Simulation Of Crude Oil Streams and Distillation

Tower Products
Prepared by: Supervised by:
Awam Abdullah Mr. Yusif Sharif
Bahast Faiq
Sawsan Mathhar
Said Hasan
Sarmad Mohammad Salim
Thawry Sadeq 1
 Table Of Contents

 Introduction
 Crude oil and Distillation Unit
 Types Of Distillation
 Distillation process
 Types of distillation curve
 Main component of distillation column
 Simulation by Aspen Hysys
 Tawkee Central Processing Facility (CPF) Unit
 Tawkee Refinery Unit
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 Introduction

 A simulation task starts with the strong foundation based on the need of
enhancing an existing process.

 A simulation engineer has to find the necessary data to create the process
flow diagram (PFD) according to the simulation target and the technological
aspect of the process.

 These purposes can be achieved by using a simulation software.

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 Crude oil and Distillation Unit

 Crude oil is a complex mixture of hundreds of hydrocarbon compounds, liquid or

gas. The proportions of these components vary according to the oil field properties.
 Crude oil is a multicomponent mixture consisting of more than 10^8 compounds.
Petroleum refining refers to the separation as well as reactive processes to yield
various valuable products. Therefore, a key issue in the petroleum refining is to deal
with multicomponent feed streams and multicomponent product streams. Usually,
in chemical plants, we encounter streams not possessing more than 10 components,
which is not the case in petroleum refining. Therefore, characterization of both
crude, intermediate product and final product streams is very important to
understand the processing operations effectively.

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 Distillation unit

 Crude distillation unit: The distillation is the principal process of the oil industry for
separating mixtures based on relative volatility of the compounds.
 The unit comprising of an atmospheric distillation column, side strippers, heat
exchanger network, feed de-salter and furnace as main process technologies
enables the separation of the crude into its various products. Usually, five
products are generated from the CDU namely gas + naphtha, kerosene, light gas
oil, heavy gas oil and atmospheric residue. In some refinery configurations,
terminologies such as gasoline, jet fuel and diesel are used to represent the CDU
products which are usually fractions emanating as portions of naphtha, kerosene
and gas oil.

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 Three techniques are used in distillation:

 Differential distillation
 Flash or equilibrium distillation and
 Rectification

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 Types of distillation

• Is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by

using selective boiling and condensation.
• There are different types of distillation like:
1. Simple distillation
Simple distillation involves heating the liquid mixture to the boiling point and
immediately condensing the resulting vapors.
This method is only effective for mixtures wherein the boiling points of the liquids
are considerably different (a minimum difference of 25oC).
The purity of the distillate (the purified liquid) is governed by Raoult’s law.

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 Types of distillation

2. Fractional distillation
• Fractional distillation is a process that is used to distill or separate liquid mixtures by
boiling them at different temperatures.
• The liquids are separated using large sieve trays inside of the column, resulting in
homogeneous liquids.
• As vapours rise in the column, lighter substances travel higher up, and fractions drawn off
at different points along the way have different compositions.
• Distilling is commonly used for crude oil, natural gas, and hundreds of other chemical
mixtures that need to be separated in order to increase their value.
• In fractional distillation, multiple simple distillations take place. As vapor rises in a
fractional column, liquid is condensed in several stages and removed from the column at
several points.
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 Types of distillation

3. Steam distillation
• Steam Distillation is often used to separate heat-sensitive components in a mixture.
• This is done by passing steam through the mixture (which is slightly heated) to
vaporize some of it. The process establishes a high heat-transfer rate without the
need for high temperatures.
• The resulting vapor is condensed to afford the required distillate.
• The process of steam distillation is used to obtain essential oils and herbal
distillates from several aromatic flowers/herbs.

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 Types of distillation

4. Vacuum Distillation
• Vacuum distillation is ideal for separating mixtures of liquids with very high
boiling points.
• In order to boil these compounds, heating to high temperatures is an inefficient
method. Therefore, the pressure of the surroundings is lowered instead.
• The lowering of the pressure enables the component to boil at lower temperatures.
Once the vapor pressure of the component is equal to the surrounding pressure, it is
converted into a vapor.
• These vapours are then condensed and collected as the distillate. The vacuum
distillation method is also used to obtain high-purity samples of compounds that
decompose at high temperatures.

