PROCESSING

changer train designs often cause low

Refiners processing heavy crudes can desalter temperatures, poor salt re-
moval, and periodic upsets that send

experience crude distillation problems large quantities of brine to the atmos-

pheric heater and column.
High chlorides to the atmospheric
heater generate large quantities of hy-
Steve White heavy crude blends. drochloric acid (HCl). Severe fouling in
Tony Barletta
Process Consulting Services Inc. Heavy crudes have higher viscosities, the crude column’s top trays, rapid
Houston some have higher salt content, several fouling and corrosion in the atmos-
have high naphthenic acid content, and pheric condenser system, and severe
Refiners will process they are all more difficult to distill than overhead line corrosion often reduce
increasingly heavier crude Refining lighter crude blends. Some upgrader crude runs and unit reliability.
slates during the next 10 crudes also have lower thermal stability Most heavy crudes have higher vis-
years. A majority will originate from than conventional crudes and higher cosities, a condition that makes increas-
the Orinoco oil belt bitumen upgraders fouling tendencies due to the increased ing or maintaining crude charge rate a
in Venezuela and the Athabasca tar likelihood of asphaltene precipitation. challenge.
sands region of northern Alberta. Processing difficulties can result Higher viscosity reduces the crude
Even blended with lighter crudes, from flow schemes and equipment de- charge-pump developed head, increases
these lower-gravity blends will require signs that may have worked well with exchanger network pressure drop, and
crude-unit process flow scheme and light crudes, but are not compatible lowers heat-transfer coefficients
equipment design changes to meet with the heavy crude characteristics. throughout the cold preheat train.
profitability objectives. Revamps to process heavy crudes must Crude charge rate, atmospheric column
This article ad- heat removal, and desalter temperature
dresses crude dis- are all adversely affected.
SPECIAL

Report
tillation unit Many heavy crudes contain more
(CDU) problem vacuum gas oils. Refiners, therefore, of-
areas and identifies ten increase the atmospheric tower bot-
specific sections tom (ATB) product cut point to stay
World’s
World’s Evolving
Evolving Crude
Crude Slate
Slate
requiring invest- within the vacuum column diameter
ment to maintain limits. As ATB cut point increases, how-
profitability ever, vacuum unit feed gets heavier re-
throughout a 4-5 sulting in higher vacuum tower bot-
year run length for toms (VTB) yield.
refiners processing Increasing the vacuum heater outlet
heavy crudes. carefully consider the flow scheme and temperature can sometimes offset a
Some heavy crudes are blends of 6-8° equipment design in order to maintain higher ATB cut point. But many refiners
API bitumens combined with hy- crude charge rate, product yield and have existing heater design problems
drotreated lighter products from bitu- quality, and unit reliability. that prevent a higher outlet temperature
men upgraders. Crude blends with gravities <22° without shortening heater run length.
The blended lighter products that API require sufficient cold exchanger Refiners, therefore, must optimize ATB
help produce synthetic crudes generally train preheat to achieve efficient desalt- product cut point to maximize heavy
distill in the atmospheric column leav- ing, which typically requires a desalter vacuum gas oil (HVGO).
ing a very heavy 6-8° API feed to the temperature between 270° and 300° F. An optimized ATB cut point is about
vacuum unit. CDUs must operate at in- The desalter must separate the emul-
creased severity to maintain product cut sion into low-salt crude and oil-free
points and qualities. water. COMMON PROCESSING Table 1

Heavy crudes are more difficult for With a heavier crude feed, the de- PROBLEMS
High crude-side pressure drop
the CDU to process. Historically, refin- salter temperature can decrease by 30° Desalter upsets and poor desalting
ers processing heavier crudes have had to 40° F., if no additional surface area Rapid crude-column condenser corrosion
problems maintaining: is added to the cold exchanger train. Crude column naphtha-jet fuel section fouling
Low diesel product yield
• Crude charge rate. The desalted crude’s salt content can Vacuum heater coking
• Product yield and quality. increase dramatically if the temperature Vacuum column coking
Vacuum column fouling (top section)
• Unit reliability. is too low. Many heavy crudes such as High vacuum-column operating pressure
Zuata or Merey can have high salt con- Low HVGO product draw temperature
CDU processing difficulties tents depending on production field Low HVGO product yield
High metals feed to the cat feed hydrotreater
Table 1 shows some specific prob- operations; therefore, good desalter General corrosion problems
lems refiners face when processing performance is critical. Poor cold ex-

