feed Inlet Tray

Mr. M. Arjmand1, Mr. K.Motahari2
1
Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Valhallavgen 79, SE100 44, Stockholm, Sweden; Tel: +46-760-834455, E-mail: arjmand@kth.se
2
Arak University, Department of Chemical Engineering, Farmandari Square, Shariati Avenue,
Arak, Iran; Tel: +98-918-1650454, E-mail: k-motahari@araku.ac.ir

1. Introduction
Separation processes in many industries are by far the most dominating energy users to an
extent that fifty to eighty percent of the process operating costs can come from the separation
trains [1], majorly distillation. Furthermore, over half of the process heat distributed to plant
operations ends up in the distillation columns [2]. Consequently, the impact in saving or
recovering only 1% of the heat used by operational distillation columns would be tremendous.
2. Discussion
2.1 Distillation Process Topology
The basic equipments required for standard continuous industrial distillation of crude oil are
shown in Fig.1 (a). Initially, the feed is inserted to a flash drum where liquid is withdrawn from
the bottom of the vessel and passed through a heater. The top product of the flash drum (vapour)
will meet up again with the preheated liquid upon entrance to the tower where they are inserted as
one single stream.
2.2 Proposed Solution
The proposal is to insert the vapour product of the flash drum into upper trays of the column
separately as shown in Figure 2 (b). Being composed of light hydrocarbons corresponding more
to higher stages of the column, inserting this feed to upper trays results in an increase of purity of
side stream products (if any) or columns main products (Distillate and Residue). This is due to
less contact of the vapour entering and the falling liquid. Eventually the rising vapour is less
likely to experience condensation and be detected in the side stream products. This also results in
a higher L/G between the two feeds, thus reducing the mid-up diameter and investment costs of
new tower designs.

(a)
(b)
Fig.1. (a) Common topology of a typical Crude Oil Distillation Unit (CDU). (b) Proposed solution:
inserting the vapour product of the flash drum in upper stages of the column separately.

Condenser Duty (MJ/hr)

3. Case Study
The process herein is an atmospheric distillation of a typical crude oil using superheated steam.
Specifications considered for this separation are are the products flow rate, pump around duties
and rates, kerosene reboiler duty and an overflash rate (usually 3-5% of the total column feed), all
of which are held constant throughout the simulation. For this case, using a steady state simulator
like HysysTM, several vapour feed inlet stage runs have been performed to observe the variations
in condenser duty. Figure 2 shows graphically the changes in condenser duties.
115,000

Condenser Duty (MJ/hr)

113,000
111,000
109,000
107,000

101,000
100,900
100,800
100,700
100,600
100,500
Minimum Condenser
Energy Consumption

100,400
100,300
1

105,000

11

13

15

17

Vapour Inlet Tray Number

103,000
101,000
99,000
1

11

13

15

17

19

21

23

25

27

29

Vapour Inlet Tray Number

Fig.2. Results of optimization procedure obtained from different runs of vapour feed inlet stage

4. Conclusions
1. Splitting the feed into two feeds of liquid and vapor upon vaporization in the flash drum
maintains a simpler control of the process.
2. Decrease the energy demand of the condenser and reboiler (if available) to an extent that
finding and optimized stage can achieve an energy conservation of 12.6% in condenser duty.
3. Having L/G increased, same purity of products can be achieved with a lower mid-up diameter
tower. In fact, the fixed (capital) cost of a tower is reduced.
4. Since the flash drum vapour product contains component corresponding more to the upper
stages of the distillation column, inserting this feed to the upper trays results in an increase of
products purity with the same condenser or reboiler energy consumption.
5. Such topology requires negligible change for the introduction of vapour feed to an upper tray,
however further runs of HysysTM or another steady state simulator is required for other mixtures.
References
1- G. Soave, J. A. Feliu, Saving Energy in Distillation Towers by Feed Splitting, Applied
Thermal Engineering, 22 (2002) 889896.
2- J. Kunesh, H. Kister, M. Lockett, J. Fair, Distillation: still towering over other options, Chem.
Eng. Progr., (1995) 4354.