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 Types of distillation

5. Azeotropic distillation
• Some of the mixtures exhibit the same concentration in the vapor phase and the
liquid phase, They are called as azeotropes.
• Principle:- Addition of new substance to the liquid mixture in order to increase
relative volatility of one of two components and make separation easier.
• Azeotropic distillation usually refers to the specific technique of adding another
component to generate a new, lower-boiling azeotrope that is heterogeneous (e.g.
producing two, immiscible liquid phases), such as the example below with the
addition of benzene to water and ethanol.

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 Distillation process:

 The process of distillation begins with heating a liquid to boiling point. The liquid evaporates,
forming a vapor. The vapor is then cooled, usually by passing it through pipes or tubes at a lower
temperature. The cooled vapor then condenses, forming a distillate. The distillate is a purified form
of the original liquid. When the liquid evaporates, many impurities are left behind, so they are not
present in the distillate.

 Chemists use distillation to purify compounds in solution or to separate mixtures of solutes. For
example, different compounds have different boiling points. This property means that a more
volatile compound will evaporate at a lower temperature than a less volatile compound.

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 what is the basic principle behind simple distillation
process?

 Simple distillation is the process of separating components of a mixture containing two

miscible liquids that boil without decomposition and have sufficient difference in their

boiling points.

Principle of Distillation
• It is used to separate components of a mixture containing two miscible liquids that boil without decomposition

and have sufficient difference in their boiling points.

• The volatile liquid evaporates on heating which can be recovered by cooling its vapors by condensation.

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 Principle of fractional
distillation:

 In a mixture of two or more miscible liquids, various liquids’ separation depends on their

boiling points.

 The liquid having a lower boiling point boils first and can be obtained first from the

fractionating column than the liquid having a higher boiling point.

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Simple and fractional distillation

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 Steam distillation process

 In steam distillation, the immiscible mixture is

heated to boiling, causing the distillation of
both water and the volatile organic
compounds. This means that the gaseous
mixture travels upwards to a condenser, which
then condenses the vapor to liquid so that it
can be collected.

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 Types of distillation curve

1- True Boiling point(TBP) Distillation

2- ASTM Distillation
3- Semi-fractionating Distillation
4- Equilibrium Flash Vaporization(EFV)

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 Types of distillation curve

 1) TBP: This type of distillation is commonly used due to the accuracy of the results
obtained by this method which is very close to that obtained via real distillation or industrial
distillation. In this distillation, there is a fractionation column located between the
condenser and the flask. In general, this type of distillation is carried out by two steps:
firstly, under atmospheric pressure until 300°C (1% distilled very 2 min), secondly under
vacuum pressure (to prevent cracking process and to reduce the boiling point) at 40mmHg
(1% distilled every 3-5 min). In this process, the vapor press. temp. is plotted vs.
distilled(%) to get TBP curve.

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 Types of distillation curve

 2) ASTM: In this type of distillation there is on fractionation column located between the condenser
and the flask. On the other hand, the raised vapor will not be fractionated in this process. This
distillation is used with fractions having short range of the boiling point.
 3) Semi-fractionating distillation: In this type of distillation, their will be some fractionating
process on the raised vapor via package located between the condenser and the flask.

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 Types of distillation curve

 4) Equilibrium Flash Vaporization (EFV): Is a single stage separation technique. A liquid

mixture feed is pumped through a heater to raise the temperature and enthalpy of the mixture. It then
flows through a valve and the pressure is reduced, causing the liquid to partially vaporize. Because the
vapor and liquid are in such close contact up until the "flash" occurs, the product liquid and vapor
phases approach equilibrium.

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 Main Components of Distillation Column

• Columns are typically used to perform chemical and/or thermal

separations. But this requires some internal components, because
without all that “stuff” inside, a bare column would be just a pipe.

