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Crude Distillation Unit

The Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) is the first processing unit in a petroleum refinery where crude oil is fed and distilled into products like naphtha, kerosene and diesel. In the CDU, crude oil is heated and desalted before being fed into the distillation column where it separates into vapor and liquid phases. The products are extracted from the column for further processing. The residue from the CDU is fed into the Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU) where it is further separated into light and heavy vacuum gas oils using lower pressure and higher temperature than the CDU. The distillates from the VDU are processed further while the heavy residue can be upgraded into other products

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Crude Distillation Unit

The Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) is the first processing unit in a petroleum refinery where crude oil is fed and distilled into products like naphtha, kerosene and diesel. In the CDU, crude oil is heated and desalted before being fed into the distillation column where it separates into vapor and liquid phases. The products are extracted from the column for further processing. The residue from the CDU is fed into the Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU) where it is further separated into light and heavy vacuum gas oils using lower pressure and higher temperature than the CDU. The distillates from the VDU are processed further while the heavy residue can be upgraded into other products

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Crude Distillation Unit

In petroleum refining, the Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) (often referred to as the Atmospheric
Distillation Unit) is usually the first processing equipment through which crude oil is fed. Once
in the CDU, crude oil is distilled into various products, like naphtha, kerosene, and diesel, that
then serve as feedstocks for all other processing units at the refinery.

As oil is being fed into the CDU, the first thing that happens is the crude is heated to a
temperature between 215 and 280°F (100 -137°C). This allows salts, which can be harmful to
some equipment, to be removed at the desalter. The now desalted crude continues through the
system into the heater where it is further heated to a temperature of over 650°F (350°C). Next, it
is fed into the atmospheric column where the vapors and liquids separate. Residues are stripped
out at the bottom of the column. The products (naphtha, kerosene, diesel and gas oil) are taken
from the side of the column and moved through the refinery for further processing.

Vacuum Distillation Unit


The atmospheric residue is reheated in a fired furnace to 730-850 oF (390-455 °C) before
introduction into the vacuum distillation unit (VDU). Furnace outlet temperature is selected
depending on the thermal reactivity and the desired level of separation in the column. Steam
ejectors, or, more recently, vacuum pumps, are used to create vacuum for evaporation of the light
vacuum gas oil and heavy vacuum gas oil fractions. The temperature and pressure in VDU also
depend on whether steam is introduced, or the separation is carried out without the steam
addition in “dry” towers, varying between 10 to 30 mmHg at the bottom of the tower. Lower
pressures and higher temperatures are used in dry towers. To minimize the pressure difference
between the bottom and top of the column, some special packing materials are used instead of
trays for providing contact between liquid and vapor streams to improve fractionation.

The heavy distillates (light vacuum gas oil and heavy vacuum gas oil) separated in VDU are
further processed in downstream separation and conversion units to produce lubricating oil base
stocks, or as feedstock for hydrocracking to produce light and middle distillates. The residue
from vacuum distillation (VDR) can be upgraded into marketable products and fuels using
processes such as visbreaking, deasphalting, and coking

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