REPORT

ON
SUMMER VOCATIONAL TRAINING

INDIAN OIL CORPORATION LIMITED

GUJARAT REFINERY
PERIOD OF TRAINING
(23rd JUNE 12th JULY 2014)

Submitted By :

JADAV RAJU G.
En Roll: 120283105016
B.E (Chemical Engineering)
L.D.COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
AHMEDABAD- 380 015

PREFACE
Though it has been said that best friend a man can ever get is a book but
we at this juncture realize that only books cannot give all the
information a person seeks. When any student is unable to understand a
particular topic, he is advised to imagine the whole matter and then try
to understand it. Normally, this method succeeds.
But in engineering stream considering the study of wide range of
process and equipments involved in it, it is hard to understand the unit
operations and processes just through books or even with imagination
.Unless one happens to see the process, equipments, he is like a soldier
who knows to fire the gun but is yet to face a war.
Industrial training is one of the most vital part of a syllabus of chemical
engineering, which not only teaches one the industrial unit operations,
equipments and other technical aspects, but also teaches discipline,
interaction with various people irrespective of their posts, the
importance of teamwork, etc.
This report contains a brief introduction to GUJRAT REFINERY and
knowledge gathered about various units in refinery during the training.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my gratitude to all those who gave me the
possibility to complete this training. I want to thank the department of
training and management of Gujarat refinery for giving me permission
to commence this training. I have furthermore to thank the officers of
production who giving me such knowledge of about the plant and
production process. It is really great opportunity for me by which I had
learned here many more of refinery. I am deeply indebted to Gujarat
Refinery who given such opportunity to students by which they
complete their vocational training which is the parts of the course.
Without any moral support and help I was not able to visit the plant and
learn about the refinery. I would like to give my special thanks to the
person who supported me through the training at the day of starting to
the end of the training.
Our special thanks to
Mr. A.C.SHEKHAR Chief Manager (MS, T&D)
Mr. C.K.SINHA PNM (North Block-DCU, VGO-HDT)
Mr. N. VENKATESH DMPN (DCU)
Mr. S.K.SIGH PNE (GRE)
Mr. M.KARANKUMAR PNE(GRE)

Topic:
Overall View of Gujarat Refinery with Particular Sequence to
MS and Quality Up gradation.

CONTENTS
Sr.
No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

TOPIC

PAGE NO.

INTRODUCTION TO IOCL
GUJARAT REFINERY
UNITS AT GUJARAT REFINERY
NORTH BLOCK GUJARAT REFINARY
DELAYED COKER UNIT (DCU)
GUJARAT REFINERY EXPANSION (GRE)
CRUDE DISTILLATION UNIT (CDU)
VACUUM DISTILLATION UNIT (VDU)
LEARNING
BIBLIOGRAPHY

1
2
5
6
6
13
13
20
23
24

1) INTRODUCTION
INDIAN OIL CORPORATION LTD. (IOCL)
Indian Oil, the largest commercial enterprise of India (by sales turnover),
is Indias sole representative in Fortune's Prestigious listing of the
world's 500 largest corporations, ranked 88 for the year 2013.
It is also the 17th largest petroleum company in the world. Indian Oil
has a sales turnover of Rs. 4,73,210 crore and profits of Rs. 7,019 crore.
Indian Oil has been adjudged second in petroleum trading among the 15
national oil companies in the Asia-Pacific region.
As the premier National Oil Company, Indian Oils endeavor is to serve
the national economy and the people of India and fulfill its vision of
becoming An Integrated, Diversified And Transnational Energy
Major.
Beginning in 1959 as Indian Oil Company Ltd, Indian Oil Corporation
Ltd. was formed in 1964 with the merger of Indian Refineries Ltd. (Est.
1958).As India's flagship national oil company, Indian Oil accounts for
56% petroleum products market share,42% national refining capacity
and 67% downstream pipeline throughput capacity.
IOCL touches every Indians heart by keeping the vital oil supply line
operating relentlessly in every nook and corner of India.
It has the backing of over 33% of the countrys refining capacity as on 1St
April 2002 and 6523 km of crude/product pipelines across the length
and breadth of the country.
IOCLs vast distribution network of over 20000 sales points ensures that
essential petroleum products reach the customer at the right place and
at the right Time.
Indian Oil controls 10 of India's 18 refineries - at Digboi, Guwahati,
Barauni, Koyali, Haldia, Mathura,Panipat, Chennai, Narimanam and
Bongaigaon
Page |1

