New Technologies To Enhance the Distillation Yield of Petroleum Fractionation

Abstract

We review the performance of different technologies published in a recent patent by Ji and Bagajewicz (2007) aimed at increasing distillates yield. We also present different implementation schemes composed of various combinations of the two technologies and compare both distillate yield and energy expenditure to the current conventional distillation process for light, intermediate, and heavy crudes. We demonstrate sizable increases of yield as well as significant profit. The criteria for analysis were yield, energy savings, gross margin, and potential extra revenue for each scheme. While the comparisons are made on the basis of grassroots design, we took one technology and assumed a retrofit of an existing column via simple change in the heat recovery, to assess the extra investment needed.

An Energy‐Efficient Crude Distillation Unit with a Prefractionator

“…An optimized heat‐exchanger network of the CDU was developed, saving 32 % energy . Various heat‐integration techniques have been applied to the CDU using the heat‐exchanger network and vapor recompression . The conventional CDU was modified by a sequence of distillation columns and the two‐column process , however, no significant reduction in energy demand was found.…”

Optimal Retrofit Strategy of Heat Exchanger Networks Applied in Crude Oil Distillation Units

“…7 Compared to grassroots design, retrofit design was introduced as a more economical option by the adding of equipment to satisfy the new operating scenarios. 8 Some retrofits including a preflash implementation 9 and other new techniques 10 were also used to improve the distillation yield of crude oil fractionation and to improve the energy efficiency in CDUs. Other methods including the simultaneous optimization of distillation process and heat exchanger network 11 and shortcut models were also developed to account for the existing HEN details within the optimization of existing refinery distillation units.…”