VISBREAKING

Visbreaking is essentially a mild thermal cracking operation at mild conditions where in long
chain molecules in heavy feed stocks are broken into short molecules thereby leading to a
viscosity reduction of feedstock. Now all the new visbreaker units are of the soaker type. Soaker
drum utilizes a soaker drum in conjunction with a fired heater to achieve conversion [Sieli, 1998]
Visbreaking is a non-catalytic thermal process. It reduces the viscosity and pour point of heavy
petroleum fractions so that product can be sold as fuel oil. It gives 80 - 85% yield of fuel oil and
balance recovered as light and middle distillates. The unit produces gas, naphtha, heavy naphtha,
visbreaker gas oil, visbreaker fuel oil (a mixture of visbreaker gas oil and vsibreaker tar). A
given conversion in visbreaker can be achieved by two ways:
High temp., low residence time cracking: Coil Visbreaking.
Low temp., high residence time cracking: Soaker visbreaking.

Reaction in visbreaking
CH3-CH2-CH2-CH2-CH2-CH2-CH3 CH3-CH2-CH=CH2 + CH3-CH2-CH3

Soaker Visbreaking Process

The furnace operators at a lower outlet temperature and a soaker drum is provided at the outlet
of the furnace to give adequate residence time to obtain the desired conversion while producing a
stable residue product, thereby increasing the heater run and reducing the frequency of unit shut
down for heater decoking [Sieli,1998]. The products from soaker drum are quenched and
distilled in the downstream fractionator. Process diagram for visbreaking with soaker is shown in
Figure M-VI 4.1.
Objective: To lower the viscosity of heavy residues under relatively milder cracking condition
than the conventional cracking processes.
Feed Atmospheric residues To get gasoline and diesel oil
Vacuum residues To reduce viscosity
Reaction:
- Splitting of C-C bond.
- Oligomerization and cyclisation to naphthenes of olefinic compounds.
- Condensation of the cyclic molecules to polyaromatics.
Side reactions: Foramation of H2S, thiophenes, mercaptans, phenol
Products:
The cracked product contains gas, naphtha, gas oil and furnace oil, the composition of which will
depend upon the type of feedstock processed. A typical yield pattern may be gas 1-2%, naphtha
2-3%, gas oil 5-7%, furnace oil 90-92%.
Visbreaking Conditions:
Inlet Temperature: 305-3250C (15-40
bar) Exit: 480-5000C (2-10 bar)
With soaking 440-4600C (5-15 bar)
Feed: 900C pretreated with VB tar to 3350C
Visbreaking Furnace:
Convection zone top to thermal efficiency.
Radiation zone bottom tubes.
Avg. heat flow 22-30 kw/m2

Variables:
Variables in visbreaker are feed rate, furnace transfer temperature, visbreaker tar quench to
transfer line, fractionation pressure, fractionation top temperature, circulation, reflux flow,
visbreaker tar quench to fractionator bottom, visbreaker tar quench to visbreaker tar stripper
bottom, stabilizer temperature and pressure.
The purpose of visbreaking is to produce lower viscosity fuel oil.
Soaking Drum
Soaking drum is used to lengthen the feed residence time so that the furnace can operate at lower
temperature. Soaker results in saving of energy because of the lower temperature with less coke
tendency, larger gas oil yield
Advantages:
- 15% reduction in fuel oil
- Larger running time between two decoking operations. coke deposit rate 3-4 times slower
than in conventional units.
- Better selectivity towards gas and gasoline productivity.
 Figure M-IV 4.1: Visbreaking with Soaker

Coil Visbreaker: In coil visbreaking process the desired cracking is achieved in the
furnace at high temperature and the products of cracking are quenched and distilled in a
downstream fractionator. Advances in visbreaker coil heater design now allows for the
isolation of one or more heater passes for decoking, eliminating the need of shut the entire
visbreaker down for furnace decoking. Integration of the coil visbreaking process with
vacuum units is also being considered in many areas of the world [Sieli,1998]
VISBREAKER

