Refining Gas Processing Petrochemicals: Petroleum Technology Quarterly

ptq
Q2 2018
PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY QUARTERLY
REFINING
GAS PROCESSING
PETROCHEMICALS
SPECIAL FEATURES
HEAT TRANSFER & FLUID FLOW

MASS TRANSFER & SEPARATION
cover and spine copy 27.indd 1 11/03/2018 19:47

Achieve More Achieve more from challenging feeds in your
Hydroprocessing operations with the new ULTIMet™
With ULTIMet™ catalyst. It’s Honeywell UOP’s most active catalyst,

used in hydrotreating and hydrocracking applications
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© 2018 Honeywell International. All rights reserved.
honeywell uop ultimet achieve more.indd 1 08/03/2018 17:36

SPM-UOP-00178-Ultimet-Print-Ad-210x297mm.indd 2 3/8/18 9:34 AM
ptq
PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY QUARTERLY
3 Five years of growth
Chris Cunningham
5 ptq&a
23 Challenges and opportunities of an FCC revamp

Rashed Al Fadhli and Subhash Chander Singhal KNPC
Dharmesh Panchal Honeywell UOP
29 Heavy feed characterisation: a molecular approach

Q2 (Apr, May, Jun) 2018 Glen Hay and Lante Carbognani Virtual Materials Group
www.eptq.com Hideki Nagata Fuji Oil Company
43 Maximising heat exchanger cleaning

Berthold Otzisk Kurita Europe
Ladislav Úradníček Leader Technology
47 Enhanced energy recovery for crude preheating

Eva Andersson Alfa Laval
Ibrahim Tahric Preem
51 Boosting energy efficiency in aromatics processing

Sunil Kumar, Prasenjit Ghosh and Shrikant Nanoti
CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum
57 Designing for a sourer future

Debopam Chaudhuri and Srinivasa Oruganti
Fluor
63 Replacing a corroded column with packing internals

Yang Quan, Markus Duss and Dong Jiao-Jiao
Sulzer Chemtech
69 Packed bed performance analytics

Lowell T Pless Tracerco
75 Dividing wall columns for gas plants

Manish Bhargava, Roomi Kalita and David Kockler
GTC Technology
81 Process flow determines coker heater performance

Rahul C Patil, Pinakiranjan Patra, Ajay Gupta, Ved Prakash Mishra
and Asit Kumar Das
Reliance Industries
89 Innovation in supply chain planning

Dennis Ostendorf Quintiq
95 Machine learning in asset maintenance

John Hague AspenTech
101 Wireless instruments in corrosive and hazardous locations

Sheikh Rafik Manihar Ahmed and Kuleesha Malik
Fluor Daniel India
Cover
Neste is rebuilding the wastewater treatment plant at its refinery in Porvoo, Finland. The project involves renewing the
chemical and biological treatment systems of the wastewater plant. The project is scheduled for completion in 2020.
Photo: Neste
©2018. The entire content of this publication is protected by copyright full details of which are available from the publishers. All rights
reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
The opinions and views expressed by the authors in this publication are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher and while every care
has been taken in the preparation of all material included in Petroleum Technology Quarterly and its supplements the publisher cannot be held
responsible for any statements, opinions or views or for any inaccuracies.
ed com copy 17.indd 1 11/03/2018 15:44

albemarle.indd 1 13/12/2017 17:47
ptqPETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY QUARTERLY
Five years of growth
Vol 23 No 3
Q2 (Apr, May, Jun) 2018
T
here are busy and secure times ahead for refiners and petrochemicals
Editor producers as demand for oil products leaps ahead into the next decade.
Chris Cunningham The International Energy Agency (IEA) has been updating its outlook on
[email protected] the oil industry and bases its forecasts on continued strong economic growth
across the globe and acceleration in oil production to meet the resulting growth
Production Editor in demand, for the next five years at least.
Rachel Storry
[email protected]
The US will lead that surge in crude output, supported by rising produc-
tion in Norway, Canada and Brazil. Naturally enough, there is a caveat to all
Graphics Editor of this, with the IEA pointing out that the oil industry will need to step up its
Rob Fris investment in production after years of decline, otherwise demand will begin
[email protected] to embarrass the supply side.
The oil industry’s investment in new production fell by no less than a quar-
Editorial ter in two of the last three years and stayed level through 2017. During the
tel +44 844 5888 773
fax +44 844 5888 667
same period, oil prices collapsed before OPEC and other producers reined
back their own production.
Business Development Director The situation has changed markedly since, with the US in particular driv-
Paul Mason ing forward, chiefly through the development of stable production levels from
[email protected] shale measures. According to the new outlook, the US will eventually pro-
duce 17 million b/d of crude oil, condensates and natural gas liquids – a rise
Advertising Sales Office of around 4 million b/d from recent levels – to maintain its global lead as a
tel +44 844 5888 771
fax +44 844 5888 662
producer of petroleum products. Through the same five-year period, OPEC
countries will add 750 000 b/d to the global market. In summary, production
Publisher capacity across the world will rise 6.4 million b/d by 2023 for a grand total of
Nic Allen 107 million b/d, while the US will account for 60% of the total.
[email protected] At the same time, rising demand across the globe, led this time by China
and India, will be not far behind output levels, lagging output by 2 million
Circulation
b/d or so and with no prospect of that demand slowing down until 2023 as
Fran Havard
[email protected]
petroleum counter-measures such as electric vehicles and increased energy
efficiency begin to have a significant impact on the balance in oil trade.
Crambeth Allen Publishing Ltd In the meantime, the main driving force for demand will be petrochemicals
Hopesay, Craven Arms SY7 8HD, UK which will account for a quarter of growth in demand for oil over the five-year
tel +44 844 5888 776 period. This trend again places US in pole position as production of ethane
fax +44 844 5888 667 and naphtha from its new oil and gas production sites increases the supply of
relatively low cost petrochemical feedstocks.
Register to receive your regular copy of
With supply outstripping processing capacity in the US, there is also the
PTQ at www.eptq.com/register crude export market to boost the fortunes of oil producers. Exports recently
reached levels of 2 million b/d; according to the IEA, and depending on prog-
ress with the construction of new pipelines and export terminals, that figure
PTQ (Petroleum Technology Quarterly) (ISSN
No: 1632-363X, USPS No: 014-781) is published
could rise to 5 million b/d within the next five years. While the Middle East
quarterly plus annual Catalysis edition by Crambeth will remain the biggest supplier of crude oil to Asian refiners, the US’s devel-
Allen Publishing Ltd and is distributed in the US
by SP/Asendia, 17B South Middlesex Avenue, oping role as an exporter is likely to feed into China’s investment in its petro-
Monroe NJ 08831. Periodicals postage paid at New chemicals industry.
Brunswick, NJ. Postmaster: send address changes to
PTQ (Petroleum Technology Quarterly), 17B South
Middlesex Avenue, Monroe NJ 08831.
Back numbers available from the Publisher
at $30 per copy inc postage. CHRIS CUNNINGHAM
PTQ Q2 2018 3
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ptq&a
Q Our ion exchange system for treating boiler feed water is to precipitate directly from the vapour phase. Ideally,
increasingly inefficient. Suggestions please for something more the salt point of a crude overhead neutralising amine
efficient and less costly to run. should be 15°F (8°C) lower than the water dew point
temperature of the column. In this case, any amine chlo-
A Jim Robinson, Senior Technical Consultant, Jim.Robinson@ ride salts formed will be within ‘reach’ of the water wash
SUEZ.com, SUEZ Water Technologies & Solutions employed to remove such corrosive salt deposits.
It is important to consult with a water treatment special- However, these ‘beneficial’ amine corrosion inhibitors
ist that understands your current water supply quality are not the only amine species present in the tower. There
and the treated water requirements for your system. This are several sources of ‘tramp’ amines as well, which are
information will enable the water treatment specialist to any organic amines not intentionally added to the crude
provide the best advice for your facility. overhead tower for corrosion control. Boiler steam con-
A common change many have made to save regener- taining tramp neutralising amines is added to the col-
ation chemical is to replace or assist their ion exchange umn as ‘stripping steam’ to improve the efficiency of the
system with reverse osmosis (RO) treatment of the water. distillation process. In addition to the amines used as
Sometimes RO treatment produces satisfactory water for steam system neutralisers, other sources of tramp amines
the intended use, sometimes the water needs to be fur- include the incoming crude slate and any slop oils, alka-
ther polished by ion exchange or electrodialysis reversal. nol amine units, hydrogen sulphide scavengers, and sour
On the other hand, since your problem is reported to water strippers.
be the ion exchange system becoming less efficient, per- Many of these tramp amines, including many used as
haps the most economical solution will be to find out steam system neutralisers, have elevated chloride salt
what has caused the loss of efficiency. Are regeneration point temperatures, and will form corrosive amine chlo-
flow rates, concentrations and temperatures properly ride salt deposits in tower areas not subject to removal
maintained? Is the proper amount of ion exchange resin by the water wash systems. In addition, as refiners lower
still in the vessel(s)? Are the resin beads fouled or has top tower temperatures to enhance distillate production
their exchange capability been depleted so resin replace- – jet fuel, diesel, kerosene – this corrosive salt formation
ment is required? will be driven into upstream areas of the distillation col-
A good water treatment specialist should be able to umn unreached by the water wash.
help you answer these questions and find the best solu- An analytical profile of the crude tower amine salt
tion to resolve your problem. deposits and overall overhead amine matrix, with com-
parison to the composition of the amines in the steam
neutralising amine blend, as well as the other tramp
Q We are getting amine salt fouling in our distillation column amine sources, can be used to model the behaviour of the
overhead. Are we using the wrong neutralising amine in our steam and other tramp amine species entering the tower.
steam system? Modern modelling software, such as the Suez LoSalt pro-
gramme, utilise this data along with crude slate amine
A Toni Rossi, Senior Boiler Technical Advisor, Toni.Rossi@ profiles, and additional tower operating data, to accu-
SUEZ.com, and Collin Cross, Senior Product Analytics/Support rately predict the potential for formation of corrosive
Manager, [email protected], SUEZ Water Technologies & amine chloride salt deposits.
Solutions If steam system amines are determined to be a signif-
The answer is ‘quite possibly’. However, a systematic icant source of corrosive salt deposits in the distillation
approach is required to determine if the organic amine tower, there are solutions available. One example is the
or, more commonly, the blend of amines applied to the Suez series of Steamate LSA (Low Salting Amine) steam
steam system for corrosion control are primary contribu- system neutralising amine products. These patent pend-
tors to corrosive amine chloride salt deposits in the crude ing technologies were recently developed utilising the
distillation column. Suez LoSalt software via collaboration between the Suez
Carefully selected organic ‘neutralising’ amines are hydrocarbon processing and boiler research scientists
purposely added to crude distillation columns to elevate and engineers to select steam system amines with lower
pH and reduce the corrosivity of the water formed in the salt point temperatures that are compatible with mod-
column through condensation. A key criterion for selec- ern crude tower operation, especially those working to
tion of these beneficial amine neutralisers is their chlo- enhance distillate production.
ride salt point at normal overhead conditions. This is In addition to the low salt point neutralising amine,
the temperature at which the amine chloride salt begins Steamate LSA technology incorporates a unique, vola-
Additional Q&A can be found at www.eptq.com/QandA
www.eptq.com PTQ Q2 2018 5
Q&A copy 30.indd 1 11/03/2018 13:51

tile, surface adsorbed, corrosion inhibitor that optimises is a very effective and inexpensive amine that is attrac-
steam system corrosion protection at lower overall neu- tive to users looking to minimise costs. Unfortunately,
tralising amine dosages. This reduces steam treatment its salt with HCl is usually stable at temperatures higher
costs, as well as the level of steam amines entering the than water dew point temperatures and many tower top
crude tower with the stripping steam. temperatures, which more than negates the savings in
treatment costs. Diamines are also known to form salts
A Berthold Otzisk, Senior Product Manager - Process at small concentrations. However, switching to a steam/
Chemicals, Kurita Europe, [email protected] overhead neutraliser containing amine(s) with a lower
One of the key questions is if you are using sufficient tendency to form salts will only benefit if the neutraliser
wash water in your overhead system to transport the is the only source of a problem amine.
formed amine salts after neutralisation. In case only For crude overhead systems, the steam neutraliser
steam is used in your system to dilute and disperse the is only one source of amine. Usually, the overhead
neutralising amine to the overhead, it is possible that neutraliser is of greatest concern as its amine(s) con-
amine salt deposition can be expected. Without suffi- tribute the greatest quantity in the overhead system.
cient wash water, the system operates ‘relatively dry’ Additionally, the neutraliser used at the vacuum over-
when the vapour temperatures are above dew point. head can add amine to the atmospheric overhead if these
Neutralising amine salts have a low pH that bears a high waters are used as a desalter wash source. Contaminant
risk for under-deposit corrosion when amine salt deposi- or tramp amines can impact the system from slops, par-
tion occurs. Probably, amine hydrochloride salts (R-NH2, ticularly from amine gas treating units, and in the crude
HCl) are observed in your system? oil fed from chemicals used upstream, especially H2S
Some strong neutralising amines such as ethylene scavenging chemicals. All of the common gas treating
diamine (EDA) or monoethanolamine (MEA) are well amines, DEA, DGA, MDEA and MEA are aggressive in
known to require sufficient wash water for the transpor- salt formation if they are allowed into the crude unit.
tation of the formed amine salts. If you inject the neutral- Additionally, cost-conscious upstream consumers who
ising amine into the steam to vaporise it, the mist may have no stake in downstream impacts commonly use the
sublime and can form amine deposits after the neutral- inexpensive MEA based triazines for H2S scavenging.
isation reaction, when the partial pressure of the amine In the case of salts from ammonia or contaminant
salts exceeds a certain limiting value. amines, an effective water wash system is crucial to
Neutralising amines are generally selected based on avoid salt formation in overhead condensing exchangers.
boiling point temperature, base strength, solubility in However, overhead water wash systems are commonly
naphtha, melting point of amine hydrochloride salts, not designed to effectively mitigate salt formation.
and the solubility of amine hydrochloride salts in naph- Maintaining a proper rate, spray quality and continuous
tha and water. The usage of (more) wash water is a good operation are necessary to avoid the impact of salts on
option for improvement, particularly when you observe downstream exchangers.
amine salt fouling. If high boiling neutralising amines If salts from contaminant amines are threatening the
are used, it could be a good alternative to switch to a low tower top, you can either raise the operating tempera-
boiling neutralising amine with fewer amine salt deposi- ture to 15°C above the salt formation temperature or
tion properties. reduce/change the salt forming contaminants to main-
In case wash water is a limiting factor in your sys- tain the 15°C margin. In the case of steam neutralisers,
tem and only a defined amount of steam can be used, a change in amine type can often resolve the concern.
Kurita’s patented ACF technology could be a very good For other sources of amines, optimal desalting practices
alternative. ACF products contain a strong organic base, and caustic treatment in the desalted crude can minimise
which immediately bonds very corrosive chlorides or overhead chloride levels. Acidification of the desalter
other acidic species. The formed ACF salts are highly can minimise contaminant amines in the overhead by
hygroscopic with a neutral pH and low corrosion poten- removing them to the desalter brine water.
tial. These salts will keep liquid in the condensed water Successfully navigating all these possible scenarios
phase and will leave the system with the sour water. will require frequent water analyses for amine content
coupled with an accurate thermodynamic model of the
A Joel Lack, Corrosion Technology Manager, Joel.Lack@BHGE. potential for each amine to form a salt.
com, Baker Hughes, a GE company
Possibly. Outside of crude/vacuum overheads, ammonia
is usually the culprit for salt formation. Ammonia, found Q How does model predictive control work and how can it
in all overhead systems, can form salts higher than the improve regular changes in product output?
water dew point temperature in some overhead systems.
Boiler amines used in the stripping steam are typically A Tim Olsen, Refining Consultant, [email protected],
present in small quantities in the overhead, allowing Emerson Automation Solutions
many amines to be used without problem. However, Model predictive control (MPC) is ideal for difficult con-
there are a few amines that can cause problems even at trol applications with multiple process interactions, long
small concentrations. delay times, and multiple process constraints. Overall,
A very common problem amine in overhead systems MPC handles difficult process dynamics, reduces vari-
is 2-aminoethanol or monoethanolamine (MEA). MEA ability and protects operating constraints. For multivari-
6 PTQ Q2 2018 www.eptq.com
Q&A copy 30.indd 2 11/03/2018 13:51

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03M012018H
clg_PTQ_Q2_CLG_mar_2018.indd
clg.indd 1 1 1/10/2018 2:19:15
08/03/2018 PM
10:07
able control problems, a matrix of control models (based and coke production, lower VGO conversion, and lower
on step testing to understand process dynamics) is used gasoline yield. If the FCC catalyst instead is well pro-
to calculate the response of each controlled and con- tected by feed pretreatment, the consequences can actu-
straint variable based on changes to manipulated vari- ally be minimised or even avoided.
ables or measured disturbance variables. Step testing Haldor Topsoe is a leading supplier of pretreat cat-
should be small enough to avoid disturbing the process, alysts for FCC units and is able to tailor a pretreatment
but large enough to see the response over process noise. reactor loading that can handle all kinds of contaminants
Advances in technology have resulted in some DCS in the VGO. In particular Ni, V, Fe, Si, As, and P are big
host systems to include embedded MPC. With MPC run- concerns currently and these contaminants all have the
ning in the DCS controllers, it is redundant and fast (once potential of ruining the FCC catalyst workload. The best
per second compared to MPC on top of a DCS which solution for the refiner is to install an effective hydrode-
typically executes once per minute). Embedded MPC metallisation (HDM) catalyst as part of the pretreatment
also provides the option to be part of offline simulation reactor. The best HDM catalysts are recognised to have a
and training. The other advantage of embedded MPC is porosity and activity that will trap the contaminants and
avoiding connectivity issues with MPC added to a DCS accumulate them to achieve the projected cycle length.
which includes database synchronisation, watchdog tim- Nickel, for example, will react with H2S and precipitate
ers, and fail/shed logic design. as NiS inside the catalyst pore system. This means that
When explaining MPC, the analogy of driving a car an effective Ni guard catalyst is equipped with large
down the highway is used to better understand the pores and a significant pore volume to facilitate a high
advantage of using this multivariable control over PID. storage capacity. Based on industry experience, Haldor
For regular PID control, you drive while looking out the Topsoe’s R&D has developed a complete HDM cat-
side window. With a curve coming up on the highway, alyst portfolio, which currently includes MultiTrap,
you need to go off the road before PID makes a correc- SiliconTrap, and top-tier guards, such as TK-743. In any
tion to get back on the road. For MPC, the advantage is case, it is advisable to interact with the catalyst provider,
you are looking out the front windshield; you see the as the best HDM catalyst solution is always tailor-made
curve coming and easily adjust the car direction to avoid to match the exact feedstock type and requires knowl-
going off the road. edge about, for instance, additive properties.
For MPC, you generate models based on step tests
to predict where the process is going. Many controllers A Marco Roncato, Senior Product Manager Process
are manipulated at the same time based on the models, Development & Marketing, [email protected], Chimec
minimising the impact from any disturbance. The result The FCC plant is one of the main conversion units in a
is much less variability while operating closer to con- modern refinery and especially in these last years it is
straints without violating them. A good MPC example called on to process heavier feedstocks more than ever.
is crude switches that have minimal impact to the crude When the feed is a residue, it is unavoidably contam-
fractionator while maintaining side cut specifications. inated by metals which – reducing the catalyst’s activ-
Note, MPC can have different operating objectives that ity and promoting the feed’s dehydrogenation reactions
can be changed easily depending on market conditions. – leads to a reduction in conversion levels and to an
Examples of operating condition changes include but are increase in hydrogen and coke.
not limited to: maximise throughput, minimise energy Such metals can be nickel (Ni), vanadium (V) and
use, maximise one product/intermediate over another. sodium, and they all concentrate in the bottom residues.
It is important to train console operators on how to use All of them are catalysts themselves, triggering unde-
the new MPC, and ensure they understand the operating sired dehydrogenation and condensation reactions, end-
objectives. Also, do not forget about modifying standard ing up in increased hydrogen and coke yields, and at the
operating procedures if required. same time reducing naphtha. Moreover, they all deposit
on the catalyst’s surface hence reducing its activity.
But while sodium content can be easily managed pri-
Q Heavier feeds to our FCC are resulting in excessive marily with good desalter management – that means
hydrogen and coke production. We think nickel contamination minimising caustic injection downstream – on the con-
of the catalyst is to blame. Any solutions? trary both Ni and V are almost impossible to remove
from the residue, because they are present in porphy-
A Michael Tinning T Schmidt, Senior Product Manager, mtp@ rinic form.
topsoe.com, Haldor Topsoe A/S One solution can be a hydrodemetallisation section
It is a fact that many FCC feeds have become more upstream of the FCC, but this is obviously a very expen-
and more hard to process in recent years. Opportunity sive solution, although effective. Otherwise, it is possible
crudes, cracked feeds, heavier cuts, and use of additives to inject, in the FCC feed, a proper nickel passivator in
are enabling FCC units to make more money than before; order to protect the catalyst’s activity.
however, the feedstock changes come at a price when it These passivators – usually antimony (Sb) based,
comes to catalyst performance. If the FCC catalyst is not although many others are claimed to be active – have
sufficiently protected from the contaminants present in been used for many years to reduce nickel’s detrimental
the feed, it will significantly impact the overall perfor- effects. Usually they have to be injected in the feed before
mance of the FCC complex in terms of more hydrogen the riser, with the help of a carrier like light cycle oil.
Q&A copy 30.indd 3 11/03/2018 13:51

