Visbreaker

Background
The purpose of the visbreaker is to take the resid, or pitch, from other units in a refinery
and run mild thermal cracking to reduce the viscosity. Visbreakers generally reduce the
amount of resid by about 20-30% and produce middle distillate products and light ends.
The products are separated in a fractionator after the reactor. A portion of the bottoms is
circulated to mix with the fractionator feeds.

Learning Objectives

Create a Visbreaker model in Petro-SIM

Create and converge a Distop column
Add and converge a Recycle
Create a case study for the Visbreaker to examine the
key input and resulting properties

V4 Rev 1 Oct 2010

Exercise - Visbreaker with Column and
Recycle

1. Open up Petro-SIM and select new case from the toolbar to access the
prebuilt template.

2. Click on the unit preferences icon and select either RefineryField or

RefineryMetric units.

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Defining the Feed Stream
1. If not visible, click the PFD palette icon Add a stream to the PFD
and rename it VB feed.

2. On the Conditions view enter a stream temperature of 280 C (536 F) a

pressure of 25 bar_g (363 psig) and a mass flow of 150000 kg/h (330700 lb/h.)

3. Select the Select Assay button and select the option Synthesize from
Plant Data

4. Add the properties from the table below and select OK. Fill in the data
values from the table.

Asphaltenes content [wt %] 5.58 5.58

Conradson carbon content [wt %] 14.1 14.1
Distillation ASTM D1160_1 vol % 554 C 1026 F
Distillation ASTM D1160_5 vol % 560 C 1039 F
Distillation ASTM D1160_10 vol % 568 C 1058 F
Distillation ASTM D1160_30 vol % 587 C 1086 F
Distillation ASTM D1160_50 vol % 639 C 1178 F
Distillation ASTM D1160_70 vol % 665 C 1227 F
Distillation ASTM D1160_90 vol % 781 C 1449 F
Specific gravity 1.0035 1.0035
Sulphur content [wt %] 3.17 3.17
Viscosity (Kinematic)_80 C (176 F) [cSt] 2041 cSt 2041 cSt
Viscosity (Kinematic)_100 C (212 F) [cSt] 568 cSt 568 cSt
Wax content [wt %] 8.9 8.9

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Creating the Visbreaker

1. From the option palette first attach a valve to the VB feed stream. Label
the product stream Furnace inlet. Do not set a pressure drop or enter an
outlet pressure; this will be back-calculated by the Visbreaker.

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2. From the object palette select a visbreaker unit . Add Furnace Inlet as
the Feed and enter VB steam as the Injection steam. Enter VB effluent as the
Product stream. Enter 53 for the Number of Tubes.

3. Go to the Operating Data tab, Operations page. Check the box next to
Simulate Furnace, indicating it will be solved in detail. Enter a Severity of
90%. Enter Outlet Temperature of 430 C (806 F) and Outlet Pressure of 10
bar_g (145 psig). Enter the value, 7.0, for the Max Conversion to set the limit
on visbreaker (Note: the default 7.0 is not activated for visbreaker unless an
user input is provided)

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 4. Return to the Design Tab and go to the Tube Data page. Enter the
specifications for the tubes below. Note: you only need to enter tube information
into the first tube for each section.

# of tubes Outside Wall Length Header K

Diameter (m) Thickness (m) (m) Values
Soaker 1 (1 pass) 2.03 0.015 12 1.35
Transfer 1 (1 pass) 0.457 0.0095 25 1.35
Radiant 30 (4 pass) 0.1143 0.0075 10 0.75
Cross-over 1 (4 pass) 0.1143 0.0075 10 0.75
Convection 20 (4 pass) 0.1143 0.0075 10 0.75

# of tubes Outside Wall Length (ft) Header K

Diameter (ft) Thickness (ft) Values
Soaker 1 (1 pass) 6.660 0.05 40 1.35
Transfer 1 (1 pass) 1.5 0.0312 82 1.35
Radiant 30 (4 pass) 0.375 0.0246 32 0.75
Cross-over 1 (4 pass) 0.375 0.0246 32 0.75
Convection 20 (4 pass) 0.375 0.0246 32 0.75

5. Return to the Operating Data tab and go to the Tube Data page. Select the
option Specify tube by tube heat fractions and enter the specifications from
the table below:

Tube Number Temperature Pressure Heat Fraction

1 430 C 806 F 10 bar_g 145 psig 0.0
3 0.7

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 33 0.0
34 0.3
53 280 C 536 F 16 bar_g 232 psig

6. Go to the Steam Injectors page and enter the following information:

Tube Number 53 53
Mass Percent 0.5 0.5
Temperature 380 C 716 F
Pressure 28 bar_g 406 psig

All streams should now be calculated. Check to see that all streams are dark
blue.