Reprinted with revisions to format, from the November 18, 2002 edition of OIL & GAS JOURNAL
Copyright 2002 by PennWell Corporation
PROCESSING
700° F. for heavy Venezuelan Merey,
BCF-17, and Zuata crudes, assuming no
downstream equipment limits.
Most refiners and designers adjust
ATB cut point vs. crude heater outlet
temperature only.
Other parameters are, however, more
effective in adjusting ATB cut point:
L ATIN AMERICA HEAVY CRUDES
1,500
Maya
Temperature, °F
becomes more important. TBP distillation
In some cases, vanadium in the Accurate crude TBP curves are essen-
CFHT feed has increased from less than tial when CDUs are revamped to
1 ppm to 5-10 ppm with heavy process heavy crude feeds. Figs. 1 and 2
Venezuelan crudes.1 show TBP curves for selected heavy
High feed-stream contaminants can Venezuelan and Canadian crudes.
reduce run length to less than half the TBP curves are typically generated
planned turnaround interval. from ASTM D2892 and D5236 tests.
Optimizing the Some refiners now use high-tempera-
atmospheric col- ture simulated distillation (HTSD) to
Fig. 1 umn flash-zone characterize the whole crude. Signifi-
and wash section, cant differences between the two meth-
Merey Zuata and the vacuum ods become more pronounced as crude
unit design can re- API gravity decreases.2

1,000
duce CFHT feed We found that HTSD curves provide
vanadium by 30- the best characterization of product
40%. yields in the 650+° F. portion of the
500
distillation curve.
Heavy crude We reviewed several comprehensive
properties test runs on crude units processing
0 True boiling heavy crudes and compared synthesized
0 20 40 60 point (TBP) distil-
80 100 whole crude TBP curves generated from
Distilled, vol % lation curve, con- product stream HTSDs, whole crude
taminants (MCR, HTSDs, and crude assay TBP curves
asphaltenes, and generated from ASTM D2892 and
minimized atmospheric column flash- metals) distribution, viscosity, salt con- D5236 tests.
zone pressure, minimized percent over- tent, and total acid number (TAN) in- During a CDU revamp to process
flash, and optimized ATB stripping effi- crease CDU operating severity and heavy crude, the designer must accu-
ciency. make heavy crudes inherently more rately characterize crude feed; other-
This maximizes diesel recovery and difficult to process. wise, predicted product yields, operat-
reduces vacuum ejector condensable Venezuelan heavy crudes include ing conditions, and equipment design
load, which permits lower vacuum col- Merey, BCF-17, Zuata, BCF-22, and La- may be flawed.
umn operating pressure and helps guna Blend 22. US refiners are also Inaccurate feed characterization of
maintain HVGO product cut point. processing large volumes of Mexican crude’s heavy end has resulted in poor
Maintaining HVGO cut point is a sig- Maya crude. Heavy Canadian crudes in- revamp yields and coked vacuum col-
nificant challenge with heavier crude clude Cold Lake blend, Lloydminster umn wash beds.
blends. Most refiners lose 40° F. or more (LLB), and tar sands blends.
in HVGO product cut point when switch- Only a few refiners can process these Whole crude properties
ing to a heavy crude diet. Maintaining cut crudes neat. Table 2 shows vanadium, viscosity,
point requires a combination of lower Other refiners that increase their and salt content for some heavy crudes.
operating pressure, higher heater outlet heavy crude percentage also face many Fig. 3 shows the vanadium distribution
temperature, reduced flash-zone pressure, of the same processing challenges. curve for Maya crude.
lower flash-zone oil partial pressure Some vanadium compounds begin to
(more heater coil steam), and improved
VTB stripping.The right combination will
be specific to each unit.
C ANADIAN HEAVY CRUDES Fig. 2