2) GUJARAT REFINERY
The Gujarat Refinery is an oil refinery located at Koyali (Near
Vadodara) in Gujarat, Western India.
It is the Second largest refinery owned by Indian Oil Corporation after
Panipat Refinery. The refinery is currently under projected expansion to
18 MMTPA
History
Following the conclusion of the Indo-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and
Cooperation in February 1961, a site for the establishment of a 2 million
metric ton per annum (MMTPA) oil refinery was selected on 17 April
1961.[2] Soviet and Indian engineers signed a contract in October 1961
for the preparation of the project. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru laid
the foundation stone of the refinery on 10 May 1963.
The refinery was
commissioned with Soviet assistance at a cost of Rs.26 crores began
production in October 1965. The first crude distillation unit with a
capacity of 1 MMTPA was commissioned for trial production on 11
October 1965 and achieved its rated capacity on 6 December 1965.
Throughput reached 20% beyond its designed capacity in January 1966.
President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan dedicated the refinery to the nation
with the commissioning of second crude distillation unit and catalytic
reforming unit on 18 October 1966.
The third 1 MMTPA distillation unit
was commissioned in September 1967 to process Ankleshwar and North
Gujarat crudes. In December 1968, Udex plant was commissioned for
production of benzene and toluene using feedstock from CRU. By 197475 with in-house modifications, the capacity of the refinery increased by
40% to a level of 4.2 MMTPA.
To process imported crude the refinery
was expanded during 1978-79 by adding another 3 MMTPA crude
distillation unit along with downstream processing units including
vacuum distillation, visbreaker and bitumen blowing units. By 1980-81
this unit started processing Bombay High crude in addition to imported
Page |2

crudes. It was the first time that Indian engineers independently

handled a project of that scale.
To recover products from the residue,
secondary processing facilities consisting of fluidized catalytic cracking
unit of 1 MMTPA capacity along with a feed preparation unit of 1
MMTPA capacities, were commissioned in December 1982.
The refinery set up pilot distillation
facilities for the production of n-Heptane and light aluminum rolling
oils. To enable absorption of increased indigenous crudes the refinery's
capacity was further increased to 9.5 MMTPA.
In 1993-1994, Gujarat
commissioned the country's first hydrocracker unit of 1.2 MMTPA for
conversion of heavier ends of crude oil to high value superior products.
India's first diesel hydridesulfurisation unit to reduce sulfur content in
diesel was commissioned in June 1999. An methyl tertiary butyl ether
unit was commissioned in September 1999 to eliminate lead from motor
fuels. The facility conceptualised and commissioned South Asia's largest
centralised effluent treatment plant by dismantling the four old
ETP's[expand acronym] in June 1999.
By September 1999 with the
commissioning of an atmospheric distillation unit, Gujarat Refinery
further augmented its capacity to 13.7 MMTPA making it the largest
public sector undertaking refinery of the country.
A
project
for
production of linear alkyl benzene from kerosene streams was
implemented in August 2004. It is the largest grassroots single train
Kerosene-to-LAB unit in the world, with an installed capacity of 1.2
MMTPA. To meet future fuel quality requirements, MS[expand
acronym] quality improvement facilities were commissioned in 2006.
The Residue Upgaration Project undertaken by the Gujarat Refinery was
completed by 2011 which increased the high sulfur processing capacity
of Gujarat refinery, improved the distillate yield as well produce BS III &
IV quality of MS and HSD.
The Residue upgradation project came in
two parts namely, the south block which consisted of HGU-III, SRU-III,
DHDT and ISOM units and the north block consisted of VGO-HDT and
DCU units. To support the new units a new Co-Generation Plant (CGP)
and Heat Recovery Steam Generation (HRSG) were also commissioned
Page |3

