Alexandria university

Gas & petrochemical engineering department

Project 1
SSP

Submitted to : Dr : Hassan Farag

Submitted by :
Group members ID
Aya Allah Mahmoud 5632
Mahmoud abdulmohsen 4810
Introduction
Most crude oils contain varying amounts of high molecular weight
hydrocarbons (asphaltenes and
resins) which are solid to semisolid in nature with high carbon to
hydrogen ratios. These asphaltenes are nonvolatile and thus tend to
remain in the residue on heating. The resins are in part volatile and may
be present in some of the high boiling lube distillates. Since these
fractions contain many high viscosity components useful in the
manufacture of lubricating oils, refiners have employed many methods
(adsorption, chemical treating and precipitation with alcohols, ketones
and light hydrocarbons) to remove these asphaltic materials from heavy
distillates and vacuum residuum. Propane deasphalting and the Duo-
Sol process are most often used to remove these materials. The Duo-Sol
process is a combination propane-deasphalting and solvent-refining
process which uses Selecto (a mixture of phenol and cresylic acids) as
the extraction solvent.

Why we remove asphaltenes &resins?

The asphalt and resins present in the very heavy distillates and residua
are removed because they
are high in viscosity, seriously impede the refining action of other
processes, contribute an
undesirable dark color to lube base stocks and have a tendency to form
carbonaceous material and
deposits on heating.
Propane deasphalting:
is an extractive-precipitation process which selectively precipitates
asphalt, resins and hydrocarbons on the basis of density and the
invert solubility of the heavy hydrocarbons in liquefied light
hydrocarbons. Propane is preferred over the other liquefied gases
used in the milder "deep" deasphalting processes to prepare
feedstocks for fuels processing, because considerably more
asphalt and resins must be precipitated to prepare a deasphalted oil
(DAO) which can be used for the manufacture of lube base stocks.
Deasphalting is an extractive-precipitation process. The purpose of the
process is the removal of asphaltenes, resins and metals from vacuum
residua and very heavy vacuum gas oils. Propane can also be used to
fractionate distillates and other hydrocarbons on the basis of density.
When used in this manner it is called propane fractionation “Solvent
fractionation”. Although the process is primarily used to remove
asphaltic materials from the feedstock, it also removes other
undesirable materials such as sulfur, nitrogen, aromatics and metals. It
also improves the color and viscosity index of the feedstock.
Accompanying these beneficial changes one accepts the increase in wax
content of the deasphalted oil.
Solvent Deasphalting Process Description
Vacuum residue feed enters the unit directly from the vacuum distillation
tower and is heated to ~60 °C before entering the top portion of a trayed
extraction tower at 34 Kg/cm2. Liquid propane is entered into the bottom of
the tower below the bottom tray. The propane solvent flows up the tower
counter currently to the precipitated asphalt.
The extracted asphalt is retrieved from the bottom of the tower and routed
through a fired heater to enter the top tray of a baffle-trayed separator.
Some propane entrained in the asphalt phase is extracted from the flash
 tower’s overhead. The asphalt phase exits the flash tower at the bottom and
decreases pressure before entering the asphalt stripper tower above the top
row of baffles.

The bottom of the stripper tower is filled with steam, and the remaining
entrained propane is extracted from the asphalt. The stripped asphalt leaves
the tower, is cooled to battery conditions, and is directed to storage or the
asphalt blending unit. The propane strip out is run into the propane
accumulator.

The deasphalted oil phase from the extraction tower overhead enters a high-
pressure oil evaporator, where most of the entrained propane is removed.
The propane stream exits the evaporator and enters the propane
accumulator after cooling. The oil phase leaves the evaporator and enters
the top row of baffles in a low-pressure stripper tower.

The remaining propane is stripped from the oil phase and exits the stripper
tower. Steam is injected into the tower’s bottom trays and travels counter
currently up the tower to the oil phase. The propane is cooled and drained of
the water from the stripping steam in the accumulator. The deasphalted oil is
extracted from the stripper tower’s bottom.

DEASPHALTING PROCESS VARIABLES:

The more important variables are:

• the quality of the feedstock.

• the solvent.

• the deasphalting temperature.

The temperature and dosage are the process conditions which are most often varied
with the quality of the feedstock and the DA oil quality being the major
determinants of these process conditions. Although solvent dosage as high as 15 or
more may be used to maximize DA oil yield, the dosage used will depend on the
quality of the feedstock and product being manufactured. The more typical range
for solvent dosage is probably about 800-1000 volume percent propane to
residua for the manufacture of bright stocks.

Process conditions

Applications of Solvent Deasphalting Unit

Solvent deasphalting (SDA) is applied as part of a bottom-of-the-barrel upgrading

solution that separates higher-quality components from heavy residues and other
heavy petroleum feedstocks using solvent extraction and supercritical solvent
recovery technology. Following are some applications of SDA in petroleum
refineries;
 1. SDA (Solvent Deasphalted) pitch can be used in the manufacturing of
asphalts and cement and as a blending component in refinery fuel oil pools.
Other potential uses of SDA pitch include the production of hydrogen,
synthesis gas, or low-Btu fuel gas and as a solid-fuel blending component.

2. It is used to remove the asphaltenes from the residue to prepare a suitable

feedstock for Hydrocracker and FCC catalytic conversion units. In these
conversion units, the performance of the catalyst is greatly impaired by the
presence of heavy metals and the high Conradson carbon content of the
residue feed. In hydrocrackers and FCC units, DAO is easier to process than
straight-run residual oils. This is because asphaltenes easily form coke and
contain catalyst poisons such as nickel and vanadium, and the asphaltene
content of DAO is (by definition) almost zero.

3. The Solvent Deasphalting process has been in commercial use for the
preparation of lubricant-bright-stock feeds from asphalt-bearing crude
residue.

4. Commercial penetration grades of asphalt can be produced by blending the

SDA pitch with suitable aromatic flux oils. In many cases, this can eliminate
the need for air-oxidizing asphalts and thus present obvious economic and
environmental advantages.

5. Deasphalted Oil (DAO) can be used to produce low-sulfur fuel oil compared
with direct desulfurization of the atmospheric residue, this route can be
economically attractive in many cases.

Vacuum residue is the typical feed of Solvent Deasphalting unit although

atmospheric residues have also been commercially solvent-deasphalted. The
vacuum residue with the heavy Arabian crude feed, has specifications of 570 °C
TBP, API gravity 3.6, CCR 25 %, Sulfur 5.5 % and Ni/V metals ~200 wt ppm.