An atmospheric crude tower revamp

Overall gas oil yield was maintained with heavier crudes due to a crude tower
revamp. The revamp allowed for a crude heater outlet temperature reduction

Daryl W Hanson and Tony Barletta Process Consulting Services

John V Bernickas CITGO Petroleum Corporation

I
n 2002, CITGO Petroleum Corporation point, even when processing heavier crudes.
revamped an atmospheric crude tower result- Conversely, poor stripping efficiency requires a
ing in improved atmospheric distillate yield higher heater outlet temperature to achieve the
and quality, while permitting the atmospheric same atmospheric distillate yield, and lighter
crude heater outlet temperature to be lowered by components feeding the vacuum unit can load
approximately 10ºF, with a simultaneous reduc- the vacuum column ejectors. CITGO was able to
tion in the vacuum unit feed rate. These results reduce the crude heater outlet temperature by
were achieved even though the crude became approximately 10ºF while improving the atmos-
heavier as more heavy sour crudes were proc- pheric gas oil (AGO) product yield. Figure 1
essed. Typically, atmospheric and vacuum tower shows how the vacuum tower flash zone pressure
distillate cut points decrease when crude blends was reduced from 24–28 mmHg to approxi-
get heavier, because they are more difficult to mately 20 mmHg following the revamp.
vapourise. Over the next ten years, US refiners
will process higher percentages of heavier sour Processing heavy crudes
crude oils due to increasing output from the The CITGO refinery processes a relatively high
Orinoco River basin bitumen upgraders in percentage of heavy crude oil, containing high
Venezuela, as well as increased production from quantities of sulphur, naphthenic acid, vanadium
western Canada and the tar sands in northern and microcarbon residue (MCR). As the crude
Alberta. blend gets heavier, it becomes increasingly diffi-
When processing heavy crude oils, the atmos- cult to vapourise the oil in the atmospheric and
pheric crude column internals perform a vacuum heaters. Without any operating variable
significant role in the overall unit performance. changes, process flow scheme modifications or
While fractionation improvements may be visibly improved equipment design, the atmospheric
apparent, other less obvious effects play a
critical role too. Since improved atmos-
pheric column stripping allows a reduction
24/6/2001 13/8/2002 9/9/2003
in the crude heater outlet temperature at 12:56:13 PM 9:20:13 PM 4:32:13 AM
a constant atmospheric distillate yield and 60
54
lowers the quantity of 650ºF minus mate- 48
rial in the vacuum tower feed, overall 42
36
crude unit performance is optimised. 30 24.67 22.40 19.00 18.86
Better stripping increases the recovery of 24
18
diesel from the FCC feed and allows a 12
lower vacuum column operating pressure 6
0
due to a lower ejector system load. A lower 27/3/2000 18/6/2002 7/9/2004
vacuum column flash zone pressure can 7:08:13 PM 8:08:13 AM 8:08:13 PM

result in a higher heavy vacuum gas oil

(HVGO) true-boiling point (TBP) cut Figure 1 Vacuum tower flash zone pressure, mmHg absolute