The combination of operating vari- 1,500

ables needed to maintain or increase Canadian blend Cold Lake Lloydminster

HVGO cut point is more severe and can

Temperature, °F.

lead to rapid vacuum heater or column 1,000

coking if the equipment is not carefully
designed.
Heavy crudes have much higher mi- 500
crocarbon residue (MCR), asphaltenes,
and metals. As mandated refinery gaso-
line and diesel pool sulfur specifica- 0
tions take effect, minimizing cat feed 0 20 40 60 80 100
hydrotreater (CFHT) feed contaminants Distilled, vol %
 World’s Evolving Crude Slate

vaporize at 925-950° F. TBP tempera- gical upgrades to higher-alloy materials Maintaining crude charge rate
tures; therefore, HVGO vanadium will due to high naphthenic acid (Table 4), Revamp process flow schemes must
rise as cut point increases.3 high sulfur, and high crude-column account for the inherent crude hy-
Improved HVGO fractionation lowers overhead system chloride levels (Fig. 4). draulics and preheat dilemma associat-
vanadium for the same TBP cut point.4 A Crudes with a total acid number (TAN) ed with processing heavy crudes while
properly designed vacuum unit can re- of 2.4 will produce an HVGO TAN of maintaining unit reliability.
duce HVGO vanadium content by 30- 3.5 or greater.6 7 Higher-viscosity heavy crudes re-
50%. Metallurgy upgrades are needed for duce the crude-charge-pump developed
Table 3 shows how CFHT feed vana- gas oil circuits that operate between head and can also increase exchanger
500° and 650° F. fouling.
CRUDE BULK PROPERTIES Table 2
Piping and column
internal compo-
Circumventing hydraulic limits to
achieve a desired crude feed rate can be
Salt content,
Vanadium, Viscosity at lb/1,000 bbl nents such as expensive; therefore, a revamp must
Crude type ppmw 100° F., cst of crude beams, packing consider crude hydraulics early in the
Maya 291 95 6 supports, and tower process to ensure there is sufficient
Merey 295 461 40-60
Zuata 260 328 61 attachments com- capital to achieve processing objectives.
Cold Lake 124 75 20 monly use 317L. Crude charge hydraulics are not gen-
Lloydminster (LLB) 100 70 42
Canadian blend 155 80 40 Some refiners use erally evaluated thoroughly enough until
904 stainless steel late in detailed engineering when they
in the vacuum col- can result in scope growth, additional
umn for cladding and internals because expenditure, or scope rationalization.
CFHT FEED STREAM VANADIUM Table 3 it has a high molybdenum content, Crude charge rate will often decrease if
Design Actual thus making it resistant to naphthenic preheat train modifications are not made.
vanadium, vanadium,
Stream ppmw ppmw acid attack. With heavy crudes, cold-exchanger-train
Processing tar sands crudes creates heat transfer decreases because there is
AGO 1.0 8.0
LVGO 0.4 0.4 some unique challenges. These crudes less heat available from the atmospheric
HVGO 5.0 8.0 can have high sediment and clay con- column pumparounds and products.
tents and some blends also have high These exchangers also have lower
dium content can increase for a poorly viscosity. heat-transfer coefficients due to higher
designed CDU heavy crude revamp. Desalter operations are more diffi- crude viscosity. Additional cold-train-
High ATB entrainment into the atmos- cult and there is an increased likelihood exchanger surface area is needed to
pheric gas oil (AGO) and high entrain- of stable emulsion formation. If desalter meet desalter temperatures necessary
ment and poor fractionation in the vac- for efficient desalt-
uum unit caused the high CFHT feed ing.
vanadium content. M AYA VANADIUM DISTRIBUTION Fig. 3 To lower the
ATB and VTB produced from Maya 1,000.0 cold-train pressure
crude will have nearly 550 ppm (wt) drop at the ex-
and 900 ppm (wt) vanadium, respective- pense of crude ve-
ly. Operators must therefore eliminate all 100.0 locity, refiners
Vanadium, ppm (wt)