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Chimec has developed a dedicated line of passivators rimental effects of nickel dehydrogenation reactions.
whose response is usually almost immediate: by form- FCC catalyst that is well designed for operation in a
ing an alloy with nickel, the dehydrogenation reactions high nickel environment will have the following per-
due to nickel are often reduced by 40% to 60%. This is formance characteristics. First, the catalyst will contain
witnessed by a drastic decline in dry gas and hydrogen optimised levels of a specialised type of nickel-trapping
yield. The required dosage obviously depends on Ni alumina. For nickel to dehydrogenate hydrocarbon mol-
and V concentration in the FCC feed, but usually ranges ecules to form coke and gas, it has to be available on
between 0.2-0.5 of the Sb/Ni ratio in the Ecat. the catalyst surface such that hydrocarbon molecules
Chimec passivators give the following advantages: can freely interact with the metal. With the specialised
• No dry gas saturation in the compressor nickel-trapping alumina, nickel interacts with the alu-
• Catalyst activity increase mina surface in such a way that the nickel is no longer
• Lighter distillates production increase accessible to the hydrocarbon molecules being cracked.
• Possibility to operate at higher metal levels, in compar- Second, the FCC catalyst should contain a zeolite with
ison to the catalyst excellent thermal and hydrothermal stability. In high
• FCC throughput (residue) increase nickel environments, any extra coke formed via nickel-
• Atmospheric residue in the FCC feed increase catalysed dehydrogenation will result in a higher level
• Catalyst make-up rates reduction. of internal catalyst temperature rise during regenera-
tion. Therefore, the zeolite portion of the catalyst must
A Xiomara Price, Global Center of Excellence Leader: Fouling be designed to handle the rigours of such an operation.
Control, [email protected], SUEZ Water Technologies & Third, the matrix portion of the catalyst must be opti-
Solutions mised to allow for the proper level of catalyst porosity
FCC metal contaminants such as nickel and vanadium in order to properly crack large molecules and allow for
have been known to cause excess hydrogen and coke interaction between nickel and the trapping alumina.
make. Nickel is four times more reactive than vanadium; In addition to proper design of the fresh catalyst, it is
however, vanadium will deactivate the catalyst, while important to set an appropriate catalyst management
nickel will only dehydrogenate the feed. Nickel passiva- strategy. Based on the constraints of an operating FCC
tion has been long used to mitigate the impact of nickel unit, it is possible to determine the optimum level of
poisoning. The most economic and frequently used pas- nickel contamination. Beyond this level, there can be a
sivator is antimony oxide. The antimony reacts with the drop-off in FCC unit cracking margin as product yields
nickel to form a bimetallic compound, rendering it inac- or feed throughput are compromised. Therefore, once the
tive. Large particle size and small particle size antimony optimum level of nickel on equilibrium catalyst is deter-
are sold as colloidal suspension in a water or hydrocar- mined, the catalyst addition rate should be increased to
bon solution. Small particle size antimony (<20 nanome- achieve that objective. Once the nickel level on catalyst is
ters) is more effective as it better distributes throughout under control, it is important to understand if the resul-
the feed and catalyst, facilitating higher mass transfer tant catalyst activity is appropriate given the entire set of
and increasing the reaction between the chemistry and unit operational and product recovery constraints. If the
nickel. One resource that can provide additional informa- catalyst is too active at the higher addition rate, a lower
tion is a paper presented at AFPM (formerly NPRA) in activity fresh catalyst should be considered. For shorter
1998 titled Enhancement of Nickel Passivation Effectiveness term fluctuations in contaminant nickel level, spent equi-
by the Use of Small Particle Size Antimony Products. The librium catalyst from another FCC unit can be used for
benefit of using the nickel passivator will be seen quickly flushing nickel and other contaminant metals down to
in the reduction of hydrogen make which means that the target levels.
only short trials are needed to prove them out. There is one additional option to consider. Once the
As previously indicated, vanadium poisoning will also catalyst management strategy is set, it may be possible
contribute to an increase in hydrogen and coke make in to reduce coke and gas further by injecting an antimony-
addition to catalyst deactivation. There are various solu- containing additive into the FCC feedstock. The effect of
tions for addressing this problem. Metal traps can be this additive is to reduce coke and gas yield on a quick
blended with the existing catalyst. It can be blended as response basis. With a catalyst properly formulated for
a percentage of the make-up catalyst on a continuous high nickel operation, the full benefit of antimony will
basis or already be incorporated into the fresh catalyst. not be realised. However, the level of benefit that does
Another option is the use of an additive that can deac- occur with antimony in such situations can often be mea-
tivate the vanadium. Since the vanadium destroys the surable enough to support the additional spend. And for
catalyst, the full impact of the treatment programme will those units utilising antimony, it is beneficial to moni-
not be seen until the catalyst inventory turns over. tor the nickel level of incoming feed sources so that anti-
mony injection levels can be adjusted proactively in front
A Dennis Kowalczyk, Vice President, Global Customer of increased nickel contaminant levels in the FCC feed.
Technology, FCC, [email protected], W. R. Grace & Co.
There are a number of approaches used commercially A Bruce Wright, Senior Technical Engineer, Bruce.Wright@
to counteract the effects of feedstock nickel contami- BHGE.com, Baker Hughes, a GE company
nation on FCC unit yields and operation. Key is that Nickel and other metals are present at higher concentra-
the base FCC catalyst be designed to handle the det- tions in the heavier FCC feeds, especially resid streams as
Q&A copy 30.indd 4 11/03/2018 13:51

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© 2016 Exxon Mobil Corporation. All rights reserved. ExxonMobil, the ExxonMobil logo, the interlocking “X” device and all product names herein are trademarks of Exxon Mobil Corporation.
exxon.indd 1 14/12/2016 10:31

compared to typical gasoil feeds. These metals are bound with chemical corrosion inhibitors, are common meth-
up in the hydrocarbon as porphyrins, organic mole- ods used to effectively manage this form of corrosion.
cules that surround the metals with multiple bonds tied In units using very aggressive desulphurisation or prob-
to the metal atoms. When processing heavy feeds in the lematical feeds, filming type corrosion inhibitors should
FCC, the porphyrin rings are catalytically cracked open also be used to mitigate metal loss.
and the metals, especially nickel, are then freed from While ammonium bisulphide is always expected to
the hydrocarbon complex. Since the heavy oils contain be present in an HDS unit, ammonium chloride forma-
higher concentrations of metals, increased nickel contam- tion, though rarer, can be more problematical. These salts
ination on the equilibrium catalyst is common. Nickel is work their way into the feed/effluent exchanger banks,
a strong dehydrogenation catalyst. Once nickel is cracked the reactor effluent air coolers, and/or the pressurised
out of the hydrocarbon matrix in the riser, it is mobile in separators. Often the salt can also make its way farther
the zeolite structure. As hydrocarbon is cracked within and into the stripper and the reflux/reboiler systems.
the catalyst, nickel cracks additional hydrogen from the These situations can impact reliability and be very costly.
hydrocarbon and, as a result, the remaining hydrocarbon Chloride breakthrough most commonly comes from
is hydrogen starved leading to coke formation. the following sources, and is often involved with
Nickel passivation additives, primarily antimony com- mechanical failure, changes in the feed, changes in oper-
pounds, can be injected into the FCC feed streams to ational strategies, changes in management practices, or
control the detrimental impact of increased nickel load- mechanical failures involved with these aspects:
ing. Antimony rapidly reacts with nickel in the zeo- 1) The feed pretreatment/water knockout systems
lite catalyst to form a nickel/antimony complex, which 2) Tank bottom waters
is non-catalytic. There are various forms of the anti- 3) Reformers/chlorides traps upstream of the make-up
mony passivation additives, including water based hydrogen injection point
and organo-metallic products. The specific additive uti- 4) Organic chlorides in the feed itself (rarely).
lised depends on possible injection locations, economics In such chloride breakthrough cases, water wash-
of the problem, and other factors. In addition, there are ing the feed/effluent banks and the stripper tower itself
some nickel trap catalysts on the market that help control may become necessary. To bring the units back to a nor-
the detrimental impact of excess nickel in the FCC feed. mal reliability status, point source control of chloride
These catalysts have to be continually replenished as the and a chemical management programme are the best
traps get filled with nickel. options. The chemical programme will be effective for
Another potential problem with processing heavy FCC both the reactor effluent air coolers and the reactor efflu-
feeds is vanadium poisoning. Vanadium is also a dehy- ent exchangers. Typical programmes involve using film-
drogenation catalyst, but is far less active than nickel. ers and/or salt dispersants.
However, vanadium imparts other, potentially more In all cases of chloride breakthrough, the source and
problematic, problems. Vanadium will gradually destroy pathway of chloride ions into the unit should be quickly
the zeolite matrix as it goes through successive regenera- identified and eliminated to prevent potential impacts
tion steps. As vanadium oxidises, it forms an acidic mol- on reliability. Most often we have found chloride break-
ecule that then destroys the zeolite matrix. The result of through to be involved with water intrusion. These
this activity is loss of catalyst activity; refineries must are often stagnant waters able to interact with flowing
continually replace spent catalyst with fresh catalyst to hydrocarbon over time, such as tank bottoms, a bro-
maintain target activity. ken knock-out drum, or a coalescer. Many hydrotreater
designs are not tolerant of water and these units are
often more dramatically affected by such circumstances.
Q Ammonium salt deposits are causing corrosion problems Designs having water knock-out facilities in the efflu-
in our naphtha hydrotreater. How can we solve this? ent system are helpful towards preventing water soluble
salts from reaching the stripper tower and forming such
A Collin Cross, Senior Product Analytics/Support Manager, corrosive salts.
[email protected], and Xiomara Price, Global Center of In conclusion, chloride breakthrough can have a large
Excellence Leader: Fouling Control, [email protected], impact on HDS reliability. The methods above should be
SUEZ Water Technologies & Solutions used to actively manage the levels of problematical ions
The main ammonium salts commonly causing corro- and their salt formation potential. Combinations of point
sion problems in naphtha HDS units are ammonium source control, effective water knock-out, and a chemical
bisulphide and ammonium chloride. In an ideally run- programme offer an effective way to potentially regain
ning unit with a well-designed and operating feed pre- reliability for a distressed unit.
treatment system, chloride concentrations should be very
low and ammonium bisulphide is expected as the pri- A Francesco Ragone, Product Manager, Process Development
mary corrodent. Ammonium bisulphide salt is always & Marketing, [email protected], CHIMEC
expected in these types of unit due to the direct forma- Ammonium salts can affect NHT reactor effluent at the
tion of both ammonia and H2S during the hydrotreating cooling stage. H2S and NH3 are commonly produced
process. from the hydrotreating of organic compounds containing
Advanced metallurgy, dilution of the bisulphide ion to S and N, leading to ammonium sulphide and bisulphide.
less than 2% by weight using a water wash system, along Other reactions may also occur, including the conver-
Q&A copy 30.indd 5 11/03/2018 13:52

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sion of any chlorides in the feed to HCl. It is important to rosion in low flow areas, clogged exchanger tubes and
underline the possibility to have chlorides carry-over in erosion-corrosion in high velocity locations. Controlling
the hydrogen coming from the reforming unit. flow velocities is one of the key measures to mitigating
Once the salt point conditions imposed by tempera- corrosion in reactor effluent air coolers.
ture, partial pressure and concentration are reached, the Low flow velocities may result in NH4HS salt deposits
ammonium salts start forming in the gas phase. As the and lead to extremely localised under-deposit corrosion
temperature across the reactor effluent cooling system if insufficient water is available to dissolve the NH4HS
decreases, ammonium salts rapidly become solid, thus salts that precipitated. The salts are not corrosive unless
creating fouling and, since they are hygroscopic, promot- they become hydrated at which point they are very cor-
ing under-deposit corrosion in the equipment. rosive. Water wash injection control is designed to pro-
A water wash programme is the common remedy to vide sufficient excess water to ensure that an adequate
avoid fouling and under-deposit corrosion; however, the amount of water remains as liquid to dilute the NH4HS
water wash can efficiently remove salts only if it gets in salts.
contact with them. Indeed, it is possible that the water is NH4HS readily dissolves in water, so a common prac-
not enough and/or follows only some preferential paths tice is to inject water ahead of the reactor effluent air
without effectively being in contact with the internal sur- coolers to form an aqueous bisulphide diluted solution.
face affected by salts deposition. Such a situation can Corrosion increases with increasing NH4HS concentra-
even increase the corrosion rate, since the salts will be tion and increasing velocity. Proper water injection rates
wet because of an insufficient amount of water or poor ahead of the cooler are key to controlling corrosion effi-
water mixing with the hydrocarbon phase. ciently. Below 2 wt%, solutions are generally not corro-
The first step is optimisation of the water wash pro- sive. Oxygen and iron in the wash water injected into
gramme: 20-25% of the total water injected must be liq- hydroprocessing reactor effluent can lead to increased
uid at process conditions – rigorous simulations can be corrosion and fouling.
helpful. The second step to improve the washing of the Good design practice should consist of symmetrical
system can rely upon a chemical treatment. Chimec Salt and hydraulically balanced exchanger flow and main-
Dispersant technology allows one to solve all the issues taining velocities within industry guidelines of 10-20 fps
related to ammonium salts deposition by preventing the for carbon steel. Special attention should be paid to local-
formation of new deposits and removing the already ised velocities as process conditions change, particularly
present ones. Chimec Salt Dispersant is a unique and as NH4HS concentrations exceed 2 wt%.
patented technology able to eliminate under-deposit cor- Ultimately, continuous monitoring data can be used
rosion, improve thermal exchange efficiency, and opti- to justify resistant materials upgrades such as Alloy 825
mise wash water consumption. It is soluble in organic and Duplex Stainless Steel as recorded corrosion rates
solvents and dispersible in water, so it can also be eas- indicate limited run times.2 Emerson offers multiple cor-
ily dosed in a washing water stream. In any case, it is rosion monitoring solutions including intrusive monitor-
homogenously dispersed in the oil/water matrix reaching of the process fluid, and non-intrusive monitoring for
ing all areas where deposits can take place, leading to changes in piping wall thickness.
higher washing efficiency.
After the reaction with salts, the molecule becomes 1 Shargay C, et al, Survey of Materials in Hydrotreater Units Processing
polar thus carrying the deposit toward the water phase High Tan Feeds, NACE, 2007.
where the removal can take place in the first downstream 2 API 571 Standard SECTION 5.0 Refining Industry Damage Mechanisms.
oil/water separator.
The Chimec Salt Dispersant portfolio accounts also for A Berthold Otzisk, Senior Product Manager - Process
multifunctional products formulated with a neutraliser Chemicals, [email protected], Kurita Europe
and a film forming corrosion inhibitor. More and more customers recognise corrosion problems
in their naphtha hydrotreaters, initiated by chloride cor-
A Christiane Lederer, Permasense, Business Development rosion. In some cases, organic chlorides are introduced
Manager, [email protected], and Tim Olsen, with crude oils, slop oils or additives from upstream
Refining Consultant, [email protected], Emerson treatment. Organic chlorides are not naturally found in
Automation Solutions crude oils and are often introduced with organic solvents
Ammonium bisulphide corrosion can cause corro- used to clean oil tankers or crude oil pipelines. In the
sion in the unit itself, plus the inlet and outlet piping. naphtha hydrotreater reactor, such organic chlorides are
Ammonium bisulphide (NH4HS) corrosion is a well- transformed into hydrochloric acid (HCl). Leaving the
known problem in hydrotreater and hydrocracker efflu- reactor, the hot gases will be cooled down in the feed/
ent air cooler areas.1 effluent exchangers, where condensed first droplets are
Ammonium bisulphide corrosion can occur as H2S extremely corrosive with a pH of 1-3. Ammonia (NH3) is
gases and ammonia react to ammonium salts (NH4HS) a very volatile gas and will not neutralise the HCl.
and crystallise out of the vapour phase. As the reac- With ammonia, the chlorides will sublime to NH4Cl.
tor effluent stream cools down, NH4HS salts precipitate The wet ammonium salts have a high corrosivity and
in the reactor effluent streams when temperatures drop under-deposit corrosion potential after precipitation or
within the range of 120-150°F (49-66°C). The formation of can directly attack the metal surface. Without using cor-
solid ammonium bisulphide leads to under-deposit corrosion protection programmes, some of our customers
Q&A copy 30.indd 6 11/03/2018 13:52

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GS_TechnologyDNA_A4_V07.indd 1 23/02/2018 08:55
06/03/2017 16:28
reported extremely quick localised corrosion attack in o Operate upstream accumulators at design conditions
the past, especially at deeper located areas of the feed/ to ensure proper phase separation
effluent heat exchanger network. It is nearly impossible o Resize upstream accumulators to improve phase
to keep the naphtha hydrotreater system dry so that no separation
corrosion will occur. Wash water injection only provides o Install other mechanical methods (such as coalescers)
partially successes and is a limiting factor in naphtha upstream to produce drier reactor feeds
hydrotreaters. • Minimise HCl content in the hydrogen treat gas that is
Kurita’s ACF technology is a very good alternative to fed to the hydrotreater reactor
eliminate or significantly reduce the corrosion poten- o Monitor hydrogen treat gas to ensure that HCl target
tial at naphtha hydrotreaters. The applied ACF products limits are consistently met
are formulations with a very strong organic base, which o Improve performance of chloride traps/guard beds
immediately reacts with HCl or other acidic components. as required.
Already formed NH4Cl salt deposits are dissolved by In many cases, even with proper contaminant control
replacing the ammonia. The former deposits are trans- methods, the formation of NH4Cl in the reactor effluent
ferred into liquid ACF salts, which have a neutral pH cannot be prevented. In these cases, the best mitigation
and a very low corrosivity. During operation, ACF prod- option is to implement water wash injection to the efflu-
ucts can be applied periodically for some time at higher ent system. Depending on the location of salt forma-
treat rates to remove ammonium salt fouling. The better tion, water wash may be needed in the reactor effluent
option is continuous dosage with low treat rates. Dosed exchanger train and/or at the inlets of downstream air
continuously, the ACF programme avoids salt precipita- coolers. Typical wash water sources include boiler feed
tion and keeps the metal surfaces clean, so that no corro- water, stripped sour water and steam condensate.
sion attack occurs. The primary objective of such a water wash system is
When flooding with corrosion attack in the stabiliser to scrub NH3 and HCl from the vapour phase by par-
column top section is observed, Kurita’s ACF technology titioning these contaminants into a condensed water
will also provide a perfect solution. A shutdown of the phase. In this way, the risks of under-salt corrosion as
naphtha hydrotreater for one or two days to perform a well as hydraulic limitations (pressure drop increases)
water wash is no longer necessary, avoiding extra costs can be minimised. At a minimum, a proper wash water
for cleaning or production losses. Based on practical system should include the following features:
experience, the ACF product can be applied during oper- • Water injection locations which are upstream of salt
ation as online cleaning for some hours. formation zones
• Sufficient water injection rate to force saturation + 25%
A Mark G Riley, Fellow, Adsorbents Development, mark.riley@ volume excess
uop.com, Honeywell UOP • Properly designed atomising spray nozzles
Ammonium chloride deposits are the result of chlo- • Divided water injection across parallel exchanger or air
ride ingress into the unit. The most common source is cooler inlets
improper clean-up of make-up hydrogen imported • Flow meters on each water injection line.
from a reforming unit. Chloride removal from reformer In addition to the techniques detailed above, it is criti-
net gas can be accomplished using an adsorbent or by cal to frequently monitor NH3 and HCl levels in effluent
water washing. Chlorides may also originate in the accumulator waters. These measured values, along with
liquid feed either due to poor desalter operation or relevant operating parameters (flow rate, temperatures,
due to organic chlorides in crude; often due to surfac- pressures), should be used as inputs to calculate NH4Cl
tants employed to enhance crude oil recovery. It may formation temperatures. Variations in contaminant lev-
be necessary to periodically switch the wash water els may shift salt formation locations such that the exist-
to the intermittent injection point upstream of the ing water wash system is no longer adequate to provide
normal wash water injection point to flush out desired benefits. In these situations, alternate water
ammonium chloride salts. Ammonium chloride salt wash injection locations, likely requiring increased
deposits at a higher temperature than ammonium water wash rates, would be needed. The effect on efflu-
bisulphide salt, which is the usual focus of water wash ent accumulators to properly separate the additional
programmes. water loading must also be examined to avoid free
water in effluent stripper/stabiliser feed streams.
A Randy Rechtien, Field Technical Services Manager, Randy.
[email protected], Baker Hughes, a GE company Q How can we minimise NOx emissions from our FCC?
There are two primary methods for addressing ammo-
nium hydrochloride (NH4Cl) salt deposition in hydro- A Michael Tinning T Schmidt, Senior Product Manager, mtp@
treater effluent systems: contaminant source control and topsoe.com, Haldor Topsoe A/S
water wash injection. The best approach to handle NOx emissions from the
Contaminant source control efforts can be employed FCC unit is actually done upstream in the FCC pretreat-
to reduce the levels of both NH3 and HCl in the reactor ment reactor. By applying a high-active hydrotreating
effluent. Control methods should include the following: catalyst, nitrogen compounds present in the vacuum gas
• Eliminate free water in the naphtha feed to the hydro- oil (FCC feed) can be reduced significantly by hydro-
treater reactor denitrogenation (HDN). By reducing nitrogen before
Q&A copy 30.indd 7 11/03/2018 19:51