 PROCESSING CRUDE:
Gujarat Refinery is designed to processes indigenous as well as
imported crude oil. On an average itprocesses approximately three lakh
eight thousand metric tonnes crude per day. Out of the crude slot
itreceives, refinery processes around 45% imported crude
Gujarat refinerys manufacturing and storage facilities consist of 26
major process units, 28 product lines and crude storage tanks with
capacity ranging from 300 to 65,000 KLs.
South Gujarat Crude: 2.3MMTPA; supply from ONGC South Gujarat
pipeline.
North Gujarat: 3.5MMTPA; supply from ONGC North Gujarat
pipeline.Imported low / high Sulphur crude &
Bombay high: 6.2 MMTPA Supply from Salaya - Viramgam -Koyali
pipeline.
SALIENT FEATURE OF REFINERY:

First Riser Cracker FCCU in the country.

First Hydro cracker in the country.
First Diesel Hydro De-sulphurisation Unit.
First Spent Caustic Treatment Plant in refineries.
First Automated Rail Loading Gantry.
First LPG Mounded Bullets in Indian Refineries.
Operates Southeast Asias biggest Centralized Effluent Treatment
Plant (CETP)

Process Control:
Using the latest electronic technology to monitor and control the plants,
engineers run the process units around the clock, 7 days a week. From
control rooms located in each operations area, technical personnel use a
computer-driven process control system with console screens that
display color interactive graphics of the plants and real-time (current)
data on the status .

Page |4

3) UNITS AT GUJARAT REFINERY

GR1
Atmospheric Distillation Units, AU1 & AU2
AU5
Catalytic Reforming Unit, CRU

4.2 MMTPA
3.0 MMTPA
0.33 MMTPA

GR2
AU3
UDEX
FGH(Food Grade Hexane)
MTBE
BUTENE-1

2.7 MMTPA
0.166 MMTPA
0.03 MMTPA
47 MMTPA
2 MMTPA

GRE
CDU(Crude Distillation Unit)
VDU(Vacuum Distillation Unit)
BBU(Bitumin Blowing Unit)
VBU(Visbreaker Unit)

3.8 MMTPA
1.2 MMTPA
0.5 MMTPA
1.6 MMTPA

GRSPF
FPU (feed preparation unit)
FCC(fluid catalytic cracking)

2.0 MMTPA
1.5 MMTPA

Ghc
Hg (hydrogen generation unit)
Hcu (hydro cracking unit)
Hydrogen-2
Dhds (Diesel Hydro De-Sulfurization Unit
Sru (sulphur recovery unit)

38000 MMTPY
1.2 MMTPA
10000
1.4 MMTPY
88 MMTPD

POWER GENERATION AND EFFULENT TREATMENT

Cgp (cogeneration plant)
30*3 mw
Tps (thermal power station)
12*2+12.5 mw
Cetp (central effulent treatment plant)
1500 m3/h

Page |5

4) NORTH BLOCK GUJARAT REFINERY

DCU (Delayed Coker Unit)
VGO-HDT (Vacuum Gas Oil Hydrotrater)

Delayed Coker Unit

WHAT IS DELAYED COKING?
Delayed coking is a thermal cracking process used in petroleum
refineries to upgrade and convert petroleum residuum (bottoms from
atmospheric and vacuum distillation of crude oil) into liquid and gas
product streams leaving behind a solid concentrated carbon material,
petroleum coke.
A fired heater with horizontal tubes is used in the process to reach
thermal cracking temperatures of 485 to 505oC (905 to 941oF). With short
residence time in the furnace tubes, coking of the feed material is
thereby delayed until it reaches large coking drums downstream of
the heater. Three physical structures of petroleum coke: shot, sponge, or
needle coke can be produced by delayed coking. These physical
structures and chemical properties of the petroleum coke determine the
end use of the material which can be burned as fuel, calcined for use in
the aluminum, chemical, or steel industries, or gasified to produce
steam, electricity, or gas feedstocks for the petrochemicals industry.
Vacuum Reduced Crude Processing Options or End Uses
Delayed Coking
Visbreaking - Primary function is to reduce viscosity of the oil with
some production of heavy gas oil.
Resid FCC - Residuum Fluid Catalytic Cracking, metals deactivate
catalyst, must use passivating chemicals to reduce unwanted
reactions
Resid Hydrocracking - Feed is contacted with a catalyst and
hydrogen at high temperature and pressure to remove sulfur,

Page |6

nitrogen, and some aromatic compounds with some conversion to

lighter liquid products.
ROSE - Residual Oil Supercritical Extraction for production of metal
free gas oil, asphaltenes and resins
Propane Deasphalting / Bright Stock - Solvent extraction of heavy
lubrication oils
Road Asphalt
Roofing Asphalt - May require air blowing to increase hardness
Fuel Oil - Burner and slow RPM marine diesel
MODERN DELAYED COKING PROCESS:
The delayed coker is the only main process in a modern petroleum
refinery that is a batch continuous process. The flow through the tube
furnace is continuous. The feed stream is switched between two drums.
One drum is on-line filling with coke while the other drum is being
steam-stripped, cooled, decoked, pressure checked, and warmed up. The
overhead vapors from the coke drums flow to a fractionator, usually
called a combination tower. This fractionator tower has a reservoir in the
bottom where the fresh feed is combined with condensed product
vapors (recycle) to make up the feed to the coker heater.
Delayed Coking Drum Cycle:
Since the feed stream is regularly switched between drums, a cycle of
events will occur on a regular interval depending on the delayed coking
unit feed rate, drum size, and throughput capacity. Most typical delayed
cokers currently run drum cycle times of about 16 hours with one drum
filling on-line while its counterpart is off-line for stripping, cooling, and
decoking. Drum cycle event approximate time requirements for such a
cycle are shown below in Table 1. Shortening the cycle time is one
method of increasing throughput on delayed coking units. One refinery
regularly runs 12 hour drum cycles and has attempted 10 and 11 hour
cycles, but cycles this short are extremely difficult due to minimum time
requirements for each of the steps of the drum cycle. Some of the more
important drum cycle steps are described in detail in the following
sections.

Page |7

Table :Typical Short Cycle Coking Operations

Drum Cycle
Hours
Steam to Fractionator
0.5
Steam to Blow Down
0.5
Depressure, Water Quench and Fill 4.5
Drain
2.0
Unhead Top and Bottom
0.5
Cutting Coke
3.0
Rehead / Steam Test / Purge
1.0
Drum Warm-Up (Vapor Heat)
4.0
----------------------------------------------------------------Total Time
16.0

Drum Warm-Up (Vapor Heat):

To prepare the cold empty coke drum to be put back on-line to receive
the hot feed, hot vapors from the on-line drum are circulated into the
cold empty drum. The hot 415C (780F) vapors condense in the cold
drum, heating the drum to a target temperature of around 340C (650F).
While the drum is heating, the condensed vapors are continuously
drained out of the drum.
On-line Filling:
After the cold drum has been vapor heated for a few hours, hot oil from
the tube furnace at about 485C (905F) is switched into the drum. Most
of the hot vapors condense on the colder walls of the drum, and a large
amount of liquid runs down the sides of the drum into a boiling
turbulent pool at the bottom of the drum. The drum walls are heated up
by the condensing vapors, so less and less vapors are condensing and
the liquid at the bottom of the drum starts to heat up to coking
temperatures. A main channel is formed similar to the trunk of a tree. As
time goes on the liquid pool above the coke decreases with the vapors
going to the fractionator, the vapor line is vented to blowdown system.
Steam is increased for a short time or in some cases water is immediately
introduced at the bottom of the drum which instantly flashes to steam.

Page |8

The steam is backed out and the flow of cooling water is gradually
increased. The top vapor temperature in the drum may increase slightly
at first before cooling due to the increased flow of steam up through the
coker.
Water Cooling / Drum Bulging.:
The rate of cooling water injection is critical. Increasing the flow of water
too rapidly can case harden the main channels up through the coker
without cooling all of the coke radially across the coke bed. The coke has
low porosity (the porosity comes from the thermal cracking) which then
allows the water to flow away from the main channels in the coke drum.
Porosity of delayed coke has been measured experimentally in the past
by measuring water flow through cores about the size of hockey pucks
cut from large chunks of needle coke from different areas of a
commercial coke drum. Most of the coke cores were found to have no
porosity except the coke right at the wall which had some porosity . This
explains problems that have been found to occur with drums bulging
during cool down. If the rate of water is too high, the high pressure
causes the water to flow up the outside of the coke bed cooling the wall
of the coke drum. Coke has a higher coefficient of thermal expansion
than does steel (154 for coke versus 120 for steel, cm/cm/C x 10-7). This
was measured in the transverse direction from a chunk of needle coke.
The coefficient of thermal expansion for raw sponge coke is probably
even greater than that of the needle coke tested.
Schematic flow diagram and description
The flow diagram and description in this section are based on a delayed
coking unit with a single pair of coke drums and one feedstock furnace.
However, as mentioned above, larger units may have as many as 4 pairs
of drums (8 drums in total) as well as a furnace for each pair of coke
drums.
Residual oil from the vacuum distillation unit (sometimes including
high-boiling oils from other sources within the refinery) is pumped into
the bottom of the distillation column called the main fractionator. From
there it is pumped, along with some injected steam, into the fuel-fired
furnace and heated to its thermal cracking temperature of about 480 C.
Thermal cracking begins in the pipe between the furnace and the coke

Page |9

drum effluent is vapor except for any liquid or solids entrainment, and
is directed to main fractionator where it is separated into the desired
boiling point fractions.
P a g e | 10

drums, and finishes in the coke drum that is on-stream. The injected
steam helps to minimize the deposition of coke within the furnace tubes.
Pumping the incoming residual oil into the bottom of the main
fractionator, rather than directly into the furnace, preheats the residual
oil by having it contact the hot vapors in the bottom of the fractionator.
At the same time, some of the hot vapors condense into a high-boiling
liquid which recycles back into the furnace along with the hot residual
oil.
As cracking takes place in the drum, gas oil and lighter components are
generated in vapor phase and separate from the liquid and solids. The
The solid coke is deposited and remains in the coke drum in a porous
structure that allows flow through the pores. Depending upon the
overall coke drum cycle being used, a coke drum may fill in 16 to 24
hours. After the drum is full of the solidified coke, the hot mixture from
the furnace is switched to the second drum. While the second drum is
filling, the full drum is steamed out to reduce the hydrocarbon content
of the petroleum coke, and then quenched with water to cool it. The top
and bottom heads of the full coke drum are removed, and the solid
petroleum coke is then cut from the coke drum with a high pressure
water nozzle, where it falls into a pit, pad, or sluiceway for reclamation
to storage.

P a g e | 11

 Uses Of Petroleum Coke:

The product coke from a delayed coker has many commercial uses and
applications. The largest use is as a fuel.
The uses for green coke are:
As fuel for space heaters, large industrial steam generators, fluidized
bed combustions, Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC)
units and cement kilns
In silicon carbide foundries
For producing blast furnace coke
The uses for calcined coke are:
As anodes in the production of aluminum
In the production of titanium dioxide
As a carbon raiser in cast iron and steel making
Producing graphite electrodes and other graphite products such as
graphite brushes used in electrical equipment
In carbon structural materials

P a g e | 12

5) GRE (GUJARAT REFINERY EXPANSION)

UNITS:

CDU (Crude Distillation Unit)

VDU (Vacuum Distillation Unit)
BBU (Bitumen Blowing Unit)
VBU (Visbreaker Unit)
Crude Distillation Unit(CDU): AU-4
The crude oil distillation unit
The crude oil distillation unit (CDU) is the first processing unit in
virtually all petroleum refineries. The CDU distills the incoming crude
oil into various fractions of different boiling ranges, each of which are
then processed further in the other refinery processing units. The CDU is
often referred to as the atmospheric distillation unit because it operates
at slightly above atmospheric pressure.
Below is a schematic flow diagram of a typical crude oil distillation unit.
The incoming crude oil is preheated by exchanging heat with some of
the hot, distilled fractions and other streams. It is then desalted to
remove inorganic salts (primarily sodium chloride).
Following the desalter, the crude oil is further heated by exchanging
heat with some of the hot, distilled fractions and other streams. It is then
heated in a fuel-fired furnace (fired heater) to a temperature of about 398
C and routed into the bottom of the distillation unit.
The cooling and condensing of the distillation tower overhead is
provided partially by exchanging heat with the incoming crude oil and
partially by either an air-cooled or water-cooled condenser. Additional
heat is removed from the distillation column by a pump around system
as shown in the diagram below.
As shown in the flow diagram, the overhead distillate fraction from the
distillation column is naphtha. The fractions removed from the side of
P a g e | 13

the distillation column at various points between the column top and
bottom are called sidecuts. Each of the side cuts (i.e., the kerosene, light
gas oil and heavy gas oil) is cooled by exchanging heat with the
incoming crude oil. All of the fractions (i.e., the overhead naphtha, the
side cuts and the bottom residue) are sent to intermediate storage tanks
before being processed further.

Overview of Crude Units

Crude units are the first units that process petroleum in any refinery.
There objective is to separate the mixture into several fractions like
naphtha, kerosene, diesel and gas oil. A schematic diagram of an
atmospheric crude fractionation unit is shown in Figure 1-1.

P a g e | 14

Crude oil contains salts which can be harmful to downstream equipment

and must be removed. To remove the salts, water is mixed with the
crude oil and typically heated to temperatures between about 215 oF to
about 280 oF and allowed to separate in the desalter.
The desalted crude enters another heat exchanger network. Both heat
exchanger networks make use of the vapors of the main column
condenser, the pump-around circuit streams (PA1, PA2 and PA3), and
the products that need to be cooled. Then, the preheated crude enters
the furnace, where it is heated to about 340-372 oC (644-700 oF).
The partially vaporized crude is fed into the feed region (called flash
zone) of the atmospheric column, where the vapor and liquid separate.
The vapor includes all the components that comprise the products,
while the liquid is the residue with a small amount of components in the
range of gas oil. These components are removed from the residue by
steam stripping at the bottom of the column. Products are withdrawn
from the side of the column and side strippers are used to help
controlling the composition of light components.
In addition, to more effectively remove heat, liquid is extracted at
various points of the column and cooled down to be reinjected at a
different position on the column. Cooling water and sometimes air
P a g e | 15

coolers are used in the heat exchangers PA1, PA2 and PA3, but it is
always more advantageous to have these streams release their heat to
the raw crude oil in the heat exchanger networks (HEN), usually called
pre-heatingtrains. Several different designs and configurations for the
heat exchanger network in the conventional crude oil distillation unit are
possible.
Figure 1-2 shows one particular instance of a preheating train, not
necessarily the best or most recommended one (efficient ones are
discussed later). In addition, in some oil distillation units, gas oil is not
produced and instead becomes part of the residue. Such units contain
one less sidestripper and one less pump-around than those shown in
Figure 1-1 and Figure 1-2. Further, in units in which gas oil is not
produced, the diesel may be further separated into heavy and light
diesel.

The topped crude leaving the atmospheric tower still contains

significant amount of valuable oils. These oils cannot be distillated at
atmospheric pressure because the temperature required would be so
high that severe thermal cracking takes place. Figure 1-3 depicts such a
unit.

P a g e | 16

Note first that this unit does not have a condenser and does not feature
side strippers either, simply because products do not have specifications
on their light end. However, side strippers can be used in specific cases,
such as lube base oil production.

Figure 1-3 shows that light vacuum gas oil (LVGO) and heavy vacuum
gas oil (HVGO),are produced. Sometimes, depending on its properties,
LVGO is blended with other products like atmospheric diesel. Both are
typically used as feed to fluid catalytic cracking units. The vacuum
distillation consists of the vacuum furnace, vacuum tower and the
vacuum producing system. The topped crude is heated up in the
vacuum furnace to about 400 C. The temperature is controlled to be just
below the temperature of thermal decomposition. Although a single cut
of vacuum gas oil (VGO) is allowed in some cases, drawing LVGO and
HVGO separately is more beneficial from the point of view of energy
savings, because the resultant HVGO draw temperature is 90-120 C
higher than the corresponding draw temperature of a single VGO cut.
Lighter components are removed from the residue by steam stripping.
In addition coke formation is reduced by circulating partially cooled
bottoms to quench the liquid to a lower temperature. Because the heavy
crude fraction contains metal complexes (asphaltenes and porphyrines),
which are catalyst poisons for downstream processes, sometimes a

P a g e | 17

recirculation of wash oil in the bottom part (not shown in the figure) is
included to prevent these compounds to reach the HVGO.
In the preheating train, the crude is under pressure to suppress
vaporization. In the case of a light crude, the pressure required to
suppress vaporization is too high. The solution is to separate some light
components before heating the crude further in the preheat train
(Figure 1-4 ). The light components separated in the pre-flash drum are
sent to the column directly.

In the pre-fractionation design (Figure 1-5), the light components are

separated in a pre-fractionation column. Thus, in the pre-flash design,
components in the range of naphtha are condensed in the condenser of
the atmospheric tower, while in the prefractionation design, these
components are split into two fractions: light naphtha condensed in the
condenser of the pre-fractionation condenser and heavy naphtha
condensed in the condenser of the atmospheric tower.
P a g e | 18

The pre-fractionation design, however, is considered to be similar to the

pre-flash design when energy consumption is considered (Bagajewicz
and Ji, 2002). Because the condensation heat for naphtha (or light
naphtha plus heavy naphtha) is constant, the only difference is that the
pre-fractionation design provides this heat in two condensers with
different temperatures. When there is significant heat surplus in the
temperature range of the condensers (intermediate and light crudes), the
difference does not affect energy consumption.

P a g e | 19

 Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU):

Vacuum distillation is a method of distillation whereby the pressure
above the liquid mixture to be distilled is reduced to less than its vapor
pressure (usually less than atmospheric pressure) causing evaporation of
the most volatile liquid(s) (those with the lowest boiling points).
This distillation method works on the principle that boiling occurs when
the vapor pressure of a liquid exceeds the ambient pressure. Vacuum
distillation is used with or without heating the mixture
The Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU) was designedto process8,00,000
TPA of RCO (370C + 50:50 North Rumaila & Arab Light).After low cost
1999 revamp VDU can process 1.2 MMTPA of RCO, Heavy Diesel astop
product isused as HSD, LVGO+HVGO used as VGO for FCCU
feedstock. Presentlythere is a provision for withdrawal of three side cuts.
FEED:
The Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU) was originallydesigned to process
Reduced Crude Oil (RCO) obtained ex CDU(Crude Distillation Unit)
while processing imported crude (50: 50mixture of North Rumaila and
Light Arabian Crude Oils). However, RCOobtained from various
imported crudes and indigenous crudes (BombayHigh, North Gujarat,
and South Gujarat Mix.) has been processedsuccessfully.
PRODUCTS:
By distilling the RCO under vacuum in a singlestage column, it
produces Light vacuum Gas Oil (LVG0), HeavyVacuum Gas Oil
(HVGO) and Vacuum Residuum (VR). Slop cut(distillate between
HVGO and VR) production facility has been providedsince 1988.LVGO used as blending component for LDO or HSD or as feedcomponent for
FCCUalong withHVGO.HVGO - used as a feed componentfor
FCCU.VACUUM RESIDUUM (VR) - (Imported) is used as feed
forBitumen Unit.Excess VR and HVG Oil can be used as feed
components to theVisbreaker Unit. Surplus BH VR (while processing
Bombay High RCO inVDU) is used as blending component for LSHS.

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 PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAM:

PROCESS FLOW DISCRIPTION:

Reduced crude oil, RCO is received in feed surge drum from
storagetanks. Hot RCO can be received from CDU. RCO is pumped
bycharge pumps to a series of preheat exchangers and then tofurnace
from where feed goes to column. At the end of preheating bypreheat
exchanger train feed gets heated up to 305C in case of hotfeed and up
to292C in case of coldfeed.Preheated RCO is split into two passes and
introduced to VacuumHeater/Furnace under pass flow control for each
P a g e | 21

pass. MP steam isinjected in each pass to encourage vaporization of feed

in the coils.Coil outlet temperature of 395 -398C is maintained. The
partiallyvaporized RCO is introduced in flash zone of column. LPsteam
superheated up to 350C in the heater is used as stripping steam in the
stripping section of the vacuum column. Vaporized RCOalong with
steam rises through the vacuum column and is fractionatedinto two side
withdrawals.VR along with quench stream is withdrawn from the
column bottomby pumps. After preheating feed, a quench stream is
routed back to the column tomaintain bottom temperature of 355C to
avoid coking in the columnboot. Further VR goes to LP steam generator
and gets cooled up to150 0 C.
VR routing is as follows: (1) Hot VR to BBU, (2) Hot VR to VBU,(3) Hot
VR to VR burning facility, (4) Hot VR to IFO drum, (5) Direct
VRinjection in BBU after cooling, & (6) After cooling in tempered
watercooler VR is routed to storage at 150C.
The desired vacuum is created in the vacuum column by the vacuum
system consisting of multistage ejectors, precondenser, intermediate
condenser, after condenser and hot well. The hot well islocated at grade
level and correspondingly ejectors are elevated toprovide barometric
legs. Small amount of oil carried over withsteam from the column is
removed from the seal pot by pump and isrouted to slop or to HSD.
Sour water from the seal pot is pumped outby pumps to sour water
system.

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6) LEARNING:
I have gained knowledge by this training in various aspects as an
engineer, as I had firsthand experience in Indian oil corporation limited.
Training here, enhanced my cognition, as the employee has explained,
with commitment, all the doubts and question that arise in my mind.
This chance thrown at me, was a boon as I had only seen that real about
all the equipment seen in the industry, which now , I am able to
distinguish well enough. This was not possible with books knowledge.
I heartily thanks all employees of IOCL to have help me all throughout
my training.

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7) BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1. IOCL MANUALS
2. www.petroleumrefining.com, Petroleum Refining Engineering
Website.
3. Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering by Dennis C. Prieve,
Pittsburg.
4. www.engineeringtoolbox.com, Chemical Engineering Website
5. Petroleum Refining by James H. Gary, Colorado

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