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000093 PTQ Q3 2005 1


Variable adjustments for processing heavy crude oils
Variable Required change in atmospheric &
vacuum tower to maintain cut points
Temperature Higher
Pressure Lower
Flash zone oil partial pressure Lower
Residue stripping efficiency Higher
Table 1
tower bottoms (ATB) and vacuum tower bottoms
(VTB) TBP cut points will always decrease as
crudes get heavier. Table 1 summarises the
changes needed in the crude and vacuum units
to maintain or improve the atmospheric and
vacuum distillate cut points as the feed gets
heavier.
Heavy crude blends contain fewer atmospheric
distillates and, in the case of very heavy
Venezuelan crude oils such as Merey and BCF-17,
ATB yields as high as 70 vol% on the whole crude
are common. Achieving high diesel and AGO
product recoveries becomes increasingly difficult.1
Heavy crude oils contain more vacuum distillates,
so it is often necessary to increase the AGO prod-
uct cut point to stay within the existing vacuum
column diameter limit. As the AGO product TBP
cut point increases, the vacuum unit feed gets
heavier, resulting in a higher VTB yield unless the
vacuum heater temperature is increased, the pres-
sure decreased or the efficiency of the stripping
section is improved in the VTB.
Most refiners cannot increase the vacuum
heater outlet temperature because heater run
Atmospheric crude tower sections
Tray numbers Revamped atmospheric tower section
1–3 Top pumparound
4–17 Straight-run naphtha/kerosene fractionation
18–19 Middle pumparound
20–31 Kerosene/diesel fractionation
32–33 Lower pumparound
34–41 Diesel/AGO fractionation
42 AGO product collector
Packed section AGO wash zone
43 Overflash collector
44 Stripping section liquid distributor
45–51 Stripping section
Table 2
2 PTQ Q3 2005
lengths are reduced due to the high rate of coke
formation. Also, the amount of cracked gas
produced increases, raising the vacuum tower
operating pressure. Although CITGO was able to
reduce the vacuum tower operating pressure,
many refiners are already operating at the capac-
ity factor limit above where high VTB
entrainment occurs. When processing heavy
crude oils, the AGO product cut point should be
optimised so that the HVGO yield is maximised
within the vacuum tower limits, thereby maxim-
ising the HVGO product cut point.
Maintaining the HVGO cut point is a signifi-
cant challenge when crude blends become
heavier, as refiners may lose 20–80°F in the
HVGO product cut point. It is not uncommon
for a crude oil 3º API gravity decrease to result
in a 50ºF reduction in the HVGO cut point.
Maintaining the cut point requires a combina-
tion of lower operating pressure, higher heater
outlet temperature, lower flash zone oil partial
pressure (more heater coil steam) or improved
VTB stripping.
Atmospheric tower
The CITGO atmospheric tower has three pumpa-
rounds and several fractionation sections, as
shown in Table 2. Prior to the upgrade, all tower
sections were trayed, and pumparounds were
withdrawn from active trays. The new draw tray
designs were optimised to minimise leakage,
which reduced problems associated with pumpa-
round and product draws. The AGO product
draw and wash zone were also redesigned and
the stripping section design optimised.
All of the column internals were revamped too.
The draw sumps on each of the three pumpa-
round draws were modified by adding true draw
sumps. This aided de-aeration of the downcomer
liquid and reduced problems with withdrawing
pumparound liquid from the column. When
crude unit feed rates are pushed, it is common
to have pumparound draw rate limitations
because of the draw system initial design. Ideally,
collector trays should be used, but the existing
tower external piping configuration prevented
their installation. Adding a proper draw sump
allowed the top pumparound to be maximised to
the pump limit, permitting a higher return
temperature, thereby reducing the potential for
tower tray salt formation.2
The tray metallurgy was changed to the
www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000093
proprietary duplex stainless steel AL6XN,
which is more resistant to chloride corro- 10
9
sion. In all the trayed sections above the 8
7
flash zone, fixed valve trays were used, 6
except at the pumparound and product 5 2.50
4
draw trays. At these locations, moveable 3
valve trays were used to reduce leakage 2
1
through the tray decks, which minimised 0
draw problems during normal operations 27/3/2000
4:05:45 PM
18/6/2002
5:05:45 AM
7/9/2004
5:05:45 PM
and throughout unit start-ups.
Maintaining diesel recovery from AGO
is difficult when the crude gets heavier, Figure 2 AGO product ASTM D 1500 colour
because the oil is more difficult to vapour-
ise and diesel reflux rates generally drop.
Maintaining adequate reflux typically
requires improved stripping section effi- 41
ciency. Diesel/AGO fractionation Seal-
efficiency is a function of the number of welded 42
collector
trays and their efficiency, as well as the
tower internal reflux. In this case, the
number of trays was not changed. Prior Wash
zone
to the revamp, CITGO’s diesel/AGO frac- LC
tionation section had four-pass trays with
FC
very long weir lengths and imbalanced Flash AGO
active areas. The revamped trays used zone product

equal active area designs and reduced

FC
weir length to raise the tray efficiency.
Even though heavier crude was proc-
essed, reflux rates in this section of the
tower did not drop, as a result of the
stripping section revamp. Figure 3 Atmospheric tower wash section and AGO stripper
The AGO product draw and AGO wash
section were also redesigned to improve the AGO and after the revamp. Following start-up, it has
product quality and optimise the AGO yield, been a yellow green, with the ASTM D 1500
while minimising the overflash rate.3 A seal- colour consistently being reported as less than
welded collector tray was installed at the AGO three, which indicates no ATB product entrain-
product draw to its stripper, so that all liquid ment. Prior to the modifications, the AGO
was withdrawn from the tower. The wash oil product colour was normally a dark brown.
trays were replaced with packing. The AGO strip- Another benefit of the wash section revamp
per draw piping size was increased and a loop was a lower feed rate to the vacuum unit. Packing
seal installed to ensure that vapour from the requires less liquid than trays to remove
stripper could not flow backwards through the entrained ATB from the flash zone vapours. For
draw line, limiting product yields. Liquid leaving effective tray operation, overflash requirements
the AGO stripper bottoms pumps was split into range from 3–5 LV% of the crude feed, and may
wash liquid and AGO product. Wash liquid was be higher in some cases. Packing has a high open
flow controlled at the minimum rate needed to area and operates at very low liquid rates while
meet the AGO product colour specification. Since still removing entrained ATB. Following the
these heavy crude oils contain high levels of revamp, the crude column has consistently
vanadium and MCR, reducing ATB entrainment produced good-quality AGO product at a nomi-
into the AGO product improves the quality of the nal 1 LV% metered overflash.
FCC feed. To minimise overflash, the wash section cross-
Figure 2 shows the AGO product colour before sectional area was reduced by installing a smaller

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000093 PTQ Q3 2005 3

 16
Volume, % AGO
14
12
10
8 High efficiency,
6 Increased the
00 00 00 00 01 01 01 01 02 02 02 02 03 03 03 03 04 04 04
1/ 4/ 7/ 0/ 1/ 4/ 7/ 0/ 1/ 4/ 7/ 0/ 1/ 4/ 7/ 0/ 1/ 4/ 7/
1/ 1/ 1/ 1/1 1/ 1/ 1/ 1/1 1/ 1/ 1/ 1/1 1/ 1/ 1/ 1/1 1/ 1/ 1/
Figure 4 AGO product yield on whole crude
diameter section inside the column, as shown in
Figure 3. By reducing the cross-sectional area
that must be wetted for adequate ATB removal,
the overflash rate is thereby lowered. Wash
liquid is sprayed onto the packing and the rate is
adjusted according to the AGO product colour.
The flux in hot GPM/ft2 measured at the top and
the bottom of the packed bed is typically 0.80
and 0.25 respectively. Once the wash rate
reaches the minimum flow for the spray nozzles
used, it cannot be reduced further without
collapsing the spray nozzle cone angle, which
would result in dry areas in the packing.
Minimum overflash and optimised stripping
section performance have increased the AGO
product cut point by a nominal 15ºF on whole
crude. Figure 4 shows the approximate AGO
yield before and after the revamp.
AGO product quality is also dependent on flash
zone performance.4 A poor flash zone design
causes high ATB entrainment and vapour mald-
istribution into the wash section. In this case, a
Gas oil
condenser
1st
stage
CW CW
Gas oil
product
Figure 6 Vacuum tower overhead ejector system
4 PTQ Q3 2005
Feed
anti-fouling
design
number of trays
from 5 to 7
Stripping
steam
Figure 5 Design of the atmospheric tower bottoms
stripper
360º vapour horn was installed in the flash zone
to facilitate residue de-entrainment and to
provide a proper initial vapour distribution to
the wash zone. Good initial vapour distribution
eliminates any high-velocity areas that do not
allow the packing to remove the entrained ATB.
Atmospheric bottoms stripping section designs
play a vital role in heavy oil processing,5 so
fundamental design considerations cannot be
ignored. Many atmospheric column stripping
sections have the same diameter as the flash
zone, or the reduced diameter internal cylinders
have been oversized. This leads to low tray effi-
ciency, increased fouling rates and poor
mechanical integrity. Attempts to reduce the tray
active area by installing parallel plates with no
bubbling (hole) area outside the baffles, or using
oversized downcomers, generally causes
higher rates of fouling and always results
in poor efficiency.
2nd 3rd CITGO’s stripping section design uses
stage stage a reduced diameter section and seven
optimised design sieve trays to increase
stripping efficiency (Figure 5). The origi-
CW
nal 10ft diameter stripping section was
increased to 11.5ft to process the addi-
Off-gas
tional liquid load that had occurred over
the years. Tray spacing was reduced
from the original 24in to accommodate
two additional stripping section trays.
The steam rate is typically limited to
Naphtha slightly less than 9lb per barrel of ATB
product
because of tower overhead cooling limi-
tations. Three sieve hole areas were used
to compensate for the varying vapour
www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000093
rate. Antifouling features included: an
optimised tray design to maximise weir 2000
liquid loading and to ensure uniform 1800
liquid flow across the tray; sloped outlet 1600
1400
weirs to minimise coke and debris build- 1200
up behind the outlet weir; and properly 1000 37.40
sized downcomers to aid the movement 800
600
of solids through the downcomer. 400
200
0
Vacuum unit performance 27/3/2000 18/6/2002 7/9/2004
In the vacuum unit, the vapourising of 2:43:49 PM 3:43:49 AM 3:43:49 PM
heavy crude oils requires a high tempera-
ture6,7 and low pressure when the column Figure 7 Vacuum pre-condenser gas oil production, bpd
has no stripping section.8,9 By improving
the efficiency of the atmospheric column
stripping section, CITGO was able to
1/13/2001 8/6/2002 3/8/2004
reduce the quantity of light hydrocarbons 12:23:48 PM 2:35:48 PM 12:59:48 AM
500
in the feed, allowing the ejectors to reduce
the flash zone pressure to approximately 400

20 mmHg. By eliminating the light hydro- 300

carbons from the feed, the ejector system 295.19 122.92 221.99 225.42
200
condensable load was reduced, thereby
decreasing the system pressure drop. As 100

the ejector system load decreases, its 0

suction pressure drops, thereby improv- 3/27/2000 6/18/2002 9/7/2004
3:59:48 PM 4:59:48 AM 8:20:56 PM
ing the tower vacuum (Figure 6).
Prior to the revamp, the vacuum gas oil
production from the pre-condenser was Figure 8 Vacuum ejector naphtha production, bpd
approximately 800 bpd (Figure 7). After
the modifications, the overhead gas oil
production dropped to less than 100bpd, 24/6/2000 19/6/2001 16/9/2003
9:32:56 PM 4:08:56 PM 8:20:56 AM
as shown in Figure 8. This flow reduction 6
decreased the pressure drop through the 5.4
4.8
overhead gas oil pre-condenser, which is 4.2
3.6
located in front of the first-stage ejector. 3 4.57 4.19 2.82 2.98
Furthermore, the naphtha boiling range 2.4
condensable production decreased, lower- 1.8
1.2
ing the ejector system load. A reduction 0.6
0
in the load allowed the ejectors to pull
27/3/2000 18/6/2002 9/2004
better vacuum, which reduced the column 7:20:56 PM 8:20:56 PM 8:20:56 PM
flash zone pressure from 26–20 mmHg.
The improvement in the flash zone Figure 9 Vacuum tower bottoms º API gravity
vacuum was previously presented in
Figure 1. This increase in vacuum prevented the to less than 3º API following the revamp and
degradation of the HVGO product cut point even crude quality changes. The revamped atmos-
though the crude charge was heavier. pheric column performance helped reduce both
the vacuum column operating pressure and the
Conclusion HVGO product cut point degradation, even
Modifications to the atmospheric crude tower though the crude is now heavier. Table 3 is a
helped increase CITGO’s ability to process heavy summary of the changes that occurred to both
crude oils.10 Figure 9 shows that the API gravity the crude and vacuum units as a result of the
of the VTB has decreased from greater than 4º revamp.

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000093 PTQ Q3 2005 5


Summary of changes to crude and vacuum towers
Before revamp Change after revamp
Atmospheric tower
Crude API gravity Base 1º API reduction
AGO yield, LV% Base ~1 LV% increase
AGO TBP cut point Base ~15ºF increase
AGO visual colour Dark brown Yellow green
AGO colour, ASTM D 1500 ASTM colour +6 ASTM colour +3
AGO wash oil section 24ft diameter 19ft diameter with
with 7 trays ~4ft packed bed
7 Golden S W, N Lieberman, Martin, Correcting design
errors can prevent coking in main fractionators, Oil &
Gas Journal, 72–80, 21 November 1994.
8 Martin G R, Barletta T, Vacuum unit fired heater
coking — avoid unscheduled shutdowns, PTQ, 123–
127, Spring 2001.
9 Barletta T, Why vacuum unit fired heaters coke,
PTQ, 123–127, Autumn 2002.
10 Golden S W, Troubleshooting vacuum unit
revamps, PTQ, 107–113, Summer 1998.

Wash oil flux, hot GPM/ft2 Daryl W Hanson is a chemical engineer with Process
Entering top section NA 0.80
Consulting Services Inc, Houston, Texas, USA. He
Leaving bottom section 0.15 0.25
specialises in all phases of refinery distillation, from
Measured overflash, LV% 1 1
Atmospheric heater outlet Base ~10ºF reduction process simulation through field inspection.
Atmospheric feed distributor 90º vapour horn 360º vapour horn Email: dhanson@revamps.com
Reduced crude stripper 10ft diameter 11.5ft diameter John V Bernickas is an engineering consultant at
with 5 trays with 7 trays the CITGO Petroleum Corporation Lemont refinery,
Lemont, Illinois, USA. He has over 33 years of
Stripper steam, lb/bbl 7.5 <9
refining experience, the last 16 years of which have
Vacuum tower been in crude atmospheric and vacuum distillation,
Pre-condenser gas oil, bpd 800 <100 crude oil desalting, corrosion and fouling control,
Ejector naphtha, bpd 300 220 refinery troubleshooting and delayed coking. He has
Flash zone pressure 26mmHg 20mmHg authored four papers that have been presented at
HVGO TBP cut point Base ~ No change CITGO’s PDVSA affiliate workshops and is a charter
VTB API gravity >4º API <3º API member of the corporation’s Centers of Excellence.
Bernickas has a BS in chemical engineering from the
Table 3 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Tony Barletta is a chemical engineer with Process
References Consulting Services Inc, Houston, Texas, USA. His primary
1 Barletta T, Kurzym K, Consider retrofits to handle high viscosity responsibilities are conceptual process design (CPD) and process
crudes, Hydrocarbon Processing, September 2004. design packages (PDP) for large capital revamps. His CPD work
2 White S, Barletta T, Refiners processing heavy crudes can involves heater and other major equipment modifications.
experience crude distillation problems, Oil & Gas Journal, 18 Email: tbarletta@revamps.com
November 2002.
3 Golden S W, Binkley, Crude tower modification stabilizes
operation, Oil & Gas Journal, 197–204, 30 July 1984. Links
4 Hanson D W, Lieberman N P, Lieberman E T, De-entrainment
and washing of flash zone vapours in heavy oil fractionators, More articles from: Process Consulting Services
Hydrocarbon Processing, 55–60, July 1999.
5 Hanson D, Langston J, Low capital crude revamp increases More articles from the following categories:
product yield, Oil & Gas Journal, 16 March 2003. Revamps, Shutdowns and Turnarounds
6 Hanson and Martin, Low capital revamp increases vacuum gas Crude Vacuum Units Heavy Crudes
oil yield, Oil & Gas Journal, 70–82, 18 March 2002.

6 PTQ Q3 2005 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000093