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grace.indd 1 08/03/2018 10:18

the FCC unit, two objectives are actually met. Firstly, the One obvious route to lower NOx is through choice
FCC catalyst will perform much better in terms of VGO of feedstock, though this is not a particularly flexible
conversion and selectivity towards gasoline, as (basic) approach. Regenerator conditions play a big role in NOx
nitrogen in the feedstock has an inhibiting effect on the formation and can present an easier route for NOx reduc-
(acidic) FCC catalyst. Secondly, the NOx emissions will tion. For example, lower oxygen levels and regenerator
drastically improve the more nitrogen is removed in the temperatures typically help to reduce NOx. In addition,
pretreatment section. optimising air distribution and regenerator bed levels
Haldor Topsoe has supplied FCC pretreatment cat- can help to reduce NOx. Refinery A in Europe recently
alysts to the industry for more than 25 years, and the developed a correlation for NOx emissions, and found
development within this hydrotreating area has been that excess oxygen had the biggest impact on NOx emis-
impressive. Both for the low pressure units, where sions, which increased by 25 mg/Nm3 for an increase in
cobalt molybdenum based catalysts traditionally are oxygen by 0.1 vol%.
used (Topsoe’s BRIM series), and for the growing num- The use of combustion promoters to control afterburn
ber of high pressure units, where nickel molybdenum in the regenerator can be a big contributor to NOx for-
based catalysts are preferred (Topsoe’s HyBRIM series), mation. Although platinum (Pt) based promoters are
the best catalysts available today are able to remove highly effective for CO oxidation, they have a much
nitrogen by 70–80% if the conditions are right. Due to higher tendency to increase NOx compared to palladium
more stringent legislation, the pressure from major oil (Pd) based promoters. For this reason, many refiners
refiners for even better HDS and HDN catalysts is emi- have switched from Pt to Pd based promoters in recent
nent. Therefore, later this year, Haldor Topsoe will be years. The use of antimony based nickel passivators also
ready to launch the first HyBRIM catalyst based on increases NOx, particularly in the presence of Pt based
cobalt molybdenum for low pressure FCC pretreatment. combustion promoters. If a refiner is looking to minimise
This type of new catalyst will return the highest degree NOx, it is therefore recommended to switch from Pt to
of HDN activity ever seen from a CoMo catalyst and Pd based promoters and not to add unnecessarily high
achieved at low pressure. It is expected that this type of amounts of combustion promoter (regardless whether
catalyst (so far named TK-564 HyBRIM) will set a new using Pt or Pd based promoters). Many refiners opt to
industry standard and help refiners to further lower preblend combustion promoters with fresh FCC catalyst
NOx emissions and significantly improve their FCC for a more steady addition of promoter, which can help
unit economics. to achieve a more stable control of afterburn. Also, in
these cases, combustion promoter usage rates can easily
A Colin Baillie, Segment Manager, Environmental Additives, be optimised.
[email protected], Grace GmbH Grace has various technologies for NOx emission con-
There are various interacting and competing chemical trol. CP P is a Pd based combustion promoter currently
reactions taking place in the FCC regenerator that have being used in more than 35 applications. Refinery A men-
an impact on NOx formation. The extent to which these tioned above switched from a Pt based combustion pro-
reactions are occurring is typically unit specific, which moter to CP P, which decreased NOx levels by about 70%
can make it difficult to accurately predict the impact on from 650-800 mg/Nm3 to 200 mg/Nm3 (see Figure 1).
NOx through the use of operational changes and/or the Grace also offers DENOX as a standalone additive for
use of NOx reduction technology. The NOx produced further NOx reduction. A recent example of successfully
originates from nitrogen molecules in the feedstock pro- combining both CP P and DENOX technologies is from
cessed in the FCC unit. A large percentage of feedstock Refinery B in Europe. They switched from a Pt based
nitrogen is carried through to the regenerator bound in combustion promoter to CP P, which resulted in a NOx
the coke, and subsequently results in N2 and NOx via reduction of 44-45%. As the reduction in NOx levelled
intermediates such as NH3 or HCN. out, DENOX was used in combination with CP P, provid-
Pt-based combustion 350

promoter Switched to CP P
300
NOx emissions, mg/Nm3
1200
Baseline
1000 250
45−55% NOx reduction
NOx, mg/Nm3
using CP P
800 200
600 150
Additional 35%
400 100 NOx reduction
using DENOX
200 Predicted NOx 50
Actual NOx
0 0
Time NOx reduction project 2017−18
Figure 1 Switching from a Pt based combustion promoter to CP P Figure 2 DENOX in combination with CP P, providing an additional
decreased a refinery’s NOx levels by about 70% 35% NOx reduction Graphs by permission of Hellenic Petroleum
Q&A copy 30.indd 8 11/03/2018 13:52

air liquide.indd 1
Publicité-AL_HYDROGEN v4.indd 2 08/03/2018 12:42
28/02/2018 10:00
PT Promoter JM COP-NP 300
300
250
250
200
NOx, ppm
200
NOx, ppm
150
150
100
100
50
50
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
0
−100 −120 −60 0 60 120 180 240 300 360 420 480 Ecat Pt, ppm
Time, days
Figure 1 It can take a long time to completely flush platinum Figure 2 Small quantities of residual platinum can have a major
based CO promoters out of the regenerator effect on NOx production
NO, N2O, NO2 CO, 160 No additive

NH3, 140 With additive
O2 CH HCN?
120
NOx, ppm
O2 100
Aromatic N HCN N2
80
(coke)
O2 60
H2O
40
O2 20
Amines NH3 NOx
(unstripped 0
products) 0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
O2, %
Figure 3 Recent research has focused on conversion of HCN and Figure 4 NOx formation is a function of temperature and oxygen
NH3 to N2 instead of NOx content in the regenerator
ing an additional 35% NOx reduction. Both technologies the regenerator. The primary products of coke/nitrogen
are currently in use at the refinery, which is resulting in combustion are HCN and NH3. NOx is mainly formed
historically low levels of NOx (see Figure 2). from the combustion of these ‘reduced’ species. The lat-
est NOx reduction research has focused on conversion of
A Ron Butterfield, Senior Technical Service Engineer, Ron. these species to N2 instead of NOx (see Figure 3).
[email protected], Johnson Matthey If switching to a non-Pt promoter does not provide suf-
Major causes of high FCC NOx emissions include the ficient NOx reduction, the next step is the use of a NOx
use of platinum (Pt) containing CO promoters, uneven additive, such as Johnson Matthey’s NO-NOX, which is
air/coke contacting in the regenerator bed and excessive normally added at 1-2 wt% of the circulating catalyst and
additions of antimony nickel passivator. can provide an additional NOx reduction of up to 50%
Pt CO promoters have been mostly eliminated in units over non-Pt promoter alone.
with NOx emissions limits. However, some units using Uneven air/coke contacting in the regenerator bed can
non-Pt promoters still have Pt promoter in the ware- also lead to excessive NOx formation in the regenerator.
house, which can be accidentally added, resulting in NOx formation is a function of temperature and oxy-
higher than normal NOx emissions. Also, be careful that gen content in the regenerator. Higher temperature and
any flushing purchased equilibrium catalyst does not higher oxygen content will both lead to increased NOx
contain residual amounts of Pt. Commercial data show production (see Figure 4).
the decrease in NOx emissions with the shift from Pt There may be NOx generating hot spots in the regen-
based CO promoters to non-Pt CO promoters such as erator due to poor mixing caused by either mechani-
Johnson Matthey’s COP-NP. You can see from Figure 1 cal damage, design problems, operation outside of the
that it can take a long time (four to five months depend- design parameters of gas or catalyst velocities or high
ing on catalyst inventory and fresh catalyst make-up oxygen content. The hot spots may not be apparent with
rate) to completely flush the Pt out of the regenerator. the small number of dense bed thermocouples available
Even small quantities of residual Pt can have a major in most units. It may be helpful to perform a scan of the
effect on the NOx production in the regenerator (see regenerator to see if there are non-uniform flow patterns.
Figure 2). NOx emissions are directly related to the equi- Mechanical problems may require a unit shutdown to
librium catalyst Pt content. correct equipment damage or make hardware changes.
Once the Pt is removed from the regenerator, it may be Excessive additions of antimony nickel passivator will
necessary to trial a new generation NOx reduction addi- tend to increase NOx production. Therefore, close control
tive that can help to prevent the formation of NOx in of antimony additions is very important.
Q&A copy 30.indd 9 11/03/2018 13:52

Process Notes
Reactor LPG must be recovered
Be Smart about FCC Olefin Recovery

Whether the driver is propylene as a chemicals After compression to gas plant pressure of around 220
feedstock or propylene and butylene as alky feed, psig, the LPG must be condensed in the high pressure
FCC units worldwide are being pushed to maximize receiver or the absorber. Increasing reactor LPG yield
olefin production. Increased hydrotreating to meet stresses gas plant cooling systems and increases
Tier 3 gasoline requirements is reducing gasoline pool absorber and stripper column loads. Furthermore, high
octane at a time of high premium-to-regular gasoline LPG yield often comes at the expense of naphtha yield,
price differentials. Maximizing FCC olefins to produce meaning that there is more vapor and less liquid in the
high octane alkylate barrels is attractive – if they can be absorber – this must be addressed to maintain high
recovered in the FCC gas plant LPG stream. propylene recovery.
Higher reactor LPG yields increase wet gas compressor There is a strong incentive to maximize FCC olefin
loading. So, in a unit that is already limited by wet gas production with reactor temperature and catalyst
compressor capacity, revamp modifications must be formulation. Executing the correct revamp can
made to accommodate higher reactor LPG yields. economically address main column, wet gas
Replacing the compressor entirely or installing a new compressor, and gas plant constraints so that
parallel compressor are expensive options. theoretical reactor yields become actual barrels of
valuable product.
Instead, the keys to a practical offgas compressor
revamp lie in the polytropic head equation (bottom
right). Look to minimize main column inlet to wet Polytropic Head Equation
gas compressor inlet pressure drop and overhead
receiver temperature. Next, compressor speed and
rotor modifications may afford additional capacity. On
a mass basis, FCC wet gas rates have been increased
by over 40% without installing a parallel compressor.
3400 Bissonnet St. +1 (713) 665-7046

Suite 130 [email protected]
Houston, TX 77005, USA www.revamps.com
pcs olefin recovery.indd 1 09/03/2018 10:41

Challenges and opportunities of an
FCC revamp
An FCC revamp for enhanced refinery performance and profitability called for
close coordination with the technology licensor and contractors
RASHED AL FADHLI and SUBHASH CHANDER SINGHAL KNPC

DHARMESH PANCHAL Honeywell UOP
T
o improve refinery perfor-
mance by reducing fuel oil
make, an FCC revamp was
envisaged to process heavier feeds
and maximise unit conversion and
utilisation. One of the key objectives
of the FCC revamp was enhanc-
ing the safety and reliability of the
unit to achieve a cycle length of
four years. KNPC scouted several
of the latest available technologi-
cal options and selected UOP tech-
nology including VSS, Elevated
Optimix feed distributors and the
Advanced Fluidized (AF) stripper
for the reactor revamp. Following
unit commissioning, the technology
has performed successfully. Heavier
feed was processed and met unit
objectives in terms of yields as UOP Figure 1 Site of KNPC Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery
and KNPC have jointly conducted
optimisation tests Propylene recovery, MTBE and and safety performance of KNPC
alky units were added in the same refineries
Project background revamp. With changing market • Execute a major upgrade of
KNPC operates three refineries in demand for fuel quantity and qual- the MAA and Mina Abdullah
Kuwait. They have a combined pro- ity, KNPC continued exploring (MAB) refineries to convert high
cessing capacity of 460 000 b/d of the possibilities to further increase sulphur fuel oil to higher value
crude oil to produce primary prod- the unit’s capacity, and possibly to products
ucts like petrol (gasoline), diesel upgrade the technology to process • Respond effectively to KPC/
fuel, kerosene, liquefied petroleum heavier feeds and improve yields. KNPC strategic directives for
gas (LPG), heating oils and bitumen. The Clean Fuels Project (CFP) 2020 expanding refining capacity in
KNPC Mina Al-Ahmadi (MAA) provided the opportunity to achieve Kuwait
refinery (see Figure 1) has a UOP this objective. • Provide new employment oppor-
FCC unit which was designed in tunities for Kuwaitis in the refining
1984 for a feed rate of 30 000 b/d KNPC’s CFP 2020 vision sector.
of vacuum gas oil (VGO). The unit As a part of the CFP 2020 project,
started up in 1987 and consists of KNPC set out the following project FCC project objectives
a high efficiency style combustor objectives: The CFP 2020 vision was incorpo-
regenerator, a downturn arm riser • Develop KNPC refineries into rated into the FCC project’s objec-
termination system in the reactor, integrated merchant refining com- tives as follows:
and feed injected into the riser Wye. plexes to meet diversified market • An additional 6% increase in unit
It has since been revamped once by needs capacity (42 500 b/d)
UOP in 1997, to increase the capacity • Meet future market demand and • Improve unit reliability and
to 40 000 b/d with a feed of either specifications for fuels for local and on-stream factor
VGO or HVGO and some coker international markets • Process difficult feedstocks and
gas oil. • Enhance the environmental optimise conversion
q2 honeywell.indd 1 09/03/2018 17:22

• Meet local gasoline and propylene Feed quality these have been commissioned since
commitments commercialisation in 2004.
• Extend operational run length Optimix feed distributors are ele-
Feed gravity/API 0.918/22.64
• Sustain operation at higher UOP K 11.97
vated in the FCC riser which allows
capacity Sulphur, wt% 0.6 a lower density and even catalyst
• Improve environmental perfor- Concarbon, wt% 0.42 regime for feed injection. Through
mance (flare less during start-up, pressure drop control and three
control particulate emissions and Table 1 stage atomisation, Optimix distribu-
SOx). tors minimise droplet size and steam
To meet all of these objectives, save expensive wet gas compressor rates, leading to improvements in
the FCC unit was successfully modifications. conversion, selectivity and dry gas.
revamped in 2014. The revamp They are reliable and can save on
was to process more difficult feeds Gas concentration columns maintenance costs through easy
while updating the reactor side • Replace internals in different sec- outer tip replacements. Some 110 of
technology. Table 1 shows typical tions with high capacity trays these have been commissioned since
feed qualities processed by the FCC • Lines added to aid in flareless commercialisation in 1994.
unit. start-up. Each technology reduces delta
The three key reactor technologies coke and this can improve regenera-
Technology selection to enable profitability and reliabil- tor operations and boost the flexibil-
To meet KNPC’s objectives for ity improvements are the VSS riser ity of feed processing and operating
the FCC revamp, UOP proposed termination device (RTD), UOP AF severity. Revamping with state of
that the following technologies be stripper internals, and UOP Optimix the art technology features, such as
incorporated: feed distributors. Each of these tech- those discussed, drives delta coke
nologies has been extensively com- down, and this reduces the regener-
FCC reactor mercialised for proven results. ator temperature and drives up the
• VSS technology The VSS RTD greatly improves catalyst to oil ratio and conversion.
• AF stripper internals gasoline selectivity through superior
• Optimix feed distributors. vapour catalyst separation, minimis- Project challenges
ing post riser cracking. Similarly, Addressing future specifications
Air and flue gas circuit equipment delta coke and dry gas will be (sulphur and aromatics)
• Additional auxiliary air blower reduced along with the regenera- Gasoline is the premium product for
• Change from hot wall to cold wall tor temperature. Some 77 of these KNPC. Some of the challenges fore-
regenerated catalyst stand pipe, flue devices have been commissioned seen for the CFP project and their
gas piping, and new cold wall ori- since commercialisation in 1995. solutions were as follows:
fice chamber AF stripper internals represent • High sulphur gasoline from the
• Modify regenerator cyclones. the latest FCC stripper technol- FCC unit would be addressed by
ogy, reducing delta coke through installing FCC light and heavy gaso-
Main fractionator improved stripping efficiency, lead- line selective desulphurisation units
• Replace trays in the top four sec- ing to a conversion increase from the to meet future sulphur specifications
tions (LCN/HCN fractionation, boost in catalyst to oil ratio. These • High aromatics gasoline com-
HCN pumparound, HCN/distil- internals have been demonstrated at ponents from continuous catalytic
late fractionation, distillate pump- very high flux rates and have mini- regeneration (CCR) platforming
around) with random packing to mal maintenance issues. Some 89 of units and high olefins gasoline com-
ponents from the FCC would be
mitigated by installing an isomer-
isation unit and a deisopentaniser
PORTION 1 PORTION 2 PORTION 3
unit to reduce olefins and aromatics.
Unit-86 Cracked Unit-195 Unit-275 Additionally, the existing alkylation
Heavier product
FCC SWT CW system unit would be revamped for higher
feed
(Revamp) Sour water (New) (New) production to reduce aromatics and
olefins in the gasoline pool
PORTION 4 • KNPC’s gasoline pool currently
Unit-97 Unit-179 Unit-161
meets benzene specifications with
Piping works U/G pipeline Pipe rack extension two existing CCR units at the MAA
Demolition (incl. tie-ins) Process refinery, which are designed to meet
New lines FW, CW, OWS, SW Utility the benzene specification of <1 vol%.
Tie-ins
(Revamp) (Revamp) (New) Scope challenges
Scope growth at the FEED stage
Since the FCC unit revamp was
Figure 2 Scope growth at the FEED stage brought forward compared to other
q2 honeywell.indd 2 09/03/2018 17:23

Process Notes
Process to minimize FCC slurry product
Equipment Design Matters In both the main and external fractionators, liquid
distributors must be designed for practical flow rates
Many attractive projects fail to meet expectations at
and to handle solids. Unsophisticated distributor
startup. Disappointing performance often results from
design creates uneven liquid distribution that reduces
bad simulation practices and/or poor equipment design
fractionation efficiency and LCO recovery against
rather than faulty execution. Refineries are currently
the endpoint specification. The main fractionator
considering FCC revamps to increase olefins for
slurry pumparound and quench distributors must
more alky unit feed, maximize LCO product recovery,
eliminate hot spots in the grid and bottoms liquid pool,
and minimize slurry product by producing HCO for
respectively, to prevent coke formation. The picture
hydrocracker feed. These changes raise fractionator
below illustrates the result when equipment design is
operating temperature. Higher temperatures require
left to low-cost vendor solutions.
better process and equipment designs to avoid fouling
and coke formation, which lead to poor reliability and Finally, the bottom product from the external
potentially to an unscheduled shutdown. fractionator (reduced slurry) will be nasty. Stripping
trays must be specially designed to work in this
While getting the simulation right is important, process
extremely fouling service, and bottoms pumps must
equipment design is equally critical to a project’s
be compatible with very low API material containing
success. Consider a project to minimize FCC main
solids.
fractionator bottoms product (Slurry, DCO, CSO, etc.).
As outlined in the top figure, an external fractionator Equipment design matters. Don’t miss performance
can recover substantial quantities of LCO and HCO goals by applying generic equipment design to
from the FCC slurry product, reducing slurry volume by specialized problems.
60% - 70%.
Upgrading a significant quantity of low-value slurry to

LCO and HCO provides a powerful economic incentive
to execute a recovery project, but poor reliability can
destroy project value. Good process design is important.
For example, proper quench and pumparound system
control is essential. However, ultimate results are
driven by equipment design rather than the theory of
a process model.
3400 Bissonnet St. +1 (713) 665-7046

Suite 130 [email protected]
Houston, TX 77005, USA www.revamps.com
pcs equipment.indd 1 09/03/2018 10:40

CFP units, debottlenecking the sour During these years, UOP technol- pre-commissioning requirements,
water treatment (SWT) system and ogy upgrades were incorporated no load tests, steaming out, and so
cooling water system was required. which resulted in a few additional on. A safety review before start-up
Along with these facilities, a pipe changes. The lesson learned was to is a must to ensure that all items
rack and underground piping were always negotiate scope change with are complete and the unit is ready
added to the project scope, along the FEED contractor before bidding. for safe commissioning. KNPC
with a new sour water stripper unit FCC FEED was a basic engineer- addressed this successfully.
and cooling tower (see Figure 2). ing package, not a fully developed
FEED package, and thus required Post-commissioning stage
Changes to utility/tie-in conditions close coordination with UOP Availability of design feed for a per-
Actual utility conditions at site dur- throughout the EPC phase. formance guarantee test run of the
ing implementation were different FCC was a challenge because other
from the details in the basic engi- Refinery coordination challenges CFP units were still under revamp/
neering design document. Wet Modifications to the wet gas com- construction/commissioning.
slops tie-in conditions (cold tie-in pressor turbine and regenerator EPC, licensor and vendor
as defined in the contract) could not cyclones were made in both the resources, along with lab resources,
be taken and hot tie-in resulted in a refinery and project scope. Scope had to be planned accordingly.
scope change. While executing hot alignment with the refinery was Following start-up of the FCC
tie-in, water flow through the line a challenge to resolve such issues revamp, hot spots on the standpipes
was not adequate, hence tie-in was for timely completion. This was in some of the failed field joint loca-
again changed to cold tie-in at a dif- achieved with numerous pre-align- tions were experienced and needed
ferent location. This required much ment meetings and sound scope to be managed. The unit could pro-
additional effort and further change definition. duce the guaranteed product yields
to the scope. and quality at the reactor outlet, but
Construction stage the main fractionator heat balance
Safety and environmental Lifting of heavy equipment like a constrained drawing heavy gaso-
Health, safety and environmen- new reactor required good plan- line product and this was resolved
tal requirements mandated that ning, skilled manpower, coordina- with UOP’s support. The desired
changes had to be incorporated tion between the EPC/PMC (project split between light and heavy gas-
within the project scope and management consultant)/CFP pro- oline was limited because of salting
schedule; for example, move ject team, refinery operations and limitations at the top of the main
from chlorine injection to sodium maintenance team. Timely hand fractionator. Commissioning of the
hypochlorite in the new cooling over by operations, especially in auxiliary air blower had to be expe-
tower. There were multiple locations isolating cooling water, was a big dited for the performance guarantee
where different contractors were challenge. Simultaneous working test run.
required to work simultaneously. of different crews in the confined
Therefore, coordination between all spaces of the towers and regenerator Key learnings and results
the parties was vital to ensure safe had to be planned in advance. Key learnings summary
working practices were followed. • Ensure effective coordination
Pre-commissioning stage between FCC and CFP EPCs and
Scope split from CFP Punch listing categorisation is licensor at all times
Since the FCC revamp was imple- important to ensure that the whole • Scope alignment with all stake-
mented before the rest of the CFP process is not diluted by catego- holders is a big challenge for timely
project, it was necessary to avoid rising everything as high priority. completion and could be achieved
scope overlap between the FCC and There were more than 1500 category with numerous pre-alignment meet-
CFP contractors. It was also neces- A (high priority) punch list items in ings and sound scope definition
sary to critically review and iden- the project. Furthermore, the turna- • Always engage skilled and expe-
tify the design changes to include round schedule and progress were rienced subcontractors for specialty
appropriate tie-ins, thus avoiding reviewed every day to ensure timely jobs
additional FCC shutdowns. During completion of all punch list items • Ensure participation in the daily
all the phases of the project, it was without losing sight of the critical meeting by all concerned to define
quite important to maintain effective path. Instrument loop checking was priorities and actions
coordination between FCC and CFP planned in advance and adequate • Plan in advance for utilities to
engineering, procurement and con- manpower needed to be ensured. meet pre-commissioning require-
struction contractors. Operations manpower would nor- ments, no load tests, steaming out,
mally be busy in handling other rou- and so on
Coordination tine maintenance handovers. It is • A safety review before start-up is
Coordination with licensor always better to ensure participation a must to ensure that all items are
FCC front end engineering and in a daily meeting by all concerned complete and the unit is ready for
design (FEED) was completed in to define priorities and actions: safe commissioning
2008, but EPC was awarded in 2013. plan in advance for utilities to meet • EPC, licensor, vendor and lab
q2 honeywell.indd 3 09/03/2018 17:23

resources have to be planned in four years and operational availa-
KNPC FCC revamp results
advance for the performance test bility is under assessment and can
run. be addressed after completion of
Pre-revamp Post-revamp
Feed density, API Base Base -3
the current operating cycle, some-
Results summary Propylene, wt% Base Base +8% thing that has not been previously
The reactor regenerator section Gasoline,vol% Base Base + 1.5% possible in KNPC’s history, thereby
had a flawless start-up with excel- further improving overall refinery
lent catalyst containment by the Table 2 profitability.
VSS riser termination device.
Regenerator temperatures are gasoline yield and lower heavy gas-
on the low side and this reflects oline yield due to inefficient sep-
improved stripper efficiency. aration between the components. Rashed Al Fadhli is Team Leader Process
Engineering with KNPC Mina Al-Ahmadi
Conversion and gasoline yield have Its impact downstream the FCC
refinery and has key responsibility for
been achieved as per design while NHT unit is being assessed with the
optimised operation of the refinery complex.
processing heavier feeds to the FCC. licensor He has more than 25 years of experience in
Selectivity to propylene and gaso- • The gas concentration unit has met process engineering at the refinery.
line is better than predicted. Overall all performance objectives. Subhash Chander Singhal is a Technical
the reactor technology upgrade (ele- Specialist with 30 years of experience in
vated Optimix feed distributors, Conclusion refining and petrochemicals. He joined KNPC
VSS riser termination device and Close collaboration between in 1994 and has worked in different process
the AF stripper internals) has per- KNPC’s technical and project teams functions, and on the CFP Project from FEED
formed very well and met unit pro- and UOP enabled improved refinery to detailed engineering stage. He has also
cessing objectives. profitability through an improved been involved in establishing the Research
and Technology Department at KNPC.
The main column and gas concen- product slate, especially gasoline
Dharmesh Panchal is a member of Honeywell
tration unit have also been a success. and propylene yields (see Table 2).
UOP’s FCC/Alkylation/Treating Technology
but with some challenges: The FCC revamp met all unit pro- Services group based in the UK. He has 23
• Performance issues with the main cessing objectives while maximising years of experience in the refining industry,
fractionator related to salting con- use of existing assets. focusing on the commissioning, start-
cerns at the top of the main fraction- The challenges of improved run up, operation, optimisation, revamp and
ator. This resulted in higher light length from the current three to troubleshooting of FCC units.
q2 honeywell.indd 4 09/03/2018 17:49

