Why we need to distillate crudes by atmospheric distillation first and

then followed by vacuum tower as it can reduce the heat

requirement?

Crude oil also known as petroleum is a non-renewable source that only found under
Deep Ocean at certain places in world. The oil has a complex mixture of hydrocarbons
such as Naphthenes, Paraffin and Aromatic and only non-hydrocarbon mixture such as
sulfur, oxygen and metallic compounds. The mixture of hydrocarbon and nonhydrocarbon will undergo Refining to produce useful finished products such as petrol,
diesel, etc.

Refining process consist of three types which are Simple Refinery, Complex Refinery
and Hydrocracker Refinery. Simple Refinery also known as Hydroskimmer or Topping
Skimmer are consist of several processes such as Atmospheric distillation,
Hydrotreating of naphta, kerosene and diesel and naptha catalytic reforming. The crude
oil basically will enter into Atmospheric distillation to undergo first distillation process.
Before it enters into Atmospheric distillation, the crude oil is undergoing Desalting
process. The process is to reduce the amount of concentration of salt that contain inside
the crude oil that will cause corrosion and fouling of downstream lines and equipment.

After the crude oil pass through Desalting Process, it will enter furnace to preheat the
crude oil. Since the Atmospheric distillation does not have reboiler, the crude oil has to
heat up at maximum temperature which is about at 350 C to achieve good grade of
vaporization of light oil during separation.

Then, the preheat crude oil will enter Atmospheric distillation which also known as
primary distillation for the first separation process. The purpose of Atmospheric
distillation is to recover light materials and fractionate into sharp light fractions. The
distillation operation is conducted at 1 atmosphere pressure (1 atm). The distillation is
operate at 1 atm is because of several reasons such as to raise boiling point of light-end
carbons so that refinery cooling water can be used to condense, to replace
uncondesate gas and lastly to allow pressure drop in column.

The products from this distillation will vary based on its boiling point. For the light
products such as butane and propane that have low boiling point, they will undergo
further gas processing. But for the heavier products such as asphalts that have high
boiling point, the products will exit at bottom of Atmospheric distillation and enter
Vacuum distillation.

Vacuum distillation is a secondary distillation process after Atmospheric distillation. The

operation is conducted at below 1 atm. which apply vacuum during separation to lower
the pressure. Basically, the feed of this distillation is a residue vapor form by
Atmospheric distillation. The feed enter the distillation at maximum temperature of
800F. The temperature is limited at 800F is because to avoid thermal cracking.
Thermal cracking is a process proposed by 1913 by William M. Burton of Standard Oil
of Indiana to convert a complex hydrocarbon (which contains higher number of carbon)
to a simplest form of gasoline. The process applies heat to convert the complex
hydrocarbons. Therefore, the cost of this process is very expensive and soon the yield
of gasoline is less compared to advanced process nowadays to produce gasoline.

Besides that, the vacuum distillation is simplest than Atmospheric distillation. The
pressure and temperature required for this distillation is less than Atmospheric
distillation. This is because of heavy hydrocarbon product undergo partial or complete
decomposition at normal boiling point of liquid that cause of difficulty of purifying liquid
product. The alternative of this problem is by reduced the pressure of liquid and thus the
boiling point of liquid will also be reduced.