Petroleum Refinery

5rd Semester

Lecture Four / Crude Oil Distillation I

By
Ass. Lec. Ahmed Omar Abdullah
Chemical - Petrochemical Engineering Department
Salahaddin University

Ass. Lec. Ahmed Omar Abdullah 1

Chemical - Petrochemical Engineering Department
Salahaddin University
Distillation
After desalting, the crude oil contains from 0.25– 0.5 liquid volume percent water
from solubility and emulsion effects.

The pressure of the desalted crude oil is then raised in a booster pump, and it
continues through a preheat train where its temperature is raised by exchange with
hot intermediate streams from the crude and vacuum columns.

Upon exit from the last preheat exchanger the oil is heated to the desired column
inlet temperature in the crude furnace.

Furnace outlet temperatures typically range from 630–725 F (333–385 °C),

depending on the crude oil composition.

The hot oil mixture from the furnace then flows through a transfer line into the
flash zone of the main fractionation column, where it mixes with steam and light
hydrocarbons from the column stripping zone.

Sufficient steam is used to

- strip the lightest hydrocarbons from the gaseous portion of the oil that
rises to the top of the column.
- lowers the partial pressure of these hydrocarbons in the column flash
zone. This in turn lowers the temperature required to distill the overhead
products from the column feed.

Inside the tower will be as

- The hot liquid from the flash zone drops through the column stripping
section, where it is stripped by steam injected into the bottom of the
column.
- The hot vapors from the flash zone rise, contact the colder reflux flowing
down the column which condenses out of the side liquid products

Reflux And Pump around Stream

Reflux flow is provided by the overhead condenser and by pump around
circuits in which liquid drawn from the side of the condenser is pumped through
exchangers and cooled by exchange with crude oil in the preheat train.
The cooled pump around liquid is typically returned to the column a few trays
above the draw tray.
Pump around flow rates is high, because heat is being exchanged with crude oil
that is at a high flow rate.

Ass. Lec. Ahmed Omar Abdullah 2

Chemical - Petrochemical Engineering Department
Salahaddin University
The pump around cooling circuits accomplishes three objectives:

- Firstly, they remove latent heat from the hot flash zone vapors and help
condense the side products;
- secondly, they improve the efficiency of the crude preheat train by
allowing heat recovery at higher temperature levels than the overhead
condenser alone could achieve. This decreases the duty required from the
crude furnace.
- Finally, they reduce the vapor flow rate through the column thus reducing
the required size. Since crude column sizes are primarily determined by the
vapor flow rates, the pump around cooling is an essential factor in their
design.

However, the pump around circuits degrades the fractionation between the side
products by reducing the internal liquid flows between side products.
The liquid side draw products are usually stripped in steam strippers or recoiled
strippers to remove light materials and control their flash points, so the
composition of the lightest portion of a liquid side product is controlled by a
side stripper, not the main column. In the case of the gas oil side product,
stripping is used to remove diesel boiling range materials from the cracking
stocks for feeding to fluid catalytic crackers (FCCs).

The reflux arrangements in atmospheric crude distillation unit (CDU) are

classified as:

- Top tray reflux. This reflux takes place at the top of the tray, and the reflux
is cooled and returned to the tower. In some towers/columns, no reflux is
provided to any other plate. Operating the tower only with top reflux has
some disadvantages. The heat input to the column is through heated crude
at the bottom, and removal is from the top. This creates a large traffic vapor
that requires a larger tower diameter. The recovery of heat is less efficient,
but the unit is simple in design and operation.

Ass. Lec. Ahmed Omar Abdullah 3

Chemical - Petrochemical Engineering Department
Salahaddin University
 - Pump back reflux. In this case, the reflux is provided at regular intervals
as this helps every plate to act as a true fractionator. The vapor load on the
tower is fairly uniform and requires a smaller column size. The rejected
heat at the reflux locations can be effectively utilized. Since the tower
temperature increases downwards, the reflux location can be placed where
the temperature is sufficient for transferring heat to another stream. Many
refineries employ this arrangement as the towers provide excellent service.

Ass. Lec. Ahmed Omar Abdullah 4

Chemical - Petrochemical Engineering Department
Salahaddin University
 - Pump around reflux. In this arrangement, the reflux from a lower plate is
taken, cooled and fed into the column at a higher level by 2 to 3 plates.
This creates a local problem of mixing uneven compositions of reflux, and
liquids present on the tray. This can be overcome by treating all the plates
in this zone as a single plate, which results in an increase in the height and
the number of plates of the column.

Ass. Lec. Ahmed Omar Abdullah 5

Chemical - Petrochemical Engineering Department
Salahaddin University
The functions of the pump around cooling are

- To remove latent heat from the hot flash zone vapors and help condense
the side products.
- To improve the efficiency of the crude, preheat train by allowing heat
recovery at higher temperature levels than the overhead condenser, thus
reducing the required crude furnace duty.
- To reduce the vapor flow rate through the column; this reduces the required
size of the column

The maximum boiling point of the liquid side products is controlled on the
main column by their draw rates.
For example, to increase the maximum boiling point of the kerosene product, it
is necessary to decrease the flow of the diesel product (which has a higher boiling
range) and to increase the flow of the kerosene product. This adjustment allows
heavier components to travel up the column to the kerosene draw tray, thereby
increasing the maximum boiling point of the kerosene product.