Better Adapt Reduce unplanned downtime and improve
underperforming assets with Honeywell Connected
To Changing Plant. It leverages proprietary UOP process models

with cyber-secure cloud-based services like the
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© 2018 Honeywell International Inc. All rights reserved.
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SPM-UOP-187 Honeywell Connected Plant Ad_297x210mm.indd 1 3/7/18 1:49 PM
Heavy feed characterisation:
a molecular approach
Characterising heavy feeds on a molecular basis, together with kinetic studies,
accurately predicts the reactivity of a wide range of vacuum residues
GLEN HAY and LANTE CARBOGNANI Virtual Materials Group

HIDEKI NAGATA Fuji Oil Company
T
he characterisation and need to be determined separately resins, and asphaltenes. In particu-
reactivity of heavy oil frac- and this comes at a price (both time lar, measurements of asphaltenes
tions (vacuum residue) were and money). Organisations such as are important for heavy oils and
studied using a PIONA (paraf- the American Society for Testing and residues to determine solid deposi-
fins, iso-paraffins, olefins, naph- Materials (ASTM) have developed tion probability, usually an issue in
thenes, aromatics) molecular routine tests for determining boil- not only the production industry,
approach. Eleven crude oil assays ing ranges and properties of crude but also in transportation and refin-
along with vacuum residue pilot- feedstock, distillation fractions and ing. Alternatively, the fractions of
scale thermal cracking informa- products, however the bulk of these saturates and aromatics are of less
tion were provided. These feeds techniques were originally intended importance due to their redundancy
were characterised and their sus- to capture the properties and com- with other lighter range properties
ceptibility to thermal cracking position of conventional oils. Heavy typically measured.2-3
was evaluated all using a PIONA oils pose a challenge since they con-
rigorous approach. A reactivity tain a large, non-distillable fraction.1-3 Introduction to heavy oil kinetics
index related to the naphthenes- Commonly measured properties When dealing with reaction kinetics
aromatics-dehydrogenated aromat- in these non-distillable fractions, for thermal cracking of heavy oils,
ics ratio was found for each feed in such as density and viscosity, can a considerable amount of material
order to match experimental results. prove to be helpful when deter- has been published on the subject
This reactivity index was then cor- mining the physical and transport in the last few decades. This mate-
related to the vacuum residue feed properties of these fractions. Other rial focuses more on the molecular
properties. The analysis of these properties, for example carbon res- structure approach to solving the
results points to C7 asphaltenes (or idue, SARA (saturates, aromatics, problem.4 This approach is a more
equivalent), carbon residue and resins, asphaltenes) analysis and rigorous alternative to the lumped
density of vacuum residue as key pour point also prove to be help- kinetic schemes that are being
properties to be measured in order ful when determining not only the replaced due to lack of predictive
to capture the chemical nature of quality of an oil product, but also its accuracy across differing feedstocks.
this fraction, and thus proper reac- chemical nature and reactivity.2-3 Moreover, this surge in molecu-
tivity in a thermal cracking process. Carbon residue is a particularly lar structure modelling comes at
Identifying and quantifying each important characteristic of crude oil a time when personal computers
component contained in oil fluids residues, since it not only can indi- have reached a point at which pro-
has proven to be both impractical cate the quality of the fraction, but cessors can keep up with the enor-
and unfeasible. Characterisation of also can be correlated to a number mous computational demands of
crude oils and their different cuts is of properties such as hydrogen to approaching the problem. It should
commonly performed by measuring carbon ratio (H/C), heteroatomic (S, be noted that molecular structure
different properties. Traditionally, N) content, asphaltenes content, or based kinetics, as well as physical
techniques such as gas chromatogra- viscosity.2 property calculations, have been
phy (GC) for lighter fractions (light The pour point of an oil fraction around since the 1960s and many
ends and C1-C5) and the use of distil- indicates the minimum temperature influential and detailed papers on
lation curves are commonly used for at which this material will flow. This the topic were published as early as
the liquid fractions. In this regard, property is affected by the presence the 1980s.5-6
the properties (densities, molecu- of heavy molecules (which increase When looking at the thermal
lar weight, chemical family, and pour point), thus it can be correlated cracking of heavy oils, or even
so on) of the light ends and lighter to molecular weight and density.2 approaches to catalytic cracking
component ranges are usually well SARA analysis proves to be useful and processing, there is an empha-
known, however the physical prop- for residue fractions, which usually sis on aromatic groups with or with-
erties of the remainder fractions contain large amounts of aromatics, out significant saturated branching.7
q2 vmg.indd 1 09/03/2018 17:25

This distinction is of great interest groups has multiple components
due to the relationship of the sat- relating to different carbon number
urated nature of these heavy aro- ranges. In order to bridge the gap
matics to their ability to crack into between these hard to define struc-
highly desired liquid product, or ture groups, a fraction of each type
alternatively propagating into larger of group can be mixed to create
molecules that can lead to solid the appropriate properties. A rep-
precipitation or coking. Examples resentation of this type of approach
of such molecules can be seen in is shown in Figure 2 with a selection
Figure 1. If these heavier cut mole- of C40 carbon molecules with differ-
cules are characterised accurately, ing naphthene and aromatic ring
the approach to applying kinetics to counts as an example.
these molecules would then depend One main advantage of this
upon the ability to break C-C bonds PIONA grouped approach is the
or the more challenging C-H scis- easier handling of non-ideal inter-
sion at specific operating conditions actions between species for the ther-
where cracking occurs. Cracking modynamics behind the model.
reactions are usually proposed in Limited property data containing
three general steps: chain start, details of all necessary contribu-
growth, and termination.8 At the tion groups in the more detailed
same time, the propagation of such molecular approach makes tuning
molecules will also occur at a calcu- of the increased number of interac-
lated reaction rate and the balance of tion parameters almost impossible
these reactive cracking and propaga- when considering potential extrap-
tion pathways will ultimately lead to Figure 1 C20 oil molecules with higher and olation. Poor tuning of these inter-
resulting product yields. lower susceptibility to thermal cracking actions allows for a larger chance
processes of highly irregular results in non-
PIONA modelling approach validated ranges which could pro-
Different methods to describe a mix- For maximum consideration of duce a poorly behaved model.
ture of hydrocarbons and its chemi- molecular structures in hydrocar- Another advantage of the PIONA
cal or physical properties have been bon mixtures, the components in a approach is that the literature tends
attempted over time. The approach simulation environment can be cre- to generalise structure groups in a
described within this work takes a ated with contributions groups.5-6 In similar resolution and many corre-
middle ground within most sim- these situations, any molecular type lations, such the aniline point corre-
ulation environments. The first can be created with a combination lation in Equation 2, can be applied
simulation approach, a simplistic of cumulative groups. The draw- directly.2 It should be noted that
single property lumped approach, back of this approach is the amount this equation, now considering the
has dominated the software public of information required about the aromatic fraction of a hydrocarbon
domain since the 1900s. In this case, feedstock, which is usually only mixture and specific gravity, would
the crude oil feedstocks are divided available through very expensive replace Equation 1 which makes an
into pseudo-components based on laboratory analysis. For these situ- assumed relationship between den-
a range of a single focal property, ations, an actual component list no sity at a given average boiling point
which is usually the average boiling longer becomes reasonable due to to define the fraction of aromatics:
point or molecular weight. Although the unlimited number of combina-
little information needs to be known tions. Furthermore, visual interpre- Aniline point = (Aromatic% - 692.4 +
about the feedstock to complete tation of a mixture of components 794(SG)) / (12.15(SG) – 10.4) (2)
this approach, the drawback is the must be shown in a different way
lack of predictive results due to to the convention of a list of compo- PIONA kinetic approach
over-generalisation of the molecular nents and their mixed fractions. The kinetic pathways created from
structure groups within the mixture. The PIONA based approach was a PIONA component structure
The properties predicted for mix- created in order to reach a compro- would transverse across the carbon
tures also become direct correlations mise between these two extremes. number range through cracking
based on very general reference In this approach, a limited number or propagation and across the dif-
properties. An example of such a of major molecular structure groups ferent structure types with hydro-
correlation was proposed for calcu- consisting of paraffin, iso-paraf- genation or dehydrogenation. The
lation of the aniline point of a mix- fin, olefin, naphthene, aromatic, heat of reaction is easily calculated
ture based on API gravity and mid dehydrogenated aromatics, and from the overall balance given the
boiling point alone (see Equation 1):2 heteroatomic species (organic mol- underlying enthalpy of formation
ecules including sulphur, nitrogen, of these components as they shift.
Aniline point = -183.3 + 0.27(API)Tb1/3 iron, nickel, and vanadium atoms) For each type of structure and car-
+ 0.317Tb (1) are created. In turn, each of these bon number, the kinetic rates for
q2 vmg.indd 2 09/03/2018 17:25

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each potential reactive pathway
need to be calculated. For thermal 60
C40
cracking systems where hydrogen 4 aromatic rings
50
donors are not readily available, the 2 naphthene rings
main available cracking pathway
Contribution, %
40
for the larger aromatic components
consists of scissor-type reactions
30
of the saturated chain branches.
Once these branches have been 20
removed, the aromatic rich core
structure left usually will no longer 10
crack and will ultimately become
pitch or coke. These compounds 0
are then being tracked as dehydro- Naphthene Aromatic Dehydrogenated
aromatic
genated aromatics in this method’s
application. 60
With the characterisation of crude C40
feeds, the importance of matching 50 4 aromatic rings
the amount of heavy aromatic core Contribution, % 1 naphthene ring
components then becomes essen- 40
tial in order to get the kinetic rates
that would match what is occurring 30
within thermal cracking reactions in
the process. If too many saturated 20
components were estimated in the
feed characterisation, the calculated 10
cracking rates would over-predict
0
lighter material yields. On the other Naphthene Aromatic Dehydrogenated
hand, if too many ‘aromatic core’ aromatic
type components were estimated,
which would be balanced by very 60
C40
saturated components, this would
3 aromatic rings
lead to over-prediction of both 50
3 naphthene rings
lighter and very heavy range yields
Contribution, %
40
with a lack of middle range liquid
product.
30
Luckily, with many laboratory
analysis methods the carbon residue 20
is something commonly measured
for heavier boiling range mixtures 10
and is shown to relate to H/C.6
From this measurement, the amount 0
of dehydrogenated aromatic com- Naphthene Aromatic Dehydrogenated
aromatic
ponents can also be estimated and
the kinetic rates and yields from
thermal cracking are properly pre- Figure 2 Representation of different C40 naphthene and aromatic ringed species in a
dicted. In many cases, the yield dif- PIONA slate
ferences from two crude feeds that
have similar distillation curves and measured (such as density, carbon Relative density = Sample-density/[Lightest
densities come from these heavier residue, and so on) and the reactiv- Sample density] (3)
component structure distributions. ity of the vacuum residue to ther-
mal cracking. This widespread range proved to
Methodology of characterisation The first step consists of the char- be important in order to capture the
Oil characterisation information acterisation of these feeds. The effect of the different physical prop-
was provided by Fuji Oil Co. Ltd. physical properties of the crude erties on the reactivity of each vac-
(FOC) for 11 crude oil feeds. This oil (and its vacuum residue cuts) uum residue.
information, contained in stand- cover a wide range as can be seen in The oil assays for these crude oil
ard assays, is going to be used in a Figure 3. This plot shows the relative feeds contain yield information for
PIONA backed simulation environ- densities of the crude oil feed and 14 cuts, and physical properties
ment to determine the relationship vacuum residue fraction relative to such as density, sulphur and nitro-
between several physical properties the lightest sample (see Equation 3): gen content, viscosities, and so on
q2 vmg.indd 3 09/03/2018 17:28

predicted directly by internal corre-
1.16 lations developed using available
Crude feed density relative to

literature.2 Similarly, for cut ranges
1.14
from 200-550°C, the percentage of
lightest sample 1.12 aromatics is controlled to match
these cuts’ density.
1.10
For heavier fractions, such as vac-
1.08 uum residue, carbon residue was
1.06 used in order to predict the H/C.2
The next step was to set the amount
1.04
of naphthene molecules in this frac-
1.02 tion in order to minimise the exper-
imental error for both H/C and
1.00
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 density.
Sample number
Feedstock case studies and results
1.16 The Eureka process is a thermal
cracking technology which aims to
VR feed density relative to
1.14
produce higher liquid/lower gas
1.12
yields from vacuum residue feeds.
lightest sample
1.10 One differentiator from conven-

1.08
tional coking processes is that it is
designed to prevent coke deposition
1.06 (due to over-cracking). The residual
1.04 stream of this technology is a pitch,
which is intended to flow easily at
1.02
the reactor’s outlet conditions.9-11
1.00 The reactivity and kinetics of the
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Eureka process have been studied
Sample number in the past on a laboratory scale by
several authors. Results for different
Figure 3 Crude feed and vacuum residues, relative densities vacuum residue feeds and descrip-
tions of the set-ups used can be
for each cut. Additionally, for all the instance) is transferred directly to found in the literature.9-10,12
vacuum cuts (370°C+), information a simulation model. For this work, In order to predict properly the
regarding C7 asphaltenes %, carbon VMGSim software was used due reactivity of the vacuum residue
residue, and metal content (V, Ni) is to the already available reactive fraction, experimental data for ther-
also available. PIONA environment. For lighter mal cracking experiments for the 11
The PIONA molecular structure cut ranges (<200°C), the amount of vacuum residues (corresponding
approach was used to character- paraffins/iso-paraffins is calculated to the 11 crude oil feeds mentioned
ise the different oil feeds. For each automatically in order to match earlier) was provided by FOC. In
cut range, the different information their density. The naphthenes/aro- order to compare these experimen-
available (S, N, H/C, densities, for matics content of these cut ranges is tal results, a PIONA simulation
Plant
Simulation
Level
CG AG CLO CHO Pitch CLO CHO Pitch CLO CHO Pitch

Product yields Density Sulphur content
Figure 4 Eureka plant model, example results
q2 vmg.indd 4 09/03/2018 17:29

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FOC feed data Laboratory Simulation
Samples 1 to 11
Feed reactivity Predicted
Pitch yield
found yields
Common
feed
VR
Sa le 7
Sa le 8
9
1
Sa e 2
Sa le 3
Sa le 4
Sa le 5
Sa le 6
0
11
Sa le 1
Sa ple
e
e
pl
pl
ce
pl
p
Laboratory Eureka Plant
m
m
n
m
Sa
Sa
re
scale model model
fe
Re
Pitch pour point
Plant data
Operational
Points 1, 2...
Thermal cracking
VR
0
11
Delayed coker
Sa le 1
e
e
pl
pl
pl
pl
pl
pl
pl
pl
pl
e
ce
kinetics
pl
p
m
m
n
m
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
re
Sa
fe
Re
Figure 5 Steps followed to obtain the

reactivity of heavy oils
Pitch sulphur
model was developed representing

a laboratory scale set-up.9-10,12 This
model was then used to run the dif-
ferent feedstock experiments.
Additionally, a detailed simula-
VR
0
11
Sa le 1
e
e
pl
pl
pl
pl
pl
pl
pl
pl
pl
e
tion model corresponding to FOC’s
ce
pl
p
m
m
n
m
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
re
Eureka industrial site was devel-
Sa
fe
Re
oped. This model included all the

extra complexities typically present
Pitch nitrogen
in a full plant scale (recycles, dis-

tillation towers, cracking heaters,
steam stripping, and so on). The
vacuum residue feeds were charac-
terised using the PIONA molecular
approach, and product yields for
Sa VR
Sa le 1
Sa le 2
Sa le 3
Sa le 4
Sa le 5
Sa le 6
Sa le 7
Sa le 8
0
11
Sa le 1
Sa ple
different operating conditions were

ce
pl
p
m
m
n
m
re
used to fine-tune the kinetics of the

fe
Re
thermal cracking unit. An example

of the results obtained with tuned Figure 6 Laboratory data vs simulation results for thermal cracking experiments
kinetics can be seen in Figure 4.
This set of kinetics was then trans- and results predicted can be seen in A-dehydrated, D-1160 50% T, are
ferred directly to the laboratory Figure 6. directly available for any stream
scale model. With the proper kinetic A ‘soft sensor’ approach was (or mixture of streams). These val-
parameters, all of the different vac- used in order to attempt the pre- ues were then used to correlate the
uum residue feeds characterised diction of properties that were seen pitch properties of interest. Results
were evaluated using this model. as key indicators such as heptane- for these predicted properties can be
The steps followed to go from bench toluene-quinoline insolubles and seen in Figure 7.
to plant scale can be seen in Figure 5. volatile matter. Soft sensor is a com- The reactivity index is related
From the results obtained, the mon name for software where sev- to the distribution between aro-
reactivity index of the different vac- eral property measurements are matic and dehydrogenated aromatic
uum residues was adjusted until the processed together. The interaction PIONA groups. However, since the
error between the results predicted of these measurements can then vacuum residue distillation curve
(pitch yield, pour point, density, be used for calculating new prop- estimated by the simulator (usu-
for instance) and the experimen- erties. Due to the PIONA molec- ally not available due to the higher
tal data was minimised. A compar- ular structure approach taken, boiling ranges) has a direct impact
ison between the experimental data properties such as H/C, aromatics/ on the yields predicted, a correla-
q2 vmg.indd 5 09/03/2018 17:30

ated using the Eureka plant model
(see Figure 5). Since both models use
Laboratory Simulation
the same PIONA rigorous molecular
nC7 insolubles approach, the transition was seam-
less and allowed for extrapolation
and comparison of results for the
different samples provided. Some of
these results can be seen in Figure 9.
VR
Sa le 7
Sa le 8
9
1
m 2
Sa le 3
Sa le 4
Sa le 5
Sa le 6
0
11
Conclusions
Sa le 1
Sa ple
e
e
pl
pl
ce
p
The PIONA approach offers not
pl
p
m
m
n
m
Sa
Sa
Sa
re
only complete mass balance on feed,

fe
Re
products and utilities, but also the

Toluene insolubles
opportunity to run optimisation

studies on the type of feed/process
conditions and utilities.
In order to model properly a vac-
uum residue feed, and to be able to
capture its thermal cracking reactiv-
ity, certain properties proved to be
VR
9
1
0
11
Sa le 1
e
e
pl
pl
pl
pl
pl
pl
pl
pl
pl
e
e
more significant. To obtain the most

pl
nc
p
m
m
m
m
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Quinolene insolubles fere
Sa
accurate result, consistent measures

R e
of density, carbon residue, and C7

asphaltenes (or equivalent) should
be provided for a vacuum residue.
The density property seemed to
provide a good starting point when
determining the chemical nature
of a vacuum residue. However, by
itself it could potentially fall short;
VR
0
11
Sa le 1
e
e
pl
pl
pl
pl
pl
pl
pl
pl
pl
for example, we could character-

ce
pl
p
m
m
n
m
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
re
ise a stream with the same density

Sa
fe
Re
in many ways using the PIONA

approach (non-unique solutions).
Volatile matter
In this regard, the carbon residue

property used to determine the
H/C proved to be key. The PIONA
composition of a given stream is
then shifted in order to minimise
the error, not only in the density but
Sa VR
Sa le 1
Sa le 2
Sa le 3
Sa le 4
Sa le 5
Sa le 6
Sa le 7
Sa le 8
0
11
Sa le 1
Sa ple
in the H/C as well.