Visbreaking pada dasarnya adalah operasi thermal cracking ringan pada kondisi ringan di
mana pada rantai molekul yang panjang pada bahan baku berat yang rusak menjadi molekul
pendek sehingga menyebabkan penurunan viskositas bahan baku. visbreaking adalah proses
termal non-katalitik. Proses ini mengurangi viskositas dan titik tuang fraksi minyak bumi
berat sehingga produk yang dapat dijual adalah bahan bakar minyak. Proses ini memberikan
80 - 85% hasil bahan bakar minyak dan keseimbangan sebagai penerangan dan penyulingan
tengah. Unit ini memproduksi gas, nafta, nafta berat, minyak gas visbreaker, bahan bakar
minyak visbreaker (campuran minyak gas visbreaker dan vsibreaker tar). Konversi diberikan
dalam visbreaker dapat dicapai dengan dua cara:
Temperatur tinggi ., waktu tinggal cracking rendah : Coil Visbreaking.
Temperatur rendah., waktu tinggal cracking tinggi: Soaker visbreaking.

Reaksi pada visbreaking :

CH3-CH2-CH2-CH2-CH2-CH2-CH3 CH3-CH2-CH=CH2 + CH3-CH2-

CH3

Proses soaker visbreaking

Operator pemanas pada suhu outlet yang lebih rendah dan drum soaker disediakan pada
outlet tungku untuk memberikan waktu tinggal yang memadai sehingga mendapatkan
konversi yang diinginkan sambil menghasilkan produk residu yang stabil, kemudian
meningkatkan pemanas run dan mengurangi frekuensi unit yang ditutup untuk pemanas
decoking [Sieli, 1998]. Produk dari soaker drum yang dipadamkan dan suling di fractionator
hilir. Proses diagram untuk visbreaking dengan soaker ditunjukkan pada Gambar M-VI 4.1.
Tujuan: Untuk menurunkan viskositas residu berat di bawah kondisi retak relatif lebih ringan
daripada proses retak konvensional.

Pakan residu Atmosfer untuk mendapatkan bensin dan solar

Residu Vakum untuk mengurangi viskositas

Reaksi:
- Pemecahan ikatan C-C.
- oligomerisasi dan siklisasi untuk naphthenes senyawa olefin.
- Kondensasi molekul siklik untuk poliaromatik.
reaksi samping: Foramation H2S, thiophenes, merkaptan, fenol

produk:
produk retak mengandung minyak gas, nafta, minyak gas dan tungku, komposisi yang akan
tergantung pada jenis bahan baku diproses. Pola hasil yang khas mungkin gas 1-2%, nafta 2-
3%, minyak gas 5-7%, minyak tungku 90-92%.

Kondisi visbreaking:
Suhu Inlet: 305-3250C (15-40 bar) Keluar: 480-5000C (2-10 bar)
Dengan 440-4600C perendaman (5-15 bar)
Pakan: 900C pra-perawatan dengan VB tar untuk 3350C
Visbreaking Furnace:
zona konveksi top to efisiensi termal. Radiasi tabung zona bottom.
Rata-rata. aliran panas 22-30 kw / m2
variabel:
Variabel dalam visbreaker yang tingkat, tungku suhu mentransfer, memberi makan visbreaker
tar memuaskan untuk mentransfer baris, tekanan fraksinasi, fraksinasi suhu atas, sirkulasi,
aliran refluks, visbreaker tar memuaskan untuk fractionator bawah, visbreaker tar memuaskan
ke bawah stripper visbreaker tar, suhu stabilizer dan tekanan .
Tujuan dari visbreaking adalah untuk menghasilkan bahan bakar minyak viskositas rendah.
perendaman Drum
Drum perendaman digunakan untuk memperpanjang waktu tinggal pakan sehingga tungku
dapat beroperasi pada suhu yang lebih rendah. Hasil soaker dalam penghematan energi
karena suhu yang lebih rendah dengan kecenderungan kokas kurang, gas yang lebih besar
hasil minyak
Keuntungan:
- pengurangan 15% dalam minyak bakar
- waktu berjalan lebih besar antara dua operasi decoking. suku bunga deposito kokas 3-4 kali
lebih lambat daripada di unit konvensional.
- selektivitas yang lebih baik terhadap produktivitas gas dan bensin.