crude and vacuum column entrainment commonly install

to minimize CFHT feed contaminants. new exchangers
Because heavy crudes have more vac- 10.0
parallel to existing
uum gas oils, vacuum column vapor ve- exchangers or re-
locities increase. Poorly distributed vapor duce the exchang-
entering the wash section creates high er bundle tube
localized velocities that exceed the maxi- 1.0 passes on existing
mum limit for effective VTB deentrain- exchangers.
ment. This approach
Some refiners have seen HVGO MCR 0.1 causes increased
and vanadium levels greater than 1 wt % 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 exchanger fouling,
and 10 ppm (wt), respectively, when Distilled, vol % which decreases
processing 22° API gravity crudes. heat-transfer coef-
Well designed flash-zone vapor horn ficients and in-
and internals reduce entrainment; both performance deteriorates, the corrosion creases pressure drop.
are critical to minimize CFHT feed con- rate in the atmospheric column over- For example, cold-train exchangers
taminants.5 head system may increase and cause re- processing 100% Merey or BCF-17 op-
Some heavy crudes require metallur- liability problems. erate in the laminar flow regime and
have service heat-transfer coefficients as
PROCESSING
crude-charge rates were possible; howev- designed flow scheme and equipment
WHOLE TAN NUMBER Table 4
er, as the exchangers foul, pressure drop flaws yielded 20 vol % atmospheric
Crude type Gravity, °API TAN increased and crude rate was reduced. distillates and 80 vol % ATB, whereas a
Maya 22 0.4 In some designs, the operator had to proper design yielded about 33 vol %
BCF 17 2.5
Merey 16 1.2 open exchanger bypasses to meet design atmospheric distillate and 67 vol % ATB.
Zuata 16 2.4 charge rates when the exchangers fouled. Processing heavier crudes can lower
Cold Lake 20 1.0
Lloydminster (LLB) 19 0.7 This generally allows a higher crude diesel product recovery, increase diesel
Canadian blend 19 2.3 rate, but it also lowers the temperature at boiling-range material in the CFHT
the desalter, reduces atmospheric-column feed, reduce HVGO recovery, increase
low as 12 btu/hr-sq ft-°F. heat removal, raises atmospheric-column CFHT contaminants, and increase
An alternate approach is adding ex- operating pressure, and increases product- <1,000° F. boiling-range material in
changers in series with existing exchang- rundown temperatures. the coker feed.
ers (Fig. 5), which minimizes fouling When revamping a preheat train to Higher heater temperature, lower at-
and increases pressure drop. Heavy crude process heavy crude, the designer must mospheric and vacuum-column operat-
revamps typically require larger charge use accurate viscosities, allow sufficient ing pressures, lower atmospheric col-
pump motors and impellers and some- pressure drop allowance for fouling, umn overflash,8 improved wash-section
times pump replacement. and correct pump head-flow and effi- efficiency, and better ATB-VTB stripping
New exchanger bundles are typically ciency curves for viscosity effects. are needed9 to maintain product yield
designed for higher maximum allowable and quality.
working pressure (MAWP) to meet Product yield, quality Table 5 shows operating changes
cold-train charge hydraulics. Designers Many heavy crude blends contain needed to maintain atmospheric and
must also evaluate pipe flange and ex- less total atmospheric-plus-vacuum-col- vacuum column ATB and VTB cut points.
changer pressure ratings for the higher umn distillates and more ATB and VTB; Heavy crudes are difficult to vapor-
head pumps. Several heavy-crude re- therefore, high recovery of these distil- ize in the crude heater alone. Diesel
vamp designs included very little pressure lates is important. product cut point may vary 30° to 80°
drop available on the desalter pressure- A well-designed crude unit can re- F. due to low diesel-AGO internal re-
control valve and crude-heater-pass bal- cover more distillates than inadequate flux, high column pressure, low
ancing valves for start-of-run operation. process and equipment designs. In one pumparound-heat removal, high over-
When exchangers are clean, design case, for the same heavy crude a poorly flash rates, and ineffective stripping
section perform-
M ETALLURGY UPGRADES Fig. 4
ance.
Low diesel re-
Ejectors
covery causes a
high feed rate to
HCl acid the CFHT or FCC
Top PA
and may limit re-
finery crude rate
Diesel when these units
Naphtha are operating at
product maximum capacity.
Kerosine LVGO Because heavy
Crude Kerosine PA
oil crudes contain
Charge
pump vanadium com-
Cold train pounds that distill
Diesel MVGO
in the HVGO-prod-
Diesel PA uct boiling range,
Booster
pump increasing HVGO-
Desalter
product cut point
HVGO
will increase metals.
AGO PA
Hot train Naphthenic The rate of increase
Crude AGO acid is directly related to
heater the process and
Vacuum equipment design.
heater Efficient VTB
Steam
Steam
stripping lowers
Fuel gas Sulfur HVGO vanadium;
attack
yet most vacuum
Fuel gas
units are designed
 World’s Evolving Crude Slate