e
e
pl
nc
p
m
m
m
m
re
The C7 asphaltenes measurement

fe
Re
(or equivalent) seemed to be the

Figure 7 Soft sensor predicted properties most advantageous property taken
from the SARA analysis provided
tion to estimate the shape and tilt of first attempt involved the vacuum for the vacuum residue. The sam-
the curve was developed. This cor- residue density, and the results ples with higher asphaltenes content
relation was found to depend on can be seen in Figure 8a. In this fig- would deviate from the reactivity
the vacuum residue’s initial boiling ure, it can be seen that more dense predicted if only the density was
point, C7 asphaltenes content and vacuum residues (represented in used in the correlation. This would
carbon residue. The correlation’s orange) did not seem to follow the point out that this property can shed
parameters were regressed to min- trend. However, this deviation some light on the chemical family
imise the error with the experimen- can be explained by the increasing composition of the group, and thus
tal data for all the different vacuum asphaltenes content in these heavier the reactivity of this fraction to ther-
residue cuts studied. vacuum residues, which allows for mal cracking. This also means that
Once the reactivity index was a correction factor to be applied (see when considering a SARA analysis
determined for each of the vacuum Figure 8b). for this fraction, the effort should
residue feeds, a relationship for this Once a correlation was success- be focused on getting a consistent
value was regressed using the dif- fully found for the reactivity index measurement of the asphaltene frac-
ferent properties (density, H/C, of vacuum residue, the different tions, both simplifying the method-
CCR) available for these feeds. The feeds provided by FOC were evalu- ology and potentially reducing costs.
q2 vmg.indd 6 09/03/2018 17:30

The PIONA characterisation and
kinetic approach used in this work A
allow for the ability to predict the 2.5
reactivity of a wide range
stream equipment such as the FCC of vac- the formation of insoluble
uum and residues. hydrotreater
This would mean not To value by increasing the sulphide
destruc-
unit
4800 b/dthe slurry oil product and * ini-365 ble energy sources. 2.0 Millions of CDU dol- 4salts
tion of
Minyard of W magnesium
organic
F, WoodsonsulphurT and
S, calcium,
compounds
Upgrade FCC
only the
tiate thatcorrosion
optimisation studies can MDEA reference solvent
b/d = cycle. They also which oil results in:
Reactivity index
days * $2.0/
be carried
$ 3.5 million/y lars in revenue to India’s oil and (COS and CS2) at lower operating
slurry with chemical settling aids, World
the out (blend of feeds, results
differ- Formulated MDEA reference Analyser solvent
affect catalyst, which
Simulated gas sector are •
lost daily with- Refining,
1.5beingDesalter Reduced
temperatures heat
Nov/Dec1999. transferItin
(<220°C). also heaters,
has a
ent operating
in more conditions,
frequent upset
need for scaling
ends up,
catalyst
Jefftreat Desalter
Ultra
The only meaningful process cost out considering 1 the impact2 of envi- causing
5 Motaghi
low more
M,
pressure
Shreefuel
drop, consumption
K, Krishnamurthy
which is and
S, Anode
impor-
and so on), but also implies poten-
change-out.
for the electrostatic separator is for ronmental waste and the cost of higher cost
grade coke from traditional crudes, PTQ, Q2
tial monetary tant as the SCOT process operates at
flow.saving byscale,
reducing the lost revenue1.0 2010.
Preventative actions that are taken
recycle For this the recy- from the bottom of the 6• Hot spots in heating
near tubes,and which
need tothe
run cracking Elliott atmospheric pressure andan
would experiments.
H2S in treated gas
J D, Impact of feed properties

inside
cle flow distillation
rate betower
2 vol% and in barrel.
of the Crude
Analyser
In the effort Analyser
to become self- reduces
excessive
operating their operational
pressure
parameters life
drop coker
on delayed can petcoke
require
Simulated
the overhead system do not replace
effluent, air or demand
100 b/d. At $1.0/ b/d, sufficient, oil 0.5
increased • Reduced
refinery mar- quality,
more presented
air blower flow rates
at theduty
ERTC in which
2008the over-
sulphur
Coking and
References upset starts
the
thisneed to remove the maximum gins
cost is: Wash alone will not sustain the ris- loads pumping units,
recovery unit (SRU) to maintain
Gasification Conference. making them
1 Liang X, Yan W, Thomsen K, Kontogeorgis G
amount of salt content from the ing watercost of crude 0 refining. Including 7less efficient
flow.
U.S. Energy Information Administration, India
M, On petroleum fluid characterization with
crude
100 b/doil before
recycle it* 365 enters the
* $1.0/
the PC-SAFT equation of state, Fluid Phase
crude
b/d = the installation of the GES to exist-VR Ministry • Blockages
density of Petroleum in tubes
& Naturalwhich
Gas, Oillowers
& Gas
distillation unit.
$ 36 500 ing refineries
B Desalter
and control
those with room
failing their capacities and efficiencies.
Journal, FGE.
Equilibria, 2014, 375, 254-268. Green- and brownfield benefitsfrom
2 The salt content of crude oils var- Optimised
mechanical 2.5 filtration could effec- 8 Paraskos J, Scalco desalting
V, Optimize valueprocesses
Riazi M, Characterization and properties of Compared with a currently applied
ies with fractions,
Ignoring origin,
theASTMthe water
labour andcontent
mate- tively increase India’s energy sup- FCC are
bottoms, Hydrocarbon Processing,
inevitable to guarantee
Apr
mini-
petroleum international, 2005, combination of catalyst and amine
2013.
in
Vol the
50. emulsion and the amount of Figure 1 Arrangement of salt-in-crude oil
rial costs of tank cleaning, consider ply, reduce environmental waste mum
solventshutdowns
in TGT line-ups, and maintenance existing
2.0
3 the cost
emulsion-forming
Nji G, of5 landfill
0Svrcek for
10 particles
W, Yarranton 15 H, the sludge
in
Satyro the and35 create
analysers
M, 30 in40a more 45 efficiency
desalter in crude of those refinery units that can be
20 25 50 refineries and gas plants can ben-
Reactivity index
removed.
crude oils,Assuming
Characterization like
of heavypolarlandfill
oils andresins is $1.0/
bitumens. and 1. oil production. affected.
Victor M Scalco III is Global Commercial
Time, minutes efit from reduced operating costs,
Lb, the cost is:
asphaltenes. To prevent corrosion, it content and1.5emulsion properties Strategic lowerthe
As cost ofDevelopment
desalting depends
Vapor pressure and critical constant prediction Business Manager,
emissions, improved oper-
is essential
method
Figure 2
for
Upset to
heavy pre-process
hydrocarbons,
resilience of the
Jefftreat crude
Energy
Ultra
& will frequently fluctuate
Source: according
Shell analysis primarily on crude oil quality, refin-
Gulftronic
ability
Electrostatic
and increased
Separators with
capacity.
1600
Fuels, tons/year
2007, *
22, 1, 455-462. $ 2000/ton =
oil in the desalter which breaks the to the crude $ 3.2 Further reading
1.0feed in the desalter. eries
General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems
must make a compromise
4 million/year
Kumar H, Froment G F, Mechanistic kinetic 1 Guercio V J, US producing, exporting more Group. Additionally,
He has worked for new for facilities,
more than cap- 20
oil/water
levels and emulsion, separating the Some crudes are difficult to desalt, between the maximum to allowable
modeling of treated gas specifications.
the hydrocracking of complex (Criterion)
slurry oil, Oil &C-834 high
Gas Journal, activity,
4 Oct 2010. low yearsital costs
in theare designexpected be lower
and implementation
water
Critical from
to the
achievingcrude oil, and thus such
2 Platts,as Venezuelan extra heavy salt content
to theand lowest costseparation
of desalt-
feedstocks, such
The annual
removing the salt. savingsagasare
as vacuum step change
oils,$3.5
Industrial temperature
mil- crude, Doba
SCOT
0.5
Methodology andcatalyst.
crude
Specifications
and Canadian
owing
Guide, of
ing
hydrocarbon
when
smaller
choosing
filtration equipment
and
their crude
size
oilfor
or
&inlion
the– $0.04
performance
Engineering Chemistry
million of
Research,the estab-
2007,
+ $3.2 million 46, The
Petroleum Jefftreat
Product & Ultra
Gas solvent
Liquids: US has
Caribbean
= crudes, and form HCl in the preblend. and
systems, reduced
involved equipment
in technical count
development
18, To
lished increase
5881-5897. the refining margin,
process has been the devel- superior H2S 0 selectivity over car- the enhanced process.
and Latin America, Jan 2012. and training with EPC and FCC/RFCC licensors
$6.7 million/year
refineries purchase crude oils and of heater of the desalter.
3 Silverman L D, Winkler S, Tiethof J A, worldwide. With experience in programme
bon dioxide (CO2) at high VR temper-
5opment,
Quann R jointly
J, Modeling with Huntsman
the chemistry
density and C7 asphaltenes
crude blends
Corporation,
complex petroleum at the lowest
of the highly selec- atures
mixtures, cost,
Environmental High and
Witoshkin salt iscontent
A, Matrix in heavy
effects
therefore capableand
in catalytic development
Significance
of scoping
Smaller
forofcommercial
plants on-line crude applications,
oil
The road ahead
often as heavy
Health Perspectives, and
1998, sour
106, Supplopportu-
6, 1441. opportunity
cracking,
achieving ultracrudes
presented at also
the NPRAplays an
annual
SO2vsemissions.
lowWestin analysis studies
for and commissioning,
optimised desaltinghe holds
tive
IndiaJefftreat
is looking Ultra solvent
to further and Figure
develop aSmaller
MA degree(B)plants
from costindex
the Universitylessof to
asSan build.
Diego.
nity crudes which are blended with
6 Quann R J, Jaffe S B, Structure-oriented important
Criterion Catalysts & Technologies’
meeting,
The
8 (A)
23-25
C-834
Reactivity
role in index
Mar 1986,
catalyst scaleadds
vacuum residue
accumula-
Bonaventure
further The desalting
density
However, if process
Reactivity
there comprises
is
a function
substantial the
and harness its various renewa- of density and C7 asphaltenes
Hotel Los Angeles, California. California.
other
lumping:crude
describingoils.
theTherefore
chemistry ofthe salt tion in heat exchanger
complex tubes due to following operations:
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q2 vmg.indd 7 13/03/2018 14:35
rezel.indd 1 08/03/2018 10:20
hydrocarbon mixtures, Industrial & Engineering
Chemistry Research, 1992, 31, 11, 2483-2497.
7 Wiehe I A, Process Chemistry of Petroleum CG
Macromolecules, CRC Press, 2008. AG
8 Simanzhenkov V, Idem R, Crude Oil CLO
Chemistry, CRC Press, 2003. CHO
Product yield
9 AlHumaidan F, Hauser A, Al-Rabiah H, Pitch
Lababidi H, Bouresli R, Studies on thermal
cracking behavior of vacuum residues in Eureka
process, Fuel, 2013, 109, 635-646.
10 AlHumaidan F, Lababidi H M, Al-Rabiah H,
Thermal cracking kinetics of Kuwaiti vacuum
residues in Eureka process, Fuel, 2013, 103,
923-931.
11 Aiba T, Kaji H, Suzuki T, Wakamatsu T,
Residue Thermal-Cracking by the Eureka
11
Sa e 1
e
e
pl
pl
pl
pl
pl
pl
pl
pl
pl
e
Process, Chemical Engineering Progress, 1981,
pl
pl
m
m
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
Sa
77, 2, 37-44.
Sa
12 Takatsuka T, Kajiyama R, Hashimoto H,
Matsuo I, Miwa S, A practical model of thermal
Figure 9 Scale-up results obtained
cracking of residual oil, Journal of Chemical
Engineering of Japan, 1989, 22, 3, 304-310.
Glen Hay is Vice President of Business Lante Carbognani is a Key Research and Hideki Nagata is General Manager of the
Development with Virtual Materials Group Developer in the PIONA Reactors department operations management department at Fuji
Inc., Alberta, Calgary, Canada. His experience of Virtual Materials Group Inc. He has Oil Company Ltd. Chiba, Japan. His experience
is focused on reactors, heat transfer units, experience in process modelling, engineering and interests are focused on petroleum refining
and overall plant modelling and optimisation. design and R&D in refining processes. He technology and optimisation. He holds a
He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical holds a BSc in chemical engineering from the bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from
engineering from the University of Calgary and University Simon Bolivar, and a MSc in chemical the University of Kagoshima and a master’s in
a master’s in advanced process control. engineering from University of Calgary. reaction engineering.
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Feed/effluent
well designed. If fouling is observed, heat exchanger results. Metal surfaces heavily fouled
it can initiate a series of down- system with oils, grease, tars, waxes, fatty
stream problems. In many cases, 1 Packinox heat exchanger oils or other substances are cleaned
heat exchangers are taken out of ser- 2 Texas Tower heat exchanger or without the need for costly organic
vice because of severe pressure drop set of several heat exchangers solvents such as light cycle oil
increase, not reduced heat transfer. (LCO), diesel or white spirit. Water
Heat recovery is essential in pro- Figure 1 Feed/effluent heat exchanger is sufficient for the preparation of the
cess units which are operated with network chemical cleaning solution, which
reactors. Typical process units with is circulated with suitable equip-
feed/effluent exchangers installed procedures are sometimes still used ment. Heat exchanger networks are
are hydrotreaters, hydrocrackers, in oil refineries and petrochemical cleaned in a few hours, with deposits
catalytic reformers, paraffin dehy- plants to remove the organic portion and sticky layers dissolved into the
drogenation plants, paraxylene of deposits such as oil and grease, aqueous cleaning solution.
plants, and methanol synthesis followed by acid cleaning to dissolve Chemical cleaning programmes
plants. Feedstock is heated to a high scale and soften deposits. But the such as Kurita CD-9931 offer a num-
temperature to be vaporised and results with such classical cleaning ber of advantages when it comes to
reacted with a gas, which in most programmes are often only moder- cleaning complex heat exchanger
cases is hydrogen. The desired reac- ate, and further mechanical cleaning networks (see Figure 2):
tion products and unreacted gases is required with additional costs. • Significantly reduced downtime
are de-superheated and condensed for cleaning
for separation. Some process units • Less labour intensive work com-
still operate with heat exchanger net- Hot condensate, pared to mechanical cleaning
water, steam
works of at least six to 12 exchangers • Cleaning solution reaches inacces-
installed horizontally. More common Kurita CD sible areas
are Packinox plate heat exchang- Series • Metal surfaces are not mechani-
ers or Texas Tower tubular heat cally damaged
exchangers, which are installed verti- • Cleaning can be done in situ.
cally (see Figure 1).
Heat exchanger performance can Texas Tower and Packinox heat
be restored by traditional mechan- exchangers
ical cleaning methods, tailor-made Texas Tower tubular feed/efflu-
chemical cleaning programmes, or ent heat exchangers are installed
a combination of both. Mechanical Mixing and in an upright position, with two
cleaning of complex heat exchanger circulation tank exchangers usually connected in
networks using high pressure clean- series to provide good heat recovery.
ing technologies can take several Figure 2 Chemical cleaning of heat Generally, such heat exchangers do
days. Classical alkaline cleaning exchanger network not show significant pressure drop
q2 kurita.indd 1 09/03/2018 17:32

increase, which is why they are often drained first, before the shell and
not cleaned during every shutdown. combined feed side was treated.
But when performance drops, seri- Stress corrosion cracking (SCC)
ous consequences may occur. of the high quality alloys might be
Packinox is the brand name of possible when they come into con-
Alfa Laval with the largest type of tact with oxygen (air), water and sul-
welded plate heat exchanger design phur species such as H2S or metal
currently available anywhere in the sulphides. Based on the NACE
world. Just one combined feed/efflu- Standard RP0170-97 to provide pro-
ent plate heat exchanger after the tection of austenitic stainless steels
reactor is usually sufficient to cool and other austenitic alloys from pol-
down the hot gases. All heat transfer ythionic acid stress corrosion crack-
takes place inside the large welded Packinox Texas Towers ing, a 1.5 wt% soda ash solution was
bundle block inside a pressure ves- prepared with condensate at a tem-
sel, so no process fluids circulate in Figure 3 Packinox feed/effluent heat perature range of 40-45°C. Following
the shell itself. Such heat exchang- exchanger and Texas Towers all instructions and guidelines, the
ers have a very compact structure, Packinox plate heat exchanger was
and can operate as high as 550°C. Case study 1 filled in the correct order and the
Common materials for construction In a European refinery, the Packinox aqueous solution circulated via a
are stainless steel (SS316 or SS321), plate heat exchanger of a cata- mobile mixing and circulation tank
titanium or highly corrosion resist- lytic reforming unit was chemically as a ‘pre-flushing step’ to neutral-
ant austenitic steel in a carbon steel cleaned for a technical check and ise the acidic components. After
shell (see Figure 3). maintenance work (see Figure 4). In one hour, this solution was drained
Feed/effluent exchangers are fre- general, the manufacturer Alfa Laval to the sewer system and a fresh 1.5
quently cleaned during planned recommends two possible clean- wt% soda ash solution was prepared
shutdowns when the pressure drop ing methods: ‘fill and drain’ or ‘cir- with condensate. After ensuring ade-
or hot approach temperature (HAT) culation’. A number of technical quate circulation, Leader Technology
reach a certain level. The thermo- requirements and instructions have applied the cleaning agent Kurita
dynamics of heat recovery can to be complied with for safe clean- CD-9931 to the soda ash solution for
be determined by superimposing ing. Steps must therefore be taken to circulation and removal of the vis-
curves showing the heat demand of ensure that shell and combined feed cous, tenacious fouling materials.
the reactor feed and the heat release side pressures are always higher The target pH range of the chemical
of the reactor effluent. Texas Tower than the effluent side pressure. cleaning solution is 8-9.5 and a pH
and Packinox feed/effluent heat Under the supervision of Leader of about 9 was maintained by add-
exchangers require more cleaning Technology, which specialises in ing soda ash. Every hour, a sample
effort than classical heat exchang- chemical cleaning, blind flanges was taken to check the appearance,
ers as the large welded heat transfer were installed. These were equipped pH, conductivity, chloride and iron
bundle cannot be perfectly cleaned with fittings for liquid level tubes, concentration.
mechanically. Tailor-made chemi- fill and drain nozzles, and nitrogen After around 10 hours, the dirty
cal cleaning programmes from the injection. Via flexible hoses, the fit- cleaning solution was drained and
Kurita CD series are used when tings on the blind flanges were con- the Packinox rinsed with clean water
very efficient cleaning results are nected to the mixing and circulation plus the addition of 1.5 wt% soda
required. tank to provide a circulation loop ash for about 60 minutes. In this part
When the HAT goes up, the system. Following manufacturer of the cleaning procedure, the soda
Packinox plates or Texas Tower guidelines, the shell and combined ash solution was used as a passi-
tubes are dirty and need to be feed side was always filled first, vation step to provide a protection
cleaned. If the reason for cleaning before the effluent side was treated. layer on the metal surface. After 5
is a high differential pressure and At a later time, the effluent side was bar steam was added for about one
the Packinox or Texas Tower tubes hour to remove remaining volatile
are coked up (carbon deposits), a gases, nitrogen was blown from the
chemical programme will not be top to the bottom for about 10 hours
very effective. By using a controlled as a drying step to avoid any catalyst
combustion procedure, coke depos- poisoning with water after restart of
its can be removed from the plates the process unit. After cleaning, a hot
or tubes. But more often, the fouling approach temperature of 37°C to the
material consists of sticky hydrocar- customer´s satisfaction was achieved
bon deposits such as polynuclear at full capacity.
aromatics (PNA), ammonium salts
and, in many cases, iron oxides. Case study 2
Here, a powerful chemical cleaning The Packinox plate heat exchanger
programme is the method of choice. Figure 4 Packinox plate heat exchanger of a catalytic reforming unit was
q2 kurita.indd 2 11/03/2018 19:52

chemically cleaned by Leader Technology, following
all operating instructions and guidelines for safe and
complete cleaning. The aim of the cleaning was again
the preparation of a clean heat exchanger for a tech-
nical inspection with maximised energy recovery and
increased heat transfer efficiency to reduce energy
consumption and emissions. Following all guidelines Proudly supplied and supported 30+
and instructions, the Packinox shell and combined
feed side and the effluent side were filled and drained FCC units globally with uncompromising
in the correct order. quality, we're expanding our international
During the circulation step with the Kurita footprint as we speak.
CD-9931 cleaning solution, Leader Technology
stopped the pump for about 30 minutes. The valves
of the combined feed side and effluent side were
opened to perform nitrogen bubbling in order to
obtain a mechanical cleaning effect. Then the two
valves were closed again and the circulation pump
restarted for some hours. After drying, the Packinox
heat exchanger was handed over to the customer
for inspection in a very clean condition. All require-
ments were fulfilled with results to the customer´s
satisfaction.
The rinsing operation after drainage of the clean-
ing solution was performed with 1.5 wt% soda ash,
diluted in demineralised water. Final drying was
once again done with nitrogen, which was blown
HCpect
from the top to the bottom for 10 hours. FCC Catalyst
Conclusion
Heat recovery in heat exchanger networks is essen-
& Additives
tial during shutdowns. Hydro-blasting technologies
might take three to five days for cleaning, and tra-
ditional alkaline/acid cleaning methods often show
only moderate results. Tailor-made modern cleaning
concepts are the method of choice when inaccessible
areas must be cleaned.
Texas Tower and Packinox heat exchangers require
more cleaning effort, with chemical cleaning pro-
grammes showing significant benefits. Downtime is
reduced with less labour intensive work, and clean-
ing can be done in situ without damaging the metal
surfaces. Up to 70% cost reduction is possible when
expensive solvents are not needed and water can be
used to circulate the cleaning solution.
Further reading
1 Speight J G, The Chemistry and Technology of Petroleum, Fourth
Edition, 2006, CRC Press, ISBN 0-8493-9067-2.
2 Jafari M, Iranshahi D, Rahimpour M R, Progress in catalytic naphtha
reforming process: a review, Applied Energy, 2013.
3 Aitani A, Catalytic naphtha reforming, Encyclopedia of Chemical
Processing, 2006.
Berthold Otzisk is Senior Product Manager for refinery and

petrochemical applications with Kurita Europe, Germany.
Email: [email protected]
Ladislav Úradníček is the Chairman and Managing Director of Leader
Technology spol. s r.o., Slovakia, a company specialising in chemical
cleaning of complex heat exchanger networks, decontamination of
refinery devices and ultrasonic cleaning of various types of industrial
filters with nominal apertures of 0.5 to 25 microns.
Email: [email protected]
www.eptq.com
q2 kurita.indd 3 09/03/2018 17:32