7. Save your case as VB.ksc

Installing the Distillation Column

1. Add a mixer to the VB Effluent stream. This will be used later to

connect a recycle stream. Label the product stream Quenched Effluent.

2. Create two new steam feeds for the stripping column. Rename the
first stream GO steam and enter the information as shown:

Temperature 350 C 662 F

Pressure 28 bar_g 400 psig
Composition H20 1.0 mole fraction 1.0 mole fraction
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 Rename the second stream Bottom steam and enter the information as
shown:

Temperature 350 C 662 F

Pressure 28 bar_g 400 psig
Composition H20 1.0 mole fraction 1.0 mole fraction

Note: The stream flow rates will be calculated by DISTOP.

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3. Add a Refluxed Absorber . Set the number of stages to 25. Feed Bottom
Steam to the Bottom stage inlet and feed stream Quenched Effluent to stage
20. Enter the remaining stream names: Cond Q, Ovhd Gas, Unstable
Naphtha, Overhead Water, and VBU residue.

4. Click the Next button and enter the column pressure profile:

Condenser 2.8 bar_g 41 psig

Condenser DeltaP 0.2 bar 5 psi
Bottom Stage 3.4 bar_g 49 psig

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 5. Click the Next button and enter the column temperature profile:

Condenser 40 C 104 F
Bottom Stage 360 C 680 F

6. Click the Next button and then the Done button.

7. Go to the Side Ops tab. On the Side Strippers page install a sidestripper
drawing at stage 10 and returning at stage 7. Change the configuration to
Steam Stripped. Select the Steam Feed to be GO steam. Name the product
stream VBU Gasoil. Click the Install button.

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8. Go to the Pump Arounds page and add a pumparound drawing at stage 10
and returning at stage 7. Click the Install button.

9. Go to the Parameters tab, Solver page and the change the solver type to
Distop.

10. Go to the DISTOP tab. On the Efficiencies page, enter the following values:

Section Efficiency Stripper Efficiency

VBU Gasoil 65 60
VBU Residue 50 60

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 11. On the Pumparounds page enter the following information

Vol Flow 80 m3/h 12000 BPD

Draw T 260 C 500 F
Return T 200 C 392 F

12. On the Product Specs page enter the following information for stripping
steam ratio, in mass flow of steam per volume flow of stripped product:

VBU Gasoil 12 kg steam/m3 0.1 lb steam/gal

VBU residue 15 kg steam/m3 0.125 lb steam/gal

13. Enter the following information for TBP Cutpoints (note no entry is required
for the gas)

Unstable Naphtha 0C 32 F
SS1_Prod 190 C 374 F
VBU residue 350 C 662 F

14. Click the Run button to converge the column using the DISTOP solver.

15. Save your case.

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Creating the Recycle

1. Add a Tee to the VBU residue stream, and enter as outlet streams VBU
Residue product and Residue Quench.

2. Specify the flow of the Residue Quench stream 50 m3/h (7500 BPD) under
Conditions in the Worksheet tab

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 3. Add a cooler to the Residue Quench and name the outlet stream Cooled
Residue and the energy stream Quench-Q.

4. On the Parameters page, enter 0 for the pressure drop

5. Specify an outlet stream temperature of 250 C (482 F).

6. Add a recycle stream . For the inlet stream select Cooled Residue and
for the Outlet stream enter Residue Recycle.

7.

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8. Connect Residue Recycle to MIX 100.

The recycle unit operation should converge.

9. Save the case when complete.

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 Case Study: Severity vs. Viscosity and COT
In this section, we will look at the effect of the visbreaker severity on product
properties and coil outlet temperature.

1. Go to the VBU Residue stream, Properties page, and select the Viscosity at 100C
Right-click on the value and select Send To Databook.

2. Go to the Visbreaker unit operation, Operating Data tab. Highlight the input
value for Severity. Right-click on this value and select Send To then select
Databook. Go to the section with results, highlight the calculated outlet T
value and send that value to the Databook as well.

3. If you closed the view, go to the Tools menu option and select Databook. The
Variables tab will display the variables that were sent from the Visbreaker and
streams.

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4. Go to the Case Study Tab. Click the Add button to create a Case Study. Check
the box under Independent variable for the Severity and Dependent for the other
variables.

5. Click the View button. Enter a Severity range of 20-90% with a step size of 10.

6. Run the Case study and examine the results, in both table and graph form.

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