temperature heat
C OLD TRAIN EXCHANGERS Fig. 5
is available for
Heavy crude does not produce
enough atmospheric column heat crude preheat.
to meet desalter temperature Diesel and AGO
High pumparound and
viscosity Crude column Kerosine Kerosine Diesel
product tempera-
overhead product pumparound tures are about
product

120-160° F.
Crude
oil
Very low U-value,
high crude viscosity
Desalter
280-300° F.
without VTB stripping. The few units salt contents of 3-6 lb/1,000 bbl.This
that include a stripping section have high chloride content results in fouling
tray efficiencies less than 10-15% due and corrosion in the crude-column over-
to poor tray design. These stripping head condenser and an increased likeli-
sections require higher steam rates, hood of column tray fouling (Fig. 6).
which increase condenser and ejector
system capital and operating costs. Revamp process design
Crude-unit process flow schemes
Reliability should focus on crude properties, pro-
Unit reliability means the unit can cessing objectives, and design funda-
meet a targeted run length without sig- mentals. Heavy oil is inherently more
nificant deterioration in charge rate, difficult to vaporize because there is
product yield, or product quality. Poor less light material in the feed.
reliability results in unscheduled shut- Crude-unit designs must optimize
downs, significantly lower product
yields and quality, or reduced unit OPERATING CHANGES TO
Table 5
charge rates.
Heavy crudes diminish unit reliabili-
PROCESS HEAVY CRUDES
Atmospheric Vacuum
ty due to chronic heater coking,10 con- Variable column column
denser corrosion, crude-column tray Temperature Higher Higher
fouling, or poor desalter operations. Pressure Lower Lower
Flash-zone oil
Correcting these deficiencies re- partial pressure Lower Lower
quires capital investment; otherwise, re- Residue stripping
efficiency Higher Higher
alistic run lengths may only be 1-2
years vs. 4-5 years that many refiners
target. Refiners must always balance re-
vamp capital investment against run ATB cut point to balance overall unit
length. performance because it influences
Heavy crude viscosity can cause crude and vacuum column operations. tion, acceptable diesel-AGO fractiona-
poor desalter performance. As desalter The relationship between ATB and VTB tion, and ATB cut point target, not stan-
temperature drops, oil-water separation cut points are complex and refiners
becomes problematic and the desalted- must evaluate the columns and ancil-
crude salt content increases. Some re- lary equipment as a single system.11
finers processing heavy crudes have had With a lower ATB cut point, there
to switch from series to parallel de- is less atmospheric flash-zone vapor
salter operation to eliminate oil-water available to provide pumparound and ment design issues. HVGO product cut
separation problems. product heat to the cold crude pre-
Single-stage desalting removes 90-95% heat train. As diesel and AGO materials when crudes with gravities less than
of crude salt; desalted crudes may have shift to the vacuum tower, less high-
550° F. and 625°
F., respectively. LV-
230-260° F.
GO draw tempera-
ture is only about
Additional
330° F.; therefore
diesel and AGO
heat
source product yielded in
the vacuum col-
umn provides little
or no preheat. A
lower HVGO prod-
uct draw tempera-
ture can also result due to a lighter HV-
GO product.
Maximizing diesel recovery is im-
portant when crude rate is limited by
CFHT or FCC unit capacity. This re-
quires optimum atmospheric column
diesel-AGO fractionation, ATB strip-
ping, and AGO product stripping.
Good diesel-AGO product fractiona-
tion requires adequate reflux rate (liq-
uid-vapor ratio), 8-10 trays, and good
tray efficiency. Most atmospheric
columns wider than 16 ft in diameter
will use four-pass trays. These large-di-
ameter towers have low weir loadings
(gpm/in. weir) and the tray efficiencies
can be low. Low reflux and tray efficien-
cy dramatically reduce diesel yield.
An AGO pumparound increases
crude preheat; however, if the ATB cut
point is only 700° F., there is not
enough vapor from the atmospheric
column flash zone to provide sufficient
internal reflux in the diesel-AGO frac-
tionation section to allow heat removal
from an AGO pumparound.
Operating with an AGO pumparound
should be based on crude TBP distilla-
dard design practices.
The vacuum-unit design depends on
the HVGO product cut point target,
vacuum heater design, crude vanadium
distribution, and other detailed equip-
points are typically less than 975° F.
24° API are being processed.
PROCESSING
A dry vacuum unit design uses no
steam in the heater and does not have a
stripping section. Maintaining cut point is
difficult even with a well-designed unit
using coil steam, but a dry vacuum unit
simply cannot operate reliably at cut
points greater than about 950° F. when
processing Merey, Zuata, or BCF-17 crudes.
A heater without coil steam must
operate at only 760-770° F. to avoid
rapid coking from heavy crudes. HVGO
wash section designs influence unit
performance.13 14
Refinery vacuum heaters need to op-
erate at outlet temperatures between
790° and 800° F. while meeting run-
length targets.15
Maximized ATB stripping efficiency
requires adequate stripping steam,
H YDROCHLORIC ACID CORROSION
maximum trays, and maximum tray ef-
ficiency. VTB stripping and vacuum
heater coil steam should balance with
column operating pressure.
Atmospheric and vacuum column
flash-zone vapor horn and wash sec-
tions should eliminate entrainment and
the vacuum column needs to fraction-
Fig. 6

product TBP cut points >1,000° F. re-

quire a heater outlet temperature of
Fouling,
795-800° F., low flash-zone oil partial severe
pressure, and good VTB stripping. CW corrosion
Heavy crude increases total LVGO
and HVGO pumparound duty require- Product
ments because more VGOs are yielded. drum
Fouling,
A two-product vacuum column will Crude
severe
Naphtha preheat
have a high HVGO pumparound duty at product
corrosion
a relatively low temperature of about
480-540° F. Increasing vacuum unit Sour
water
heat input requires more surface area
and more HVGO pumparound capacity Product can contain Fouling, plugging,
to remove the added heat. large amount of iron severe corrosion
sulfide and water
Increasing HVGO pumparound duty causing fouling
typically requires increasing the number and corrosion in
of exchangers in series because the log downstream
debutanizer
mean temperature difference is so low. Kerosine
One refiner used six exchangers in
series in the hot preheat train. Exchang-
er network design must address the in-
creased pressure drop caused by addi-
tional exchangers.
This refiner can alternatively include an
extra pumparound. A portion of the HV- O PTIMIZE HOT PREHEAT TRAIN Fig. 7

GO pumparound heat shifts to an MVGO To To

heater heater
pumparound.This increases the HVGO
pumparound temperature to >600° F. 540 610
HVGO PA HVGO PA
and reduces the hot train preheat exchang- product product Two HVGO exchangers,
ers from six to three (Fig. 7). 520 low crude-side pressure
drop, low HVGO PA rate
When crude hydraulics are tight, a
third pumparound can help alleviate
crude bottlenecks. It can also reduce
the required HVGO pumparound circu-
Diesel PA Diesel PA
lation rate to stay within existing pump Total HVGO+MVGO
pressure drop low,
and piping limits. A third vacuum-unit Six HVGO only three exchangers
pumparound often results in the lowest exchangers,
high crude-side
overall cost solution (Fig. 8). pressure drop,
very high
HVGO PA rate
Revamp equipment design MVGO PA
480 440
One MVGO
Maximizing heavy oil vaporization, PA exchanger
minimizing product contaminants,12 400
and maintaining an acceptable run
length requires fundamentally sound
equipment design. From From
desalter desalter
Vacuum heater, ATB and VTB strip- - Temperature, °F.
ping, and atmospheric and vacuum
 World’s Evolving Crude Slate

ate HVGO product Quarterly, Summer 2002, pp. 123-27.

to reduce the TBP MVGO PUMPAROUND Fig. 8
12. Hanson, D.W., Lieberman, N.P.,
curve 95%-EP tail. and Lieberman, E.T., “De-entrainment
✦ and washing of flash zone vapors in
CW heavy oil fractionators,” Hydrocarbon
References Processing, July 1999, pp. 55-60.
1. Leroy, 13. Golden, S.W., Lieberman, N., and
Charles F., et al., Martin, G.R., “Correcting design errors
“Hydrotreating can prevent coking in main fractiona-
Vacuum and Coker 480 tors,” OGJ, Nov. 21, 1994, pp. 72-80.
Crude
Gas Oils from 14. Golden, S.W., “Troubleshooting
Heavy Venezuelan Vacuum Unit Revamps,” Petroleum
Crudes for FCCU Technology Quarterly, Summer 1998,
Feedstocks,” NPRA Crude pp. 107-13.
Annual Meeting, 15. Barletta, T., “Why Vacuum Unit
540/610
San Antonio, Mar. Fired Heaters Coke,” Petroleum Tech-
17-19, 1991. nology Quarterly, Autumn 2002, pp.
2. Villalanti, 123-27.
D.C., et al., “Yield
Correlations Be- Reduced
tween Crude Assay crude
Distillation and The authors
High Temperature Steve White is a chemical engineer for Process
Simulated Distilla- Stripping
Consulting Services Inc., Hous-
tion (HTSD),” steam ton. He has more than 25
AIChE Spring Na- years’ experience in process de-
tional Meeting, sign of refinery revamps and
- Temperature, °F.
Houston, Mar. 9- Note: Modifications in red
grassroots units including crude
and vacuum, FCC, hy-
13, 1997. drotreater, alkylation, butamer,
3. Golden, S.W., Craft, S., and Vil- Affecting Crude Corrosivity,” Petroleum reformers, and others.White
lalanti, D.C., “Refinery analytical tech- Technology Quarterly, Spring 1997, pp. previously worked as refinery
niques optimize unit performance,” 85-91. technology manager for Jacobs Engineering Group
Hydrocarbon Processing, November 8. Golden, S.W., and Binkley, M.J., Inc. and as technical service engineer for UOP
1995. “Crude-tower modification stabilizes LLC and Atlantic Richfield Co. He holds a BS in
4. Golden, S.W., and Martin, G.R., operations,” OGJ, July 30, 1984, pp. chemical engineering from Rice University and is
“Controlling Vanadium from High Met- 197-204. a registered professional engineer in Texas.
als Crude Oils,” NPRA Annual Meeting, 9. Hanson, D.W., and Martin, M., “Low- Tony Barletta is a chemical engineer for Process
San Francisco, Mar. 18-20, 1995. capital revamp increases vacuum gas oil Consulting Services Inc., Hous-
5. Barletta,T., and Golden, S.W., “Re- yield,” OGJ, Mar. 18, 2002, pp. 70-82. ton. His primary responsibilities
finers must optimize FCC feed hydro- 10. Martin, G.R., and Barletta, T., are conceptual process design and
treating when producing low-sulfur “Vacuum Unit Fired Heater Coking- Avoid process design packages for large
gasoline,” OGJ, Oct. 14, 2002, pp. 54-63. Unscheduled Shutdowns,” Petroleum capital revamps. Barletta previ-
6. Hopkinson, B.E., and Penuela, Technology Quarterly, Spring 2001, ously worked as a production
L.E., “Naphthenic Acid Corrosion by pp. 123-27. planner and process specialist for
BP Oil Co.’s Alliance refinery
Venezuelan Crude,” NACE Paper No. 11. Martin, G.R., “Vacuum Unit and as a process engineer for
502, 1997. Equipment Design Influences Key Oper- Hess Oil Virgin Islands Corp. He holds a BS in
7. Tebbal, S., et al., “Critical Factors ating Variables,” Petroleum Technology chemical engineering from Lehigh University.