REFINING PROCESS SOLUTIONS
Helping You Process More

Cost Advantaged Crudes
Our total treatment approach works. On a global basis, we treat more barrels
of crude than anyone else—more than 35 percent of global refining throughput.
When you partner with Nalco Champion, we provide on-site engineers, a

global network of technical consultants, an RD&E commitment to customer-
driven innovation and unique gap analysis processes. We work with you to
tackle problems, and we support your operations with industry-leading
process technologies.
nalcochampion.com
nalco.indd 1 09/06/2017 12:24

Enhanced energy recovery for
crude preheating
Replacing shell and tube heat exchangers with a compact welded exchanger
increased heat transfer efficiency and reduced fouling issues in a crude unit
EVA ANDERSSON Alfa Laval

IBRAHIM TAHRIC Preem
T
he Preem refinery in Lysekil preheat crude from 189°C to 208°C, technology for this revamp of the
is a modern refinery of high recovering 8.5 MW from the bot- crude preheat train.
complexity, located on the tom reflux. The heat transfer area As the Compabloc exchanger
west coast of Sweden. In 2010, the was 308 m2, the diameter was would recover so much more
company conducted a refinery- 950 mm, and the tube length was energy from the bottom reflux into
wide energy analysis study, cov- 7315 mm. the crude, one downstream shell
ering among other process units a The new heat recovery service and tube heat exchanger could be
11 milllion t/y integrated atmos- would instead recover 21.2 MW removed from the preheat train,
pheric and vacuum distillation unit, from the bottom reflux, preheating and the new Compabloc with a plot
with two parallel trains for crude the crude from 192°C to 234°C. space of 2.0m x 2.0m was installed
preheating. This study concluded As in all other refineries, the in its place (see Figures 1 to 3).
that by increasing the recovery of Preem crude preheat train does not In addition, another of the down-
energy from the column bottom have a lot of plot space available stream services, recovering energy
reflux into crude, Preem would not for adding/increasing heat trans- from heavy vacuum gasoil into
only improve the energy efficiency fer area for more energy recov- crude in two shell and tube exchang-
by preheating the crude to a higher ery. Instead, the refiner decided ers in series, could be moved to the
temperature before the furnace, but to go for an unconventional heat preheat train A, providing additional
would also offload the top section of transfer solution, using a high effi- preheating in this line.
the distillation column and thereby ciency compact welded plate heat Finally, in order to maximise the
reduce the overhead pressure drop. exchanger called Compabloc. reliability of the new preheat train
This latter parameter means that In Preem Lysekil refinery, design, the original shell and tube
the refiner could reduce the flash Compabloc exchangers had already heat exchanger recovering energy
zone pressure in the column and been in service as lean/rich amine from the bottom reflux for crude
thereby increase the yield of heavy interchangers in the amine regener- preheating was kept on standby for
gasoil over light vacuum gasoil, a ator system and sulphur recovery the new Compabloc exchanger.
more valuable product that would unit since 2006 and 2008 respec- The Compabloc exchanger was
increase the refinery’s profitability. tively. Because the exchangers were installed at the end of 2013 and,
The original shell and tube performing well, Preem had no since the beginning of 2014, it has
heat exchanger was designed to doubts other than to use the same been operating at full capacity. In
HVGO
3A2
Desalter
1A 2A 3A1 4A 5A 6A 7A 8A 9A 10A
CDU Naphtha Naphtha LGO Kero HGO AR LVGO VR LGO
OVHD PA PA PA quench
Desalter
1B 2B 3B 4B 5B Compabloc
CDU Naphtha Kero Kero Kero
OVHD PA PA
6B 7B 8B 9B 10B
HGO HVGO VR HVGO
quench PA
Figure 1 Modifications to crude preheat trains A&B post desalters
q2 alfalaval.indd 1 13/03/2018 10:40

HVGO
3A2
Desalter
1A 2A 3A1 4A 5A 6A 7A 8A 9A 10A
CDU Naphtha Naphtha LGO Kero HGO AR LVGO VR LGO
OVHD PA PA PA quench
Desalter 7B
133ºC 165ºC
1B 2B 3B 5B 4B Compabloc HVGO
CDU Naphtha Kero Kero Kero
OVHD PA PA 372ºC
220ºC 249ºC 270ºC
6B 9B 8B
HGO HVGO VR
PA quench
Figure 2 Layout of crude preheat trains A&B post desalters after revamp
February 2017, it was taken out of which can be explained by the lower easily be taken out of operation for
service for a first internal inspection, crude inlet temperature, the lower cleaning or inspection, without hav-
as per Preem’s safety regulations. bottom reflux to crude flow ratio ing to interrupt the operation of the
Looking at the average operat- and the overall lower flow rates, plant.
ing data for these first 34 months reducing the heat transfer efficiency Figure 4 shows the fouling ten-
of operation, it can be seen that the of the exchanger slightly. dency of the shell and tube
performance is very stable without During the period when the exchanger in comparison to the
any tendency to fouling. Compabloc was taken out of ser- fouling tendency of the Compabloc
Table 1 shows that the average vice for inspection, the original shell exchanger, when in operation.
operating performance in terms of and tube heat exchanger was put Fouling in crude heat exchangers
heat duty and logarithmic mean back into service. This was another is very much related to crude tem-
temperature difference (LMTD) is improvement made to the pre- perature and crude shear stress in
very similar to expected design val- heat train during the revamp. By the heat transfer channel. The higher
ues. The crude outlet temperature installing the new exchanger with the crude temperature, the higher
is 10°C lower than design values, block valves on both sides, it can the fouling tendency, and the higher
the shear stress in the heat trans-
fer channels, the lower the fouling
tendency.
As Figure 4 shows, the Compabloc
exchanger suffers less from fouling
than the original shell and tube heat
exchanger, even though the crude
outlet temperature from the lat-
ter was more than 20°C lower than
from the Compabloc exchanger and
the shell and tube exchanger oper-
ated with a slightly higher (5%)
crude flow rate.
The lower fouling tendency of the
Figure 3 Compabloc installed in Preem’s CDU preheat train B, and outer dimensions as Compabloc exchanger was also con-
per the drawing firmed during internal inspection
of the heat transfer channels, when
Design data vs average operating data Preem was expecting to find more
fouling material.
Design Operating (Apr 2014 – Feb 2017) In summary, the main advantages
Bottom reflux flow, kg/h 484 645 401 016* (455.7) of the new exchanger in the Preem
Crude flow, kg/h 696 763 604 620* (671.8) crude preheat train are:
TG in/out temp, °C 265/207 264.6/191.8
Crude in/out temp, °C 192/234 170.8/224.3 • High heat transfer efficiency: one
Heat duty,** MW 21.2 22.5 Compabloc replaced four shell and
LMTD, °C 21.4 29.6 tube exchangers and provided in
* Mass flow rates are calculated based on measured volumetric flows (m3/h, in brackets) and fluid density at 15°C. total 7 MW more than the original
** Heat duty is calculated based on operating data and fluid specific heat at average operating temperature. exchangers.
• Compact design: one Compabloc
Table 1 recovering 21.2 MW into crude pre-
q2 alfalaval.indd 2 12/03/2018 16:30

Welded plate heat exchangers 0.0014 Ff CP 14−17
Fouling factor, m2K/W

0.0012 Ff S&T
The design of Alfa Laval’s Compabloc 0.0010
heat exchanger makes it capable of
operating at high temperatures with 0.0008
a wide range of aggressive media and 0.0006
under high pressure (up to 400°C and 0.0004
42 bar).
The exchanger delivers three to five 0.0002
times higher heat transfer efficiency 0
(per surface area) than a shell and tube 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
exchanger and can handle temperature Time
approaches (the temperature difference
between hot and cold fluid) as low Figure 4 Fouling trend in Compabloc vs original shell and tube exchanger during inspection
as 3-5°C, which allows for maximum
energy recovery. The high shear stress in
the heat transfer channels also results 80ºC
in significantly less fouling, which QW
VDU CW 95ºC 65ºC 95ºC
means the Compabloc can typically T8401
QW
operate three times as long between 42ºC 68ºC
109ºC
maintenance/cleaning operations. E8407
The compactness of the plate E8406 E8405 65ºC
180ºC
exchanger means that it can normally
BFW
be installed even where plot space is 182ºC
limited. A maximum 15m2 plot space, 284ºC
including service space, is required 08
261ºC 235ºC 213ºC 194ºC
for 850m2 of heat transfer surface,
equivalent to 4000m2 of shell and tube E8402 A-B E8401 A-B E8409 121ºC
95ºC
heat transfer area. 90ºC
Today there are more than 1000 341ºC
Compabloc exchangers installed in 260ºC 10 188ºC
atmospheric and vacuum distillation
units and more than 25 preheat trains E8403 A-B E8411 A-B 65ºC
QW
where every single heat exchanger is of
this type. Figure 5 Layout of Preem’s new VDU
cost of maintenance and cleaning is ing a total of 12 new units in total.

heating could fit into a plot space reduced. For all the preheat train services,
of only 2m x 2m. In addition, no Based on its experience with there is 100% spare capacity, while
service space was needed to pull Compabloc welded plate heat for all other services single exchang-
out the tube bundle. Only a service exchanger technology in this crude ers will be used (see Figure 5).
area of 1m around the exchanger is preheating service, Preem has also
Eva Andersson is Global Marketing Manager
required to remove the panels with decided to use the technology in for Refinery Business with Alfa Laval, Lund,
a normal crane. greenfield projects. Sweden. With 20 years’ experience as a heat
• Reduced cost: increased energy In the second half of 2018, Preem exchanger expert, she holds MSc in chemical
recovery of 7 MW means reduced will start up a new grassroots vac- engineering from McGill University, Canada
fuel consumption in the fired heater uum distillation unit with a capacity and Lund University, Sweden.
for an annual cost saving of $2.2 mil- of 1.75 million t/y. In this process, Ibrahim Tahric is Senior Mechanical Engineer,
Mechanical Technical Department, for Preem
lion and CO2 emissions reduced by all heat exchangers in the preheat
Refinery, Lysekil, Sweden. With 10 years’
14 600 t/y. train plus one boiler feed water experience as a heat exchanger expert, he
• Reduced fouling tendency: mean- (BFW) preheater and four cooling holds MSc in mechanical engineering from fd
ing that the energy efficiency is water (QW/CW) exchangers will be Yugoslavia and BSc in product development
more constant over time, and the Compabloc heat exchangers, mean- from University West, Trollhättan, Sweden.
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q2 alfalaval.indd 3 12/03/2018 12:33
ProMax ®
BR&E Process Simulation Software
Advances in Reactor Modeling

Process Insight:
Streamlines Gasoline Production
Beginning in 2017, TIER 3 regulations that provide chemical meaning to oil fractions.
will reduce corporate average sulfur in gasoline The AutoKinetic® reactors in ProMax make use
from 30 wppm to 10 wppm. New regulations are of these species to generate reaction sets and
expected to strain existing refinery configurations at their corresponding rate expressions according to
a time when the US gasoline market is increasing the strict chemical rules governing the process.
its reliance on low-octane feedstocks from shale ProMax AutoKinetic reactors provide users with a
and experiencing a turnaround in domestic suite of rigorous reactor models to simulate refining
demand. Uncertainty on future refining margins and other hydrocarbon reactor processes. A typical
requires refiners to place a significant emphasis on process layout for Gasoline Production would
flexible planning and process debottlenecking to include Blending, Fractionation, Caustic Treatment,
meet target quality and product slate. Amine Treating, Naphtha Hydrotreating (Figure
1), Catalytic Reforming, Isomerization, Alkylation,
Planning models make extensive use of Selective Hydrogenation (SHU) and Selective HDS
linear programming to maximize margins through (Post-treating) of Catalytic Naphtha.
stream allocation and blending optimization.
Accurate prediction of future plant performance
in the form of process vector yields is critical.
Likewise, the successful estimation of process
vector yields must include: (1) rigorous modeling of
process equipment, (2) comprehensive simulation
of the process layout, and (3) fast evaluation
of multiple scenarios for optimization. Under
conventional approaches, these models occur at
different levels. The rigorous process equipment
models are utilized to provide generalized
performance criteria to the process simulator.
The process simulator links together performance Combined with the ProMax Scenario Tool™,
criteria from multiple equipment models in a AutoKinetic reactors can be used to debottleneck
process layout. Optimization routines then evaluate and optimize blend stocks and yields in gasoline
multiple scenarios within the process layout. The production trains. By translating regulatory
complexity of the conventional layered approach frameworks into targets for sulfur, Reid vapor
reduces the efficiency of scenario testing and, pressure, and octane number, ProMax users
ultimately, reduces the likelihood of identifying have the ability to evaluate the benefits and/or
bottlenecks and locating the optimum configuration. shortcomings of different process scenarios and
test for imbalances, performance losses, surplus
All of these distinct models may be capacities as well as to identify opportunities
moved into a single simulator using ProMax®. In for new capital projects under variable pricing
refinery simulations, ProMax replaces traditional structures and crude availabilities while getting
boiling-based pseudo-components with species ready to meet TIER 3 gasoline sulfur levels.
[email protected] • [email protected] • www.bre.com • 1-979-776-5220

Or contact USP Trading & Manufacturing Pvt. Ltd. - Energy Division • New Delhi • www.usptm.net/energy.php
9650640798,011-46032975 • Umesh Goel • BR&E Sales Representative • [email protected]
bre.indd 1 08/03/2018 10:03

Boosting energy efficiency in
aromatics processing
Simulation of a revamped process scheme with improved heat integration
indicates big gains through energy savings and emissions abatement
SUNIL KUMAR, PRASENJIT GHOSH and SHRIKANT NANOTI

CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum
A
new energy efficient method
for processing the aro-
matics mixture to pro- Cooling
water (CW)
duce pure benzene, toluene, and Clay Air cooler
Condenser
treating
xylene (BTX) in an aromatics pro- tower Vessel Vessel
duction plant was conceptual-
ised for a significant increase in
Steam /
process energy efficiency and hot oil Reflux Reflux
financial savings. A techno- Feed Pump Pump
economic study was carried out to heater
Benzene
estimate the value of energy sav- Toluene
Distillation
ings, capital investment and addi- EX-1 column I
(DCI) Cooling
tional capital requirement for water (WC)
Toluene Distillation
revamping the existing design of + Xylene column II (DCII)
an aromatics production plant.
The results of the study show large MP MP
steam steam
scale savings in hot utility, cold
Reboiler Reboiler
utility, electricity and overall oper- Extract
ating costs as a result of implement- hydrocarbons Cooler
ing the new method. The payback from SRC Xylene
overhead Toluene + Xylene Pump
period for additional expenditure Feed Cooling
required to install heat exchange pump water (WC)
area piping modifications would
be less than a year, while pro-
cess emissions of CO2 would fall
significantly. Figure 1 Schematic of a conventional process for BTX processing
BTX is produced on a large
scale by processing the reformate grassroots unit for BTX production Conventional process
and pyrolysis gasoline streams in seems very promising. However, A schematic of the conventional
an aromatics production plant. there is a need for 110 trays for BTX process used for processing the
The aromatics rich stream is first fractionation. Therefore, the appli- aromatics mixture (BTX mixture)
processed in the extraction sec- cation of DWC for revamping an obtained from a solvent recov-
tion to remove non-aromatics. existing two column distillation ery column is shown in Figure 1. A
Subsequently, the aromatics stream process does not seem feasible. hydrocarbon stream is heated in the
is further treated in a clay tower A new method for BTX process- heat exchanger with the clay treat-
to remove olefinic impurities, fol- ing was conceptualised by opti- ing tower bottoms, and then with
lowed by two distillation columns mising the operating conditions steam to the desired temperature,
to produce pure benzene and tolu- and adopting new heat integration before entering the clay tower for
ene. Nowadays, divided wall col- for the revamp of a conventional removal of olefinic impurities.
umn (DWC) technology, which two column process to deliver sub- The clay treated BTX mixture
claims 30% energy and capital sav- stantial energy savings and reduce is processed in a benzene separa-
ings over the conventional two col- the process’s carbon footprint. A tion column (DCI) and toluene-xy-
umn arrangement, seems to be the techno-economic analysis was car- lene separation column (DCII) to
upcoming approach for fractiona- ried out to estimate the quantita- obtain pure BTX (see Figure 1). The
tion of a BTX mixture in the aromat- tive benefits of the proposed scheme xylene stream, which is generally
ics plant.1,2 A DWC application in a over a conventional scheme. processed downstream, is either
q2 IIP.indd 1 11/03/2018 19:53

cess and process heat integration
equipment in the scheme adopted.
Cooling Cooling
water (CW) water (WC) Physical insight and pinch anal-
Clay
Condenser ysis of the conventional process
treating
tower Vessel Vessel
reveal that a significant amount
of energy is wasted in air or cool-
ing water used for condensing the
Steam Reflux Reflux huge amount of toluene vapour
Feed Pump Pump produced in DCII. It would be a
heater
Benzene Toluene great achievement if this energy
Distillation Distillation could be integrated into the process
PEX-1 column I column II
(DCI) (DCII)
to reduce the net process energy
requirement.
The boiling points of BTX are sig-
Reboiler Reboiler nificantly different. Thus, it seems
MP MP
steam steam
quite realistic to suggest that the
NE-1 condensation energy of toluene
Steam
vapour can be used for preheat-
NE-3 (optional
NE-2 cooler) ing the feed to the clay treating
Cooler
tower and replacing part of DCI’s
Feed from Toluene + Xylene
Xylene reboiler duty, provided there is
SRC
overhead Pump sufficient temperature gradient
Feed
pump
Cooling for heat transfer. This tempera-
water (CW)
ture gradient will depend upon the
condensation temperature of tolu-
Figure 2 Integrated flow scheme for an energy efficient process ene vapour which increases along
with a rise in pressure in DCII.
routed hot or water-cooled for lation column condenser pressures However, a rise in DCII’s pres-
storage. were kept close to normal atmos- sure will also increase the reboiler
pheric pressure (1.1 bar). A reasona- and condenser duty for specified
Energy requirement in a ble pressure drop across the various toluene purity and recovery val-
conventional process equipment, such as 0.2 bar across ues due to reduced relative vola-
Simulation of a conventional pro- the condenser of DCI, 0.4 bar across tility. On the other hand, higher
cess as per the schematic shown the air cooler of DCII, and 0.2 bar pressure will lead to a lower volu-
in Figure 1 was carried out using across the column, were used in the metric flow rate of vapour in DCII.
Aspen Hysys. A rigorous distil- simulation. The reboiler pressures Considering this, a sensitivity anal-
lation column model and Peng of the columns DCI and DCII used ysis of the effect of DCII’s pressure
Robinson thermodynamic model in the simulation were 1.5 bar and on these parameters was carried
were used in the simulation. The 1.7 bar, respectively. out to understand their interaction
proportions of benzene, toluene, quantitatively.
o-xylene, p-xylene and m-xylene Enhancing process energy efficiency The results of this sensitivity anal-
in the hydrocarbon stream were A new, energy efficient distillation ysis indicated that reboiler and con-
taken as 12.55 wt%, 39.30 wt%, configuration based on DWC tech- denser duty increases with a rise
16.05 wt%, 16.05 wt%, and 16.05 nology reduces the reboiling and in pressure, whereas maximum
wt%, respectively. A flow rate of condensing duty to minimise the actual vapour flow decreased, as
20 000 kg/h and a temperature of net process energy requirement. expected. Thus, an increase in pres-
40°C were used as conditions to The reboiler and condenser duty of sure does not seem to be beneficial
define the feed. A pressure drop of a given distillation column depends with regard to energy savings until
0.5 bar was used across the process on operating conditions such as and unless the introduction of more
heat exchangers. A benzene purity feed temperature, column pressure, energy does not facilitate the utili-
of ≥99.95 wt%, a toluene purity of reflux ratio to meet product purity, sation of toluene vapour energy in
≥99.5 wt%, along with a recovery number of trays used, and so on. the process itself for a significant
level of ≥99.5%, were targeted in However, it is essential to note that reduction in the net process energy
the study. The storage temperature the net process energy requirement requirement. To find out the opti-
of BTX was taken as 45°C. The clay is governed not only by the distil- mum value of DCII’s pressure, the
treating column was not simulated lation column configuration but net process energy requirement was
as its operation is beyond the scope also by the process-to-process heat estimated using the pinch analy-
of an energy optimisation study. recovery potential. The extent of sis tool in Aspen Hysys for various
The columns DCI and DCII were process-to-process heat recovery is pressure values of DCII. The results
simulated using 36 and 32 theoret- governed by the operating condi- are shown in Table 1.
ical trays, respectively. Both distil- tions in the different types of pro- The results clearly indicate that
q2 IIP.indd 2 09/03/2018 17:34