• The different elements installed inside columns are what help

facilitate the separation process. The diagram below shows typical
components found in distillation.

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 Main Components of Distillation Column

• Fractionation - Another term for distillation, or fractional

distillation.
• Feed - The liquid and/or gas feed into the distillation column. The
tray below the inlet nozzle is called the feed tray.
• Heavy Component - The component with the lower relative
volatility, for simple hydrocarbon this is the component with the
higher molecular weight. Found in higher concentration in the
bottom product of the column.
• Light Component - The component with the higher relative
volatility, for simple hydrocarbon this is the component with the
lower molecular weight. Found in higher concentration at the top
of the column.

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 Main Components of Distillation Column

Stripping section - The trays between the bottom of the column and
the feed tray. In the stripping section the aim is to concentrate the
heavier component in the liquid phase.
Rectifying section - The trays between the feed tray and the top of the
column. In the rectifying section the aim is to concentrate the lighter
component in the vapor phase.
Top Product - The product which leaves the top of the column, also
called distillate. This product is usually passed through a heat
exchanger and liquefied.
Bottom Product - The product which leaves through the bottom of
the column.

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 Main Components of Distillation Column

Reflux - A portion of vapor from the top of the column which has
been condensed to a liquid and returned to the column as a liquid
above the top tray.
Reboiler - A heat exchanger at the bottom of the column which boils
some of the liquid leaving the column. The vapor generated returns to
the column at the bottom of the stripping section.
Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium (VLE) Curve - A plot of the actual
composition of the lighter component in the vapor phase for a given
composition in the liquid phase. Usually derived from thermodynamic
data.

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 Typical operating parameters

There are some general trends common to the operation of distillation columns. By knowing
these trends and why they occur we can improve our understanding of the distillation process.
• Temperature Profile
The basic temperature profile of a distillation column is hotter at the bottom and cooler at the
top. For a simple two component distillation the temperature at the bottom is just lower than the
boiling point of the heavier component. The temperature at the top of the column is just above
the boiling point of the lighter component.
At the bottom of the column we would like the heavy component to remain as a liquid and the
lighter component to stay as a gas. So we set the temperature at the bottom to match this
requirement. This temperature is set by adding heat via a heat exchanger called a reboiler.
Typically the heat added to the bottom of the column is easy to control, via steam or hot oil flow
rates.

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 Typical operating parameters

At the top of the column the situation is reversed. We would like the light component to remain
a gas while the heavier component is condensed to a liquid and falls back down the column.
The top temperature is set just above the boiling point of the lighter component. The
temperature control situation is different here to the bottom of the column, because we usually
want the top product to be a liquid when we send it for storage. So we condense all of the gas
coming out of the top of the column to liquid. This liquid stream is split with some returning to
the column and some going to storage. The top temperature is often controlled by changing the
reflux rate, i.e. the flow rate of liquid sent back to the top of the column. A higher reflux rate
means more cooler liquid falling down the column against the rising warmer gas, and the top
temperature is lower.
Overall heat is added at the bottom of the column and heat is extracted at the top of the column.
Inside the column the temperature balance is created between the hot gas rising up the column
and the cooler liquid falling down the column.

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 Typical operating parameters

• Pressure Profile
There is typically a pressure gradient across the column with the pressure being higher at the
bottom of the column than the top. This pressure gradient occurs as the liquid coming down the
column impedes the flow of vapor up the column and imposes a pressure loss on the flow. In
steady state distillations the pressure in the column is held constant, and the temperature is
varied to control the composition of the product streams.

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 Aspen hysys

 Aspen HYSYS is a software focused on simulation processes of engineering and

optimization.

 In this presentation, steady state simulation to pre-heat the crude and export it to the
distillation tower is performed by using Aspen HYSYS V11.

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Petroleum Assay

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Mixer

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Heater

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Heat Exchanger

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Three Phase Separator

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Heater

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Preflash

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Heater

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Distillation Column specs

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Final model of DC

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Tawkee Central Processing Facility (CPF)
Unit

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Tawkee Refinery Unit

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