There may also be a decrease in the lightest portion of the diesel product because
of this adjustment, but this effect is small when compared to the effect of the
diesel steam stripper.

The number of sides draws in a CDU column may be seven to eight; side steam
strippers are provided to all crude fractionation units to ensure proper control and
products quality to the required specifications.

Pump around Heat Removal

There are two possible ways of removing the heat from a

fractionating/distillation column:
- top tower reflux (external reflux)
- circulating reflux (internal reflux).
The circulating/internal reflux stream is referred to as the pump around that aids
to remove heat from a tower.
The hot liquid at 550 °F is drawn from tray 11, which is referred to as the pump
around draw tray. The liquid pump around is cooled to 450 °F and returned to the
tower at a higher elevation onto tray 10.
Figure below shows that the cold 450 °F pump around return liquid enters the
downcomer from tray 9. Tray 10 is called the pump around return tray

Ass. Lec. Ahmed Omar Abdullah 6

Chemical - Petrochemical Engineering Department
Salahaddin University
The purpose of the pump around is to cool and partially condense the up flowing
vapors.
The vapors to pump around tray 11 are at 600 °F. The vapors from the pump
around return tray 10 are at 450 °F. There are two pump around trays (10 and 11)
in the column, A typical number of pump around trays is 2 to 5.

Controlling the Reflux

Figure below shows the control valves for the temperature, pressure and level
controls and reflux pump for controlling the return level and the distillate
product.
The top/external reflux flow is controlling the tower-top temperature.
If the pump around circulation rate is reduced, then less heat would be extracted
from trays 10 and 11.
More and hotter vapor would flow up the tower. The top reflux temperature
control valve would open.
The top reflux rate would increase. The vaporization of reflux on the top tray
would increase, and the overhead condenser duty would increase.

Ass. Lec. Ahmed Omar Abdullah 7

Chemical - Petrochemical Engineering Department
Salahaddin University
The decrease in the heat duty of the pump around heat exchanger would equal
the increase in the heat duty of the overhead condenser, thus preserving the heat
balance of the tower.

Some of the heat that was recovered to the cold fluid as shown in Figure Above,
is now lost to cooling water in the overhead condenser.

This shows the most important function of pump rounds in recovering the heat
to a process stream that would otherwise be lost to the cooling tower.

Ass. Lec. Ahmed Omar Abdullah 8

Chemical - Petrochemical Engineering Department
Salahaddin University
Another purpose of the pump around is to suppress top-tray flooding. For
example, if tray 1 or 2 floods, the following would occur:

- The tower-top temperature increases.

- The distillate product becomes increasingly contaminated with heavier
components. In a refinery crude distillation, the endpoint of the naphtha
overhead product would increase.
- The pressure drop (ΔP) across the top few trays would increase.
- The liquid level in the reflux drum would increase.

If the reflux rate is increased to reduce the tower-top temperature, the top
temperature will increase further rather than decrease. This is an indication of
top-tray flooding.

This is corrected by increasing the pump around duty. This can be done by
increasing the cold fluid flow through the pump around heat exchanger, or the
pump around flow itself could be increased. This subsequently decreases the flow
of vapor flowing up to tray 9.
The flow of vapor through trays 1 to 8 will also decrease.
The low vapor velocity will reduce the tray pressure drop, and the ability of the
vapor to entrain liquid will be reduced.
The height of liquid in the downcomer will decrease, and tray flooding is
suppressed.

Increasing the pump around heat duty will unload the overhead condenser, which
will cool off the reflux drum. A colder reflux drum will absorb more gas into the
distillate product. Less gas will be released from the reflux drum, which is often
desirable. The heat recovered in the pump around heat exchanger is often a
valuable way to recover process heat. The heat that is not recovered in the pump
around exchanger is lost to cooling water in the overhead condenser.

The vapor temperature leaving tray 10 is 500 °F and the temperature of the liquid
leaving tray 11 is 550 °F.

This shows that fractionation is taking place across the pump around trays.
The temperature difference between, ΔT = (temperature of liquid leaving a lower
tray)–(temperature of vapor leaving a higher tray) is a measure of the amount of
fractionation.

Ass. Lec. Ahmed Omar Abdullah 9

Chemical - Petrochemical Engineering Department
Salahaddin University
The bigger this temperature difference, the more the fractionation that is
taking place across the trays.
Lieberman confirmed from plant tests that increasing pump around circulation
rate increases the temperature difference up to a point known as the incipient
flood point as shown in Figure below If the circulation rate is increased beyond
this point, then the temperature difference is reduced.

As
the
pump around rate is increased, tray efficiency is improved. However, at a certain
point, the pump around liquid flow becomes too great, such that the liquid in the
downcomers starts to back up.

The tray efficiency is affected because of the downcomer flooding.

The temperature difference between the liquid leaving the pump around draw tray
minus the temperature of the vapor leaving the pump around return tray becomes
smaller.
This point is referred to as the incipient flood point for the pump around trays.
Figure above illustrates point A as an incipient flood point; that point in the
tower’s operation where either an increase or a decrease in the reflux rate results
in a loss of separation efficiency. This point is also referred to as the optimum
reflux rate.

Ass. Lec. Ahmed Omar Abdullah 10

Chemical - Petrochemical Engineering Department
Salahaddin University