a DCII pressure of ~3.0 bar is the Effect of DCII pressure on the hot and 32.3%, 84.8% in medium pressure
optimum value to minimise the cold utility requirement of the process steam, cooling water and electricity,
net process energy requirement. respectively. The design pressure
Subsequently, a new processing Pressure, Hot utility, Cold utility, of DCII is 4.5 bar. Thus there is an
scheme with modified heat inte- bar kW kW opportunity to reduce the operat-
gration was conceptualised (see 1.7 4898 4252 ing cost by 37.7% by revamping the
Figure 2). 2 5040 4354 existing process with the proposed
2.5 5276 4531
3 3407 2610 scheme. The payback period for the
Comparative analysis 3.5 3630 2787 additional expenditure required for
Conventional and proposed pro- revamping the existing aromatic
cesses with an optimum pres- Table 1 plant was found to be 10.3 months.
sure for column DCII as shown in Moreover, these energy savings
Figures 1 and 2 were simulated in a was estimated using the ratio of will also result in a significant
closed loop for evaluation of their capital cost to annual profit through reduction in CO2 emissions from
actual energy requirement. In the energy savings. The cost of pip- the plant.
present study, the annual operating ing modification was assumed to
cost was estimated for an operat- be 30% of the installed cost of new Conclusion
ing rate of 8000 h/y and for utility heat exchangers. BTX is produced on a large scale
prices of steam at Rs. 1500 per ton, The actual vapour flow (AVF) in the refining and petrochemi-
cooling water at Rs. 1.8/ton and profile of DCII indicates that there cal industries. A small increment
electricity at Rs. 4.2/kWH ($ = is a 34% reduction in the maxi- in energy efficiency would result
Rs60).3 The capital cost of the heat mum value of AVF on increasing in significant financial savings.
exchanger network, reboiler and the DCII reboiler pressure from Conventional and proposed pro-
condenser were estimated using 1.7 bar to 3.0 bar. This provides cesses were simulated in a closed
correlations reported in estab- the scope to increase the column loop to estimate the real value
lished and reliable literature.4,5,6,7 throughput in case of an increase of energy savings and the area
The payback period for additional in the toluene fraction of the feed. requirement for heat exchangers.
expenditure required for new heat Energy saving analysis reveals The results of the study reveal that
exchangers and pipeline rerouting scope for savings of around 40.1%, 40.1%, 32.3%, and 84.8% savings in
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q2 IIP.indd 3 12/03/2018 10:24

hot utility, cold utility and electricity can be achieved
by implementing the proposed scheme in an existing
BTX processing plant. These savings would result in
overall savings of 37.7% in operating costs. The pay-
back period for additional expenditure required for
installing new heat exchangers and piping modification
would be around 10.3 months. Implementation of the
proposed scheme would also reduce process CO2 emis-
sions significantly.
It can be observed from the configuration of the con-
Together facing a ventional process and the proposed scheme that the
proposed method is easy to retrofit to an existing plant
brighter tomorrow and can be implemented to revamp the existing process
configuration for large scale energy and emissions sav-
At Yokogawa, we believe the sky’s the limit.
ings and increased profit margin.
And to reach beyond today’s horizons,
we work step-by-step with you to make References
the unimagined a reality. That’s how we 1 Halvorsen I J, Skogestad S, Shortcut analysis of the optimal operation
move forward, through the synergy of
of Petlyuk distillation, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 2004, 43:3994-3999.
2 Yildirim O, Kiss A A, Kenig E Y, Dividing wall columns in chemical
co-innovation partnership. Join hands with
process industry: A review on current activities, Sep. Purif. Technol., 2011,
us, and together we can sustain a brighter 80:403–417.
future. Yokogawa: Building a better 3 Dejanović I, Matijašević L, Jansen H, Olujic´ Ž, Designing a packed
tomorrow with you today. dividing wall column for an aromatics processing plant, Ind. Eng. Chem.
Res., 2011, 50:5680-5692.
4 Kumar S, Gupta S, Nanoti S M, Techno-economic evaluation of
top, middle and bottom divided wall column configurations for
Benzene, Toluene and Xylene processing in aromatic production
plant, Separation Science and Technology, 2017, 52 (1), 122-131: DOI:
10.1080/01496395.2016.1250775.
5 Douglas J M, Conceptual Design of Chemical Processes (by),
International edition, New York McGraw-Hill - McGraw-Hill chemical
engineering series, 1988.
6 Couper J R, Penney W R, Fair J R, Walas S M, Chemical Process Equipment
(Selection and Design), 2nd ed. UK, Gulf professional publisher, 2005.
7 Sinnott R, Towler G, Chemical Engineering Design, 5th ed. Butterworth-
Heinemann, 2010.
Sunil Kumar is a Senior Scientist with CSIR-Indian Institute of

Petroleum (IIP)Dehradun’s separation process division. His research
areas include solvent extraction for aromatics production and recovery,
extractive desulphurisation of gas oil and fuel oil, process design and
integration, production of methanol and DME and life cycle analysis of
Please visit www.yokogawa.com/eu fuels. Technologies and processes to which he contributed have been
commercialised, including at Reliance Jamnagar refinery. His awards
include Certificate of Merit for Academic Excellence from IIT Kanpur,
and Institution of Engineers India Young Engineers Award in Chemical
Engineering. He holds three US patents.
Prasenjit Ghosh is a Scientist with CSIR-IIP Dehradun working on
aromatic extraction and process simulation and modelling. His areas
of interest are process modelling and simulation, separation processes,
reaction engineering and process optimisation. He holds a BE in chemical
engineering from Jadavpur University Kolkata and an MTech in chemical
engineering from IIT Kanpur.
Shrikant Nanoti retired as Head of the refining technology division of
CSIR-IIP Dehradun in 2016 and is now a Consultant with the company.
With over 30 years of experience in the development and scale-up of
separation based technologies, process design, process integration and
pinch analysis for the petroleum refining and petrochemical industries,
the technologies he has developed have been commercialised in various
refineries. He has published more than 40 research papers, holds eight
patents, and received the CSIR Technology Award and Technology
Shield for development and commercialisation of aromatics extraction
technologies. He holds a doctorate in chemical engineering from Indian
Institute of Technology.
www.eptq.com
Facing-a-brighter86x270-EU.indd 1 04/12/17 13:23
q2 IIP.indd 4 09/03/2018 17:34

Speed and Quality in
Separation by Design
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offer solutions for all your separation problems. Our portfolio includes state- Visit us at ACHEMA 2018
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Designing for a sourer future
Achieving the right sulphur plant capacity and configuration is crucial to the
proper operation of a refinery
DEBOPAM CHAUDHURI and SRINIVASA ORUGANTI

Fluor
R
efiners around the world are
processing a wider crude slate. 34.0 1.3
API
They are also faced with the Sulphur
33.5
challenge of meeting a tighter sul-
1.2
phur specification for the products,
Sulphur, wt%
33.0
hence the role of the sulphur plant
and its design are gaining more
API
32.5 1.1
importance.
A proper sulphur plant configura- 32.0
tion needs to cater to the operational 1.0
flexibility of the refinery. This needs 31.5
to be decided based not only on the
refinery turndown operation but 31.0 0.9
also on the various crude assays that 2008 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030
are being handled.
The best sulphur plant configura- Figure 1 Global crude oil quality trends
tion avoids bottlenecks in refinery
operation with minimum economic mental requirements are gradually International Maritime Organisation
investment. This article will pres- becoming more stringent. (IMO) to limit the sulphur content
ent several case studies on achieving The average API gravity and sul- in marine fuel to 0.5% by the start
the optimum sulphur plant config- phur content of refinery crude slate of 2020, whereas the same limit for
uration with varying crude com- varies by region, and over time the the Sulphur Emission Control Areas
positions, refinery configurations average quality of global crude slate (SECA) is already 0.1% from the
and capacities, and provide generic has been declining gradually. Figure start of 2015 (see Figure 2). This sul-
guidelines for making decisions 1 shows how crude slate is chang- phur containment will have a huge
related to sulphur plant design during and is expected to change over impact on the global refining sector,
ing the refinery configuration phase. the next few years. This confirms requiring major changes in refinery
The feasibility of a petroleum that total world crude oil reserves configuration and operation. New
refinery depends on the inherent (crude oil of the future) are of lower process units will be required to
interaction between the choice of API gravity and higher sulphur upgrade and/or desulphurise the
crude oil used and the desired type content than current world pro- residue streams.
and quality of finished products to duction (crude oil being processed The impact on overall sulphur
be generated. Using a more expen- presently). The harsh impact of the management in the refinery will
sive light, sweet crude oil requires changing nature of crude oil has also become vital, based on the
a simpler refinery configuration been moderated due to the effect of modifications made on the over-
and hence a lower capital invest- an increased usage of natural gas all refinery configuration and
ment. But supplies of light, sweet liquids and other unconventional operation. The sulphur plant con-
crude oil are decreasing, and at the crude oil sources, but the graph still figuration needs to be optimised
same time the gap between heavier shows that the change in sulphur to limit any unnecessary impact
and sourer crude prices is increas- content in crude is more prominent on the total investment cost of the
ing. Refinery configurations are also than crude complexity. project without sacrificing flexi-
inherently defined by the type of Simultaneously, product spec- bility in the overall refinery oper-
products expected and the quality ifications with respect to sulphur ation. The sulphur recovery unit
to be achieved. Meeting the quality content are becoming increasingly (SRU) design should avoid bottle-
specifications of the final products more stringent. The most recent necks with respect to the crude slate
is of utmost importance as environ- is the decision adopted by the to be processed, the product spec-
q2 fluor.indd 1 09/03/2018 17:36

studies reported, and will high-
5 light not only the means and meth-
Global cap ods to arrive at the required sulphur
SECA zone cap plant capacity of the refinery, but
4
also provide guidelines to select the
most favourable train configuration
Sulphur, wt%
3 of the sulphur plant.
2 Case study 1: single crude train

– moderately sour crude
The first example presented here
1
is a 9 million t/y refinery process-
ing a mix of high sulphur crude
0 and low sulphur crude and gener-
2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 ating a mixture of fuels and hydro-
carbons for downstream processes.
Figure 2 MARPOL Annex VI sulphur limits Source: IMO Although the refinery is expected
to operate with a variety of mix-
tures of low sulphur and high sul-
Sulphur balance for case study 1 phur crudes, a ratio of 80-20 is the
worst feed with respect to the sul-
TPD Sulphur, TPD of phur content and is considered for
ppmw sulphur
Feed
the sulphur balance shown in Table
High sulphur crude 21 600 28 300 611.28 1. Based on the actual mathemati-
Low sulphur crude 5400 1500 8.1 cal sulphur recovery capacity, the
Total feed 27 000 619.38 real capacity of the SRU is generally
Products
Naphtha 350 200 0.07
selected by adding a margin. The
Jet fuel/kero cut 1300 2000 2.60 margin is typically 10% or 15% over
Motor spirit/gasoline 3900 8 0.03 the calculated plant capacity. So
Diesel 16 200 8 0.13 for this example, the real capacity
Light diesel oil 55 3000 0.17
Bitumen/coke/etc 980 33 000 34.30
will typically be 660 t/d rather than
Internal fuel oil 480 3000 2.40 600 t/d.
Total product 23 265 39.7 A single train SRU with the
Balance - for sulphur plant capacity 580 required capacity will have no oper-
ational flexibility; designing it for a
Table 1 2 x 660 t/d configuration will attract
a lot of unnecessary installation
cost. Thus the prudent option for
Sulphur balance for case study 2a
this scenario would to select a 2 x
400 t/d sulphur plant configuration
TPD Sulphur, TPD of
ppmw sulphur which will allow for refinery opera-
Feed tion at 70% capacity even with one
High sulphur crude 30 570 25 200 770.4 SRU train operating with optimum
Very high sulphur crude 50 430 39 700 2002.1 additional installation cost.
Total feed 81 000 2772.4
Products
C3-C4 5500 10 0.055 Case study 2: multiple crude trains
Naphtha 5500 50 0.28 – high sulphur crude
DPK/ULS kerosene 9200 8 0.07 The second case study is for a refin-
ULS diesel 18 000 8 0.14
IFO 1500 5000 7.5
ery predominantly handling high
LSFO 36 000 10 000 360.0 sulphur crudes and consists of three
Total product 75 700 368.0 crude trains, each capable of han-
Balance - for sulphur plant capacity 2404 dling 9 million t/y of crude oil.
The refinery is designed for specific
Table 2a cases: present case for high sulphur
crude oil; and future case for a very
ifications to be met and any other ples are from four different refin- high sulphur crude oil. The sulphur
possible refinery operating sce- eries with different complexities balances for these two cases are
narios. The following sections will and crude handling capabilities. shown in Tables 2a and 2b, respec-
illustrate and highlight with actual The following discussions will also tively. For Case 2a, the required sul-
examples the defining parameters assist in achieving the most opti- phur plant capacity is around 2700
of SRU configurations. These exam- mised solution based on the case t/d, while for Case 2b the capac-
q2 fluor.indd 2 09/03/2018 17:36

ity is calculated as almost 3200
Sulphur balance for case study 2b
t/d after considering the required
design margin. TPD Sulphur, TPD of
Selection of the sulphur plant con- ppmw sulphur
figuration also needs to take into Feed
Very high sulphur crude 50 570 39 700 1213.6
account a refinery configuration of Very high sulphur crude 50 430 39 700 2002.1
three crude trains, hence the sulphur Total feed 81 000 3215.7
plant needs to have at least three Products
trains so that the shutdown and C3-C4 5500 10 0.055
Naphtha 5500 50 0.28
maintenance plan of any of the SRU DPK/ULS kerosene 9200 8 0.07
trains may be grouped with any one ULS diesel 18 000 8 0.14
of the crude trains. IFO 1500 5000 7.5
LSFO 36 000 10 000 360.0
The selected SRU configuration Total product 75 700 368.0
is 3 x 1000 t/d for the present case, Balance - for sulphur plant capacity 2848
keeping the provision for a fourth
train to cater for future needs. This Table 2b
configuration provides the opti-
mised installation cost for the pres- operational flexibility will be further and procurement cycle when the
ent scenario, yet it has the capability increased, and the refinery will be fourth train is installed.
to give the refinery flexibility with able to operate at full capacity even
respect to its shutdown and mainte- with one SRU train out of operation Case study 3: multiple crude trains
nance plans. Each of the three SRU as the three operating SRU trains – major refinery revamp
trains can easily be linked to the (3 x 1000 t/d = 3000 t/d) will meet The third case study is for a brown-
shutdown and maintenance of any sulphur demand for the worst crude field project which involves the
of the three crude trains. This oper- case (Case 2b) of the refinery, even capacity enhancement of a 9 million
ational flexibility allows the refinery with some design margin. Keeping t/y refinery to 18 million t/y along
to operate at about 85% even when the capacity of the future train the with a change in crude assay. Table
one of the SRU trains becomes same as the installed SRU train 3 shows the sulphur balance for the
unavailable. capacity also offers the benefit of refinery with the revamped capacity
When the future train is added, drastically reducing the engineering and crude assay.
q2 fluor.indd 3 09/03/2018 17:36

Sulphur balance for case study 3
TPD Sulphur, TPD of

ppmw sulphur
Feed
High sulphur crude 54 000 25 200 1360.8
Total feed 54 000 1360.8
Products
Tower packings, C3-C4 1600 10 0.016
Naphtha 12 000 50 0.6
catalyst support DPK/ULS kerosene
Jet fuel/kero cut
6500
14 500
10
200
0.065
2.9
material and ULS diesel
CGO/UCO/etc
13 800
1800
10
15 000
0.1
27.0
column equipment. Coke/etc
Total product
2050
52 250
20 000 41.0
71.7
Balance - for sulphur plant capacity 1289
Table 3
3 The required sulphur handling hence additional processing facili-

capacity of the refinery now becomes ties for the heavy gasoil section are
4 5 6 1450 t/d, considering the necessary included in the revamp. These mod-
Please visit us design margins. The existing refin- ifications induced an increase in the
Hall: 4.0 ery already had a sulphur handling required sulphur handling capa-
10 Stand: D66 capability of 500 t/d, hence the new bility of the refinery. Table 4 shows
7 8 9 sulphur plant would need an addi- the sulphur balance of the refinery
tional 1000 t/d, for which 3 x 350 post-revamp. The total sulphur han-
4 t/d SRU trains are the best solution dling capacity of this refinery pre-
with respect to operational flexibil- revamp was 575 t/d, while the
ity since, in the scenario of one SRU revised sulphur plant capacity in the
6 1
train becoming unavailable, there post-revamp scenario is now about
4 2 would hardly be any impact on 740 t/d. The refinery already had
overall refinery operation. two separate trains of SRUs; an addi-
tional train of SRU is not the obvious
10 Case study 4: refinery revamp with solution here. Since the increase in
7 8 9 minor capacity increase sulphur load was only 30%, oxygen
(IMO impact) enrichment was found to be the best
This case highlights the scenario solution for this refinery. Some mod-
1 of a refinery undergoing a revamp ifications in tail gas treatment also
4 2 mainly to upgrade product specifi- became necessary for the revised sul-
cations with a very minor increase phur handling capacity for the SRU,
in overall capacity. The refinery mainly to meet environment norms
revamp is specifically undertaken to with respect to sulphur emissions
meet the IMO 2020 global cap limit into the atmosphere.
1 DURANIT® inert ceramic balls of 0.5% sulphur in marine fuel oil, The base configuration of the SRU
2 special reformed packings
3 droplet separators / demisters
Sulphur balance for case study 4
4 support plates / grids
5 feed devices: gas / liquids
TPD Sulphur, TPD of
6 liquid distributors / collectors ppmw sulphur
7 random packings made of plastic Feed
8 random packings made of metal
High sulphur crude 27 000 25 200 680.4
Total feed 27 000 680.4
9 random packings made of ceramic Products
10 software and consulting C3-C4 850 10 0.0085
Naphtha cut 6800 10 0.068
Jet fuel/kero cut 8500 10 0.085
For further information
Diesel cut 6800 10 0.1
please visit:
Fuel oil/etc 1150 5000 5.8
www.vff.com
Bitumen/coke/etc 1050 20 000 21.0
Total product 25 150 27.0
Balance - for sulphur plant capacity 653
P. O. Box 552, D - 56225 Ransbach-Baumbach
Phone +49 26 23 / 895 - 0, [email protected]
Table 4
q2 fluor.indd 4 09/03/2018 17:36

included two separate trains and each train had a sim-
ilar (but not exactly the same) sulphur handling capac-
ity, hence the refinery’s operational flexibility was on
track. Both SRUs underwent revamps to include oxygen
enrichment technology along with a few other inevitable
modifications on the tail gas treatment sections and sul-
phur storage and handling facilities to meet the revised
sulphur load. The extent of oxygen enrichment imple-
mented on each of the trains was selected based on the
existing train capacity and to minimise the impact on
existing equipment of that train post-revamp.
This SRU revamp allowed the refinery to meet the
new sulphur load with almost no impact to plot space
and very little additional investment when compared
to adding a new SRU train to meet the revised sulphur
load of the refinery.
(Irrespective of the actual capacity of the crude trains,
and for simplicity of comparison, all the crude trains
under discussions have been prorated to have a capac-
ity of 9 million t/y. The product slates have also been
prorated accordingly, hence the sulphur plant capacities
reported are also adjusted accordingly.)
Conclusions
Refiners around the world are feeling the crunch of
meeting tighter sulphur specifications for products
and at the same time facing the challenge of gradually
depleting reserves of sweet crude. While modifications
are being made to process units, in particular develop-
ments in hydrotreating processes and catalysts, the sul-
phur load in the refinery is continually increasing. This
calls for an update of the sulphur balance of the refin- More than just
ery and an upgrade of the sulphur plant configurations
in most refineries around the world. vacuum
Arriving at the proper sulphur plant capacity and
configuration is of utmost importance for the proper Process-integrated solutions
operation of a refinery. The plant capacity and config- for many types of vacuum
uration should take into account the ‘most sour’ crude
system
assay/blend to be processed in the refinery. It should
also consider adding margins to meet the required
operating flexibility in design with respect to overall GEA supplies steam jet vacuum systems
operation. This should not induce unnecessary capital and hybrid vacuum pumps, optimizing
investment, and hence these margins need to be opti- production processes to reduce costs and
mised. For revamp scenarios, it is in many cases advis- environmental pollution. You can rely on
able to look for opportunities in upscaling the sulphur 90 years of experience and thousands of
plant capacity by modifying the sulphur recovery pro- references in numerous industrial sectors
cess to improve overall sulphur recovery and increase all over the world. And thousands of
sulphur handling capabilities. satisfied customers can‘t be wrong.
Proper balance of refinery sulphur followed by a judi- We‘d like to prove it to you also.
cious selection of sulphur plant capacity and train con- Contact us and we will show
figuration provides a smoother path for overall design, you that we are the right
engineering and operation of the refinery. partner for you:

gea.com/contact
Debopam Chaudhuri is a Process Engineer with Fluor New Delhi. With
17 years’ experience in petroleum refining, petrochemical complex
and upstream projects, he holds bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and
chemical engineering from the University of Calcutta.
Srinivasa Oruganti is a Department Manager for Process Technology &
HSE with Fluor New Delhi. He holds a bachelor of technology degree
in chemical engineering from Andhra University and is a master of
technology in industrial engineering and management from Indian
Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.
www.eptq.com
q2 fluor.indd 5 09/03/2018 17:37

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UOP-Callidus-RSR-Ready-Flares-8009-297x210mm.indd
uop callidus.indd 1 1 12/14/17 12:21
15/12/2017 PM
16:38
Replacing a corroded column with
packing internals
A corroded column was replaced with a new column equipped with high capacity
packing. The cross sectional area is less than half that of the original
YANG QUAN, MARKUS DUSS and DONG JIAO-JIAO

Sulzer Chemtech
A
direct contact after cooler
Main specifications of the new
(DCAC) column equipped Cooled air
DCAC column
with sieve trays in an air sep-
aration unit (ASU) was severely New column Old column
corroded and had to be replaced. Height (T/T), m 14 14
Rather than go for a one to one Chilled water
Inner diameter, m 2.7 4.0
replacement, a modern packing Packing type MellapakPlus Sieve tray
252.Y
solution was selected based on a
lower pressure drop and much Table 1
higher capacity. During the process
design stage, the packing height The proposed operating condi-
specified was confirmed to be ade- tions and process flows for the new
quate to meet the heat transfer Cooling water column were unchanged. Based on
requirement. During the detailed the stream data and packing type,
engineering phase, computational the capacity and the pressure drop
fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were evaluated, with the results
were utilised to assess the accepta- listed in Table 2. It can be seen from
bility of the existing inlet arrange- Hot air the packing hydraulics that the new
ment. Trial runs were conducted column was not highly loaded.
shortly after the new column was The key function of the DCAC
erected. The measured temperature Water column is to achieve the required
of the air from the top of the new temperature specification of the
DCAC column matched the design cooled air stream. A temperature
value very well. Figure 1 Sketch of a DCAC column outside this range will negatively
impact the vital downstream molec-
Background a severely corroded DCAC col- ular sieve adsorbers’ ability to con-
In an ASU, compressed air is umn. The existing column was dition the incoming air stream.
brought into contact with chilled 4 m in diameter and 14 m T/T, and Table 3 summarises the top pressure
and cooling water in the DCAC. was equipped with 10 sieve trays. of the DCAC column and the tem-
The primary function of the DCAC The dimensions of the new column peratures of various feeds. Based
column is to cool the hot air and were specified as in Table 1. on past operation of the old col-
reduce moisture.1 As the water Besides, a detailed design of the umn, the best ever achieved temper-
vapour content in compressed air air inlet was provided in the specifi- ature of cooled air from the top of
is linked directly to temperature, cation sheet: an open pipe type with the DCAC was 15.5°C. Sulzer was
the compressed air must be cooled a disk beneath the downward open- asked to evaluate the specifications
to 8°C~15°C. Otherwise, the down- ing to direct the incoming vapour and guarantee an approach tem-
stream molecular sieve adsorbers upwards. perature (the temperature differ-
may be laden with water in prefer-
ence to CO2. If CO2 is not removed Packing hydraulics
from compressed air, it can prefer-
entially freeze and cause plugging
of downstream equipment. A sim- Upper section Lower section
Top Bottom Top Bottom
ple sketch of a DCAC column is Capacity, % 51.0 51.9 65.3 71.5
shown in Figure 1. ∆P, mbar/m 1.2 1.2 1.4 1.7
An operator in the Asia Pacific
region approached Sulzer to replace Table 2
q2 sulzer.indd 1 09/03/2018 17:38

perature profiles of water in the
Operating conditions of the tray
column (the critical case) air and water phases for a DCAC
Interface
column. From this figure, it can be Air film Liquid
Column top pressure, bar_a 7.03
easily understood that resistance to H2O film
Hot air temperature,°C 95 sensible heat transfer exists dom-
H2O concentration
Chilled water temperature, °C 14 inantly in the gas phase while for
HG humidity
Cooling water temperature, °C 28 latent heat transfer or mass transfer
there is no resistance in the liquid TG
Table 3 phase due to a nearly zero concen- Hi
tration difference of water between
ence between the cooled air and the the water phase and a water lam- Latent heat
Ti TL
in gas
chilled water) of less than 1.5 °C. inar film. Therefore, for sensible Sensible heat
To guarantee the temperature of heat transfer and latent heat transfer Sensible heat in water
in gas
the cooled air, heat transfer calcula- in the DCAC column, only the gas
tions must be carried out to evalu- phase needs to be looked at closely.
ate the process risks. Process simulations provide use-
ful insights, such as the driving Figure 2 Concentration and temperature
Heat transfer calculations force for respective heat transfers profiles of water in air and water phases
In the DCAC column, as the tem- as well as the thermal properties of
perature of the compressed air is the two phases. However, they can Subsequently, the required packing
higher than that of the water, sensi- not predict how fast heat will be area2 can be calculated as follows:
ble heat is transferred from the hot transferred over a specific type of 𝑄𝑄!
air to the water. Meanwhile, due packing. 𝐴𝐴! = (1)
𝑈𝑈×(𝑇𝑇! − 𝑇𝑇! )
to condensation of water vapour, Specifically, for sensible heat
the latent heat of the hot air is also transfer, the heat transfer coefficient where QS (W) is sensible heat, U (W
transferred. It should be highlighted in the gas phase should be known. · m-2 · K-1) is gas heat transfer coeffi-
that condensation is essentially a This, apart from the thermal prop- cient, and TG and Ti (K) are tempera-
mass transfer matter. Figure 2 illus- erties of the gas, is also related to ture of bulk gas and temperature of
trates the concentration and tem- gas turbulence inside the packing. the interface respectively.
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q2 sulzer.indd 2 09/03/2018 17:38

As for latent heat, the required
packing area3 can be determined by:
𝑄𝑄!
𝐴𝐴! = (2)
𝑘𝑘! ×(ℎ! − ℎ! )×𝑀𝑀!"# ×∆𝐻𝐻!"
where QL (W) is latent heat, kG

(kmol· m-2 · s-1) is mass transfer coef-
ficient, hG and hi (mol · mol-1) are
humidity in gas bulk and the inter-
face respectively, Mair (g· mol-1) is
molecular weight of air and ∆HLV
(J/kg) is latent heat of water.
Similarly, the mass transfer coef-
ficient is also related to gas turbu-
lence inside the packing.
Depending on the application and
specific customer requirements, the
packing surface area can be adapted
to fit the purposes best. It should Figure 3 CFD model of the DCAC column and its external inlet pipes
be noted that the packing area
described above refers to the effec- igated by the high pressure drop of inlet piping, Sulzer suggested using
tive area available for heat transfer, the tray. However, given the much an advanced inlet device, Shell
which may or may not be the same lower pressure drop for the selected Schoepentoeter, instead of the speci-
as the geometrical surface area of fied simple pipe inlet device. A CFD
the packing.4 Nevertheless, Sulzer’s To guarantee the study was subsequently carried out
proprietary packing correlations to understand vapour distribution
predict packing effective area as temperature of the inside the new column. Figure 3
well as mass transfer and heat trans- shows the CFD model built for the
fer coefficients at specific operating cooled air, heat DCAC column and its front inlet
conditions. pipes. The simulated vapour flow
Based on the specified packing
transfer calculations trajectories are illustrated in Figure
type and height, and the flow rates must be carried 4. It was evident from Figure 4 that
and conditions of feeds, we calcu- vapour distribution was perfectly
lated the cooled air outlet tempera- out to evaluate the fine if Schoepentoeter was used as
ture to be 14.5°C with an approach the air inlet device. The operator
temperature of 0.5°C. The impact process risks agreed to leave the external inlet
of possible variations in water flow piping untouched.
rate (±10%) was also investigated. packing, maldistribution became a
Eventually, Sulzer guaranteed that potential issue in the stable opera- Results
1.5°C of approach temperature tion of the column. While the oper- Shortly after the new DCAC column
could be achieved. ator planned to revamp the external was erected on site, commissioning
Inlet piping
For this ASU plant, one of the two
feeds was supplied by a compres-
sor; the other feed came from a
nearby plant. The feeds were com-
bined in front of the DCAC col-
umn, and the distance between the
joint of the two inlet pipes and the
DCAC column was about four times
that of the diameter of the air inlet
to the column. Common practice in
industry is that, in order to avoid
maldistribution of vapour inside a
column, any unavoidable upstream
piping disturbance should be at
least 10 times that of the inlet size
in distance from the column. In the
existing tray design, maldistribu-
tion of vapour would likely be mit- Figure 4 Vapour flow trajectories in the DCAC column and its external inlet pipes
q2 sulzer.indd 3 09/03/2018 17:38

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for post combustion carbon capture projects.
Column pressure drop and approach temperature He graduated from the Polytechnical School
Winterthur, and has been working with Sulzer
Old column New column (guaranteed) New column Chemtech for more than 30 years.
(commissioning data) Dong Jiao-Jiao is a Sulzer Senior Application
∆P (mbar) 80 14.1 12 Engineer from the Separation Technology
∆T (°C) 1.5 (Best) 1.5 0.5 business unit of Sulzer Chemtech China. In her
10 years with Sulzer, her main responsibilities
Table 4 have included monitoring the changing needs
of the air separation market, and driving for
started. The operating data during Markus Duss is a Sulzer Senior Technical the best design and optimisation of column
commissioning were collected and Consultant, responsible for the development internals in tune with times. She holds a
they are listed in Table 4. of in-house tools for designing heat and mass master’s degree in chemical engineering
As expected, the pressure drop of transfer applications for rings and structured from East China University of Science and
packing. He is also the technical focal point Technology.
the new packed column was 85%
lower than that of the old tray col-
umn, and more importantly it was
below the guaranteed value. The
approach temperature was con-
sistently at 0.5°C, a degree below
the guaranteed value and match-
ing very well the calculated figure
of 0.5°C. The commissioning data
demonstrate that Sulzer proprietary
packing correlations are very accu-
rate in heat transfer calculations.
Conclusions
A corroded DCAC column was
replaced with a new packed col-
umn. Due to the high capacity of
packing, the cross sectional area
of the new column was reduced
by more than 50%. Revamp of the
external inlet piping was eliminated
after using an advanced gas inlet
device. The operating temperature ACCURATE • FAST • CUSTOMIZABLE
of the cooled air matches prediction.
TM
References Evaluate the impact of

1 Gorak A, Schoenmakers H, Distillation: your engineering decisions
Operation and Applications, Ch. 6, Elsevier
B.V., 2014.
2 Spiegel L, Bomio P, Hunkeler R, Direct heat
and mass transfer in structured packings, Join other process industry leaders
Chemical Engineering & Processing, Vol. 35,
now benefitting from Exchanger Optimizer.
1996.
3 Geankoplis C J, Transport Process and • Design heat exchanger systems to minimize the total
Separation Process Principles, 4th Ed., Ch. 9 &
installed cost of the plant
10, Prentice Hall, 2003.
4 Duss M, Meierhofer H, Nutter D, Effective • Evaluate revamp scenarios including bundle replacements,
interfacial area and liquid hold-up of Nutter metallurgy upgrades, or enhanced tubing
rings at high liquid loads, Chemical Engineering
and Technology, Vol. 24, 2001. • Generate customizable and region-specific estimates
Yang Quan is a Sulzer Senior Technical Expert, • Share data with HTRI Xchanger Suite®
specialising in mass transfer components,
such as trays, packing, column internals
and separators. He is also responsible for CONTACT HTRI FOR
air separation knowledge management
MORE INFORMATION.
within Sulzer Chemtech. He holds a PhD in
environmental engineering from the National
www.htri.net
University of Singapore.
q2 sulzer.indd 4 13/03/2018 10:42

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j matthey.indd 1 26/02/2018 11:00

25196 JM 2017 Rebrand - Making a difference.indd 1 16/10/2017 09:48
Packed bed performance analytics
Advanced analytics introduce a numerical and easily understood approach to

tower gamma scanning
LOWELL T PLESS
Tracerco
R
efinery and chemical plant be obtained for a gamma scan of a
operations depend heavily packed tower includes:
on distillation and separation • Condition of packed beds –
towers. Tower gamma scanning elevation of packing, depth of pack-
is well established in the process ing elements, uniformity of packing
industries as a qualitative tool to A B C
elements, and so on
help troubleshoot towers. Advances • Collector and distributor liquid
in data analysis have led to a quan- Figure 1 Typical gamma scanline levels: Damaged? Overflowing?
titative approach in expressing orientations: A for diameters 1.5 m and • Base or bottoms liquid level
gamma scan data in numerical larger; B for diameters 0.5-1.5 m; C for • Flooding present?
terms easily understood by process diameters less than 0.5 m • Foaming present?
and operations engineers. • Excess liquid retained in packing?
For packed towers, a grid scan of tion or liquid volume fraction. If • Liquid maldistribution?
three or four equidistant scans cross- the measured liquid retention den- The purpose of doing multiple
ing through the beds of packing sity is divided by the process liquid scans of a packed tower, as shown
would typically be used to investi- density at bed conditions (the liq- in Figure 1, is to determine the state
gate the quality of liquid distribu- uid density at the actual operating of the liquid distribution. The foun-
tion. The conventional approach to temperature and pressure), liquid dation for this analysis is the Beer-
‘analysing’ a gamma scan has been hold-up or liquid volume fraction Lambert law:
to visualise how well the scan data can be established. A comparison
I=Io e-ρµχ
from the individual scans matched of the liquid hold-up fraction to the
each other or how well they ‘over- packing operating capacity curves where
laid’ with each other. This is a totally provides an objective appraisal of Io is the initial gamma ray intensity
subjective analysis lacking consist- current operating capacity. measured at a given distance with
ency, open to varying interpretation It is always easier to understand no material interfering with the
and does not translate well from and discuss technical issues when radiation transmission
tower to tower. Therefore, the result- quantitative information can be I is the radiation intensity (counts)
ing conclusions from this approach used to compare operational param- measurement after passing through
can be very ambiguous regarding eters with engineering design. This the tower
the magnitude of any detected liq- advanced analysis provides a new µ is the absorption coefficient of the
uid maldistribution. method for extracting quantitative material the radiation is passing
An alternative analytical approach, information from gamma scan data through (material physical property)
termed PackView, has been devel- to diagnose and characterise the ρ is the density of the material the
oped whereby a relative density operation of distillation and sep- radiation is passing through
scale is calculated from data that the aration towers. It is our goal that χ is the thickness of the material the
grid scan provides. The density scale the use of the advanced analyt- radiation is passing through.
begins at the density of the dry or ics presented improves the value Beyond questions concerning
non-operating packing. The density of gamma scan data and facilitates damage to internals and flooding
scale displays the calculated density improvements in the operation of within a packed tower, the next
of liquid retained in the bed of pack- mass transfer equipment. biggest concern is the state of liq-
ing based on the scan data results. Figure 1 shows the most typ- uid distribution through the beds.
Another calculation by which to ical orientations for conduct- Historically, gamma scan analy-
put the liquid distribution into per- ing a gamma scan on a packed sis has relied upon performing two
spective and to get a measure on the tower. These scans are conven- sets of parallel scanlines (given the
useful capacity of the packing is to tionally called grid scans. Some of tower diameter is sufficiently large)
calculate the liquid hold-up frac- the process information that can through the packing (see Figure 1a),
q2 tracerco.indd 1 09/03/2018 17:39

omparison of pre- and post-revamp results
Pre-revamp Post-revamp Results/comments

r, t/h 147 182 Feed rate increased by 124%
0.26 0.25
125 116 Reduction in stripper bottom temperature reduced
reboiler duty
niser feed, % 0.132 0.05
164 170 Fouled reboiler tubes limited temperature
9.2 13.6 Reboiler duty debottlenecked
ter at high tem- Reference

shell side). The 1 Kister H Z, Component trapping in distillation towers: causes,
ited due to this symptoms and cures, CEP, Aug 2004.
of the debutan- J Rajesh is Vice-President Process with Essar Oil Limited India. He has
cleaned in the over 20 years of experience in refinery operations and process and holds
a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Annamalai University,
India.
Pawan Gupta is Deputy General Manager with Essar Oil Limited India.
in the HP sep- He has over 12 years of experience in process design and simulation and
holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from MJP Rohilkhand
ed significantly
University, India.
As a result, the
R Madhavan is General Manager Process with Koch Chemical Technology
ad receiver boot Group India Private Limited in the Koch-Glitsch division. He has over 20
and intermit- years
Figureof2experience
(A) Gamma in mass transfershowing
scan results technology
goodandliquid
holdsdistribution
an M. Tech. due to uniform response (B) Gamma scan results showing liquid mal-
he correspond- degree in chemical
distribution since engineering
there was nofrom Indian response
uniform Institute ofamong
Technology.
the scanlines
approximately Sandeep Yadav is a Senior Manager Process Engineering with Koch
ure of the strip- commonly
Chemical referred
Technology GrouptoIndia
as Private
a gridLimited
scan.inWhen gamma radiation through the tower must be kept equal so χ
the Koch-Glitsch
g reduction in division. He has over 10 years of experience in mass transfer technology
scanning a tower, Io remains fixed and µ is essen- remains a constant. With I being measured, the equa-
and holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Shivaji
tially a constant. For a grid scan, the multiple paths of tion is solved for ρ, the material density.
capacity of the University, India.
On the basis that χ was indeed kept equal, then the
d. The results of multiple sets of scan data from a packed column grid
tion are shown scan could be simply visually compared to each other.
Since all scan parameters were constant, particularly
the length or path of radiation through the column (χ),
uniform liquid distribution would be confirmed by all
y-over of water four scans detecting identical radiation. Figure 2a is a
not easily pre- typical example of a grid scan showing all four scan-
ns and hydrau- lines matching, implying good liquid distribution.
ked closely with However, when there was some variance in the radi-
to troubleshoot ation measurement and the sets of scan data did not
n the unit, espe- seem to match very well, then liquid maldistribution
ations, to iden- would be diagnosed as the cause. Comparing the sets of
symptoms and scan data, lower radiation counts (higher density) indi-
nd debutaniser cated more liquid and higher counts (less density) indi-
cted that water cated less liquid, therefore liquid maldistribution. An
cause. example of this type of conclusion is demonstrated in
onvenient way Figure 2b.
columns, lead- This is a totally subjective analysis lacking consistency,
the HP separa- open to varying interpretation, and does not translate
oblem was fully from tower to tower. Additionally, this quantitative anal-
n the HP sep- ysis does not give any insight into the severity or quan-
neering group tity of liquid maldistribution. Therefore, the resulting
of the existing conclusions from this purely qualitative approach can be
to remedy the very ambiguous regarding the presence and magnitude
and proprietary of any liquid maldistribution.
ovided a solu-
goal. By under- Advanced analytics: PackView
he problem, the An advanced analytical analysis for gamma scan
eparator vessel data from packed columns was developed to con-
he performance sistently analyse gamma scan data and reach a
conclusive result. Densities are calculated based
PTQ Q4 2017 49
12/09/2017 16:51
q2 tracerco.indd 2 13/03/2018 10:46
Figure 3 (A) Initial gamma scan results from small diameter column (B) Gamma scan results, enhanced with liquid retention scale,
showing missing packing at top of bed
on tower dimensions, scan path the bed of packing was supposed be nearly equal to the dry packing,
length (variable χ) and gamma to be as per the reference tower either there was no liquid (obvi-
scan response through the pack- drawing. There was a reduction ously not the case) or packing was
ing. The results are used to super- in radiation counts from the clear missing. This was a bed of random
impose a density scale onto the vapour region at the expected ele- packing. The PackView analysis
scan data. The baseline of the vation for the top of the bed. After provided conclusive evidence that
density scale is the dry bulk or a short distance into the bed the portions of the packing were miss-
non-operating packing den- radiation counts decreased. So the ing. The high density in the bot-
sity. Calculated densities greater question was, what was the operat- tom of the bed was likely crushed
than the dry packing density ing condition of the bed? Were the packing retaining an excess of liq-
represent liquid and/or solids lower counts (higher density) liquid. Eventually, entry into the tower
retained in the bed of packing. uid hold-up (flooding) at the bottom confirmed these results.
Figures 3b, 4b and 5b show exam- of the bed? Or was the radiation
ples of this liquid retention density count at the bottom of the bed ‘nor- PackView Example 2
scale. mal’ and something had happened Figure 4a shows the gamma scan
As with the qualitative gamma to the packing in the top of the results from a crude vacuum tower
scan analysis, if the multiple scan- bed? A visual or qualitative evalu- (the fourth scanline was not per-
lines have matching liquid reten- ation of the radiation counts could formed due to limited access). One
tion densities then the implication not answer these questions with of the biggest problems with crude
is the liquid distribution is good. confidence. vacuum tower operation is manag-
However, if there is a difference Figure 3b shows the gamma scan ing the coking (fouling) of the wash
between the scanlines, the reten- results from Figure 3a with the liq- bed. In this example, plant staff sus-
tion density gives a numerical com- uid retention scale added. Note that pected the wash bed had coked up
parison from which to gauge the the density of the dry packing is 160 so the gamma scan was carried out
extent or severity of any liquid kg/m3 and the top of the bed has to assess the situation. As shown in
maldistribution in terms of liquid a density essentially equal to this. the tower diagram on the right side
density. However, the tower was operat- of Figure 4a, this wash bed consisted
ing and there was liquid travelling of two different types of packing.
PackView Example 1 down through the packing. Where The top section was typical struc-
Figure 3a shows the gamma scan is the additional density from the tured packing while the bottom sec-
results from a small-diameter retained liquid? The overall density tion was grid packing. The scan
packed tower (only two scanlines at the top of the packing should be results showed the bottom section
performed due to the small diam- the combination of retained liquid to be very dense, as the radiation
eter). The tower diagram on the and packing density. Since the scan intensity was less than five counts,
right side of Figure 3a shows where results show the overall density to essentially background (no radiation
q2 tracerco.indd 3 13/03/2018 10:46

Figure 4 (A) Initial gamma scan results of crude vacuum column showing bed placements and high density (very low radiation
intensity) through the wash bed grid (B) Gamma scan results, enhanced with liquid retention scale, showing wash bed grid either
completely coked or flooding with retained liquid. Excess liquid backing up into wash bed packing
passing through the tower). Based results from Figure 4a with the liq- the grid was coked and/or flooding.
on this result, the diagnosis was that uid retention scale added. The dry Therefore, the scan radiation source
the grid section was coked and/or density of the grid packing was 255 used on this tower was more than
flooding with liquid, but plant man- kg/m3. The density of the process adequate. The advanced analysis
agement was not convinced. Grid material inside the grid packing, proved that if this wash bed had not
packing is dense so a question was based on the scan results, was cal- been fouled with coke and flooding
asked concerning whether the radi- culated to be approximately 300 kg/ there should have been 30-50 counts
ation source was too small. In other m3. Grid packing is very open pack- passing through the tower, rather
words, some radiation would pass ing and the typical liquid rate on a than less than five.
through the packing from using a vacuum wash bed is very low. A An additional computation con-
larger radiation source and then per- typical liquid retention density for firmed this diagnosis. The liquid
haps the tower would not appear to grid packing in this service is 80-100 volume fraction was calculated by
be flooding. kg/m3. The density calculated from dividing the liquid retention den-
Figure 4b shows the gamma scan the scan data was far above this, so sity of 300 kg/m3 by the process
liquid density (800 kg/m3). The
resulting liquid volume fraction was
0.20
0.38. Figure 5 shows typical capac-
0.18 ity curves from studies of packing
0.16 capacities. Note that packings usu-
Liquid fraction hold-up
0.14 ally reach the flood stage with liq-

0.12 uid volume fractions greater than
0.12. Therefore, the grid packing
0.10
far exceeded its maximum useful
0.08
capacity.
0.06
0.04 PackView Example 3
Structured
0.02 Figure 6a shows the gamma scan
Random
0 results of a packed bed in a CO2
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 scrubber where the resulting product
Maximum useful capacity, % gas was out of specification on CO2.
The gamma scan showed no major
Figure 5 Typical curves showing maximum capacity for general types of packing as a problems with the scrubber internals
function of liquid hold-up other than the possibility of liquid
q2 tracerco.indd 4 13/03/2018 10:46

Figure 6 (A) Initial gamma scan results showing what appