Chapter 18

Process equipment in petroleum refining

D.S.J. Jones

Introduction

This chapter deals with the items of equipment normally met with in the petroleum
refining industry. Indeed, many of the items that will be described and discussed here
are also common to many other process industries. Knowledge of these equipment
items are essential for good refinery design, operation, and troubleshooting when
necessary. The equipment described here falls into the following categories, and will
be presented in the following parts:

Part 1 Vessels
Part 2 Pumps
Part 3 Compressors
Part 4 Heat Exchangers
Part 5 Fired Heaters

These sections will include a description of the various types, an in depth discussion,
and design features. They will also provide an example of the data sheet usually
forwarded to manufacturers for the items required. Invariably in refinery technical
libraries these data sheets are included as part of the ‘Mechanical Catalogues’ and
supported by narrative specifications which give details of metallurgy and fabrication
codes etc. These catalogues are provided by the equipment supplier and are part of
all the information dossier on each item. Included also are such items as installation
details, start-up procedures, routine maintenance procedures and the like. In most
refineries today the catalogues are kept on computer discs or microfilm.

18.1 Vessels

This section address the pressure vessels that are common to most refineries. These
include:
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878 CHAPTER 18

r Columns and Towers

r Knock out Drums and Separators
r Accumulators and Surge vessels

Storage tanks have been dealt with in Chapter 13 of this Handbook.

Fractionators, trays, and packings

Trayed towers

Columns normally constitute the major cost in any chemical process configuration.
Consequently it is required to exercise utmost care in handling this item of equipment.
This extends to the actual design of the vessel or evaluating a design offered by others.
Normally columns are used in a process for fractionation, extraction or absorption
as unit operations. Columns contain internals which may be trays, or packing. Both
types of columns will also contain suitable inlet dispersion nozzles, outlet nozzles,
instrument nozzles, and access facilities (such as manholes or handholes). This item
deals with the trayed towers.

Tray types

There are three types of trays in common use today. These are:
r Bubble cap
r Sieve
r Valve

Bubble cap trays

This type of tray was in wide use up until the mid to late 1950s. Their predominance
was displaced by the cheaper sieve and valve trays. The bubble cap tray consists of
a series of risers on the tray which are capped by a serrated metal dome. Figure 18.1
shows two types of caps. One is used in normal fractionation service while the other
is designed for vacuum distillation service. Vapor rises up through the risers into the
bubble cap. It is then forced down through the serrated edge or, in some cases, slots
at the bottom of the cap. A liquid level is maintained on the tray to be above the slots
or serrations of the cap. The vapor therefore is forced out in fine bubbles into this
liquid phase thereby mixing with the liquid. Mass and heat transfer between vapor
and liquid is enhanced by this mixing action to effect the fractionation mechanism.

Capacity. Moderately high with high efficiency.

Efficiency. Very efficient over a wide capacity range.