EC2.

- Simulation of distillation of heavy naphtha to produce fuels

Jose Miguel Gomez Lombo - A01751907

29/11/2022
- Introduction

The objective of this paper is to model two distillation columns for grupo energeticos; the
company, one of the largest distributors in Mexico, provides different energy solutions through
the manufacturing of different types of fuels. Gas and diesel are among them but alternative fuels
take a big part of their production.

These alternative fuels are derived from the distillation of heavy nafta. Which after distillation
create light, intermediate and heavy fuel oil. Light oils are mostly used for the production of
gasoline and diesel because it produces a larger amount than those created from intermediate and
heavy oils, on the other hand heavy oils evaporate slowly because of their low fugacity. Making it
a much better material for production of asphalt.

Inside grupo energeticos plant there are two distillation trains with two distillation towers that
come with their respective condenser reboilers and a preheating exchanger at the feed to the
towers.

For these types of processes companies are always looking for a way to reduce their thermal loads
to reduce energy consumption and increase profit. This can be achieved by doing a thorough
analysis of the columns and feeds. The modification of temperature and pressure as well as reflux
rate inside the columns can have a huge impact on the energy consumption inside the process.

- Methodology

The approach for this case, where thermal loads want to be reduced, the computational tool
ASPEN + will be used for the modeling of the process and its optimization.

The components inside heavy nafta and their mass fractions are listed below.
There are 28 components inside the mixture with a density of 760 kg/m3 and we have a
volumetric flow in the feed of 109 liters per minute.

The product desired is DL (light fuel) and DSL (Intermediate fuel) with densities of 720 kg/m3
and 765 kg/m3 respectively. The residue aims for a density of 815 kg/m3.

The specifications and sizing of the columns were given by grupo energeticos. Being heavy nafta
a multicomponent mixture, calculations for mass and energy balances on the 11 different stages
inside the both columns are very rigorous and for 28 components it takes a lot of time. So the use
of ASPEN + as a computational tool is of great help to get the results we are aiming for.

For our simulation, the Peng-Robinson equation of state is our best option to accomplish our
criterias. In our main flowsheet we have two rad-frac models, with total condensers and reboilers
that represent the columns of the process.

Initial conditions of the process are as follows for each stage; in results and discussion we will
talk about the optimization of the process and how energy consumption and production of fuels
changed.

● Initial feed: Consist of the 28 components listed above with their relative molar fractions,
its temperature is of 25 C and a pressure of 1435 mmHg. The volumetric flow rate is 104
liters per minute.
 ● Column 1: it has 11 stages inside the reactor, with a total condenser and a reboiler, the
reflux ratio is zero because higher reflux means more thermal load. Distillate feed ratio is
23% of the initial feed.

● Column 2: It's the same as the first one excluding the pressure of 299 mmHg and a
different temperature at the feed. The mixture that enters this column is from the bottoms
of column 1, The distillate feed ratio is 53% of the feed that enters the column and reflux
ratio is zero.

- Results and discusión

The simulation was firstly run and checked to make sure that the results are consistent and the
densities of the products give a mostly similar value as the ones given in the data sheet. After
making sure the simulation gave good results we proceeded to use the ASPEN + optimization
program, For this no constraints were used and the goal was to minimize the heat duty of both
columns utilizing as variables the reflux ratio and the temperature the initial feed enters the first
column.

Optimization results are listed below:

The resulting densities of DL, DLS and the residue, as well as their respective temperatures:
 Compositions of the feeds:

Optimization comparisons between initial run and after varying different values of the columns:

After optimization we could lower the thermal load of the process by using 355 kw less than in
the normal run, by increasing the temperature of the feed. Densities of the products in both
columns were not hugely affected, and talking about the densities we can compare them to the
ones provided by grupo energeticos and we can see a difference of between 100 and 200 kg/m3
this is because ASPEN, using Peng-Robinson equation of state, calculates that the heavy nafta at
the feed has only a density of 43 kg/m3 which is hugely different from the data provided.

- Conclusión
The objective of this experiment was reached without difficulties. I achieved to lower the thermal
load of the reboilers inside the columns, and recommend grupo energeticos to increase the
temperature of the heavy nafta at the feed, without exceeding the temperature of 130 C; The most
useful way of achieving this is by analyzing the whole process and do a heat integration for the
whole system, and use different currents to heat the heavy nafta instead of only using another
reboiler.

The computational tool ASPEN + is of great help for this kind of analysis, because of the rigorous
calculations necessary for multicomponent mixtures the simulation handles all of that
inconvenience. The optimization program was also a great tool to lower the thermal load of the
system, because it analyzes the process by varying all kinds of variables inside the columns; it has
a main objective, minimizing or maximizing the variable added, while in a sensitivity analysis we
have to define which will be the best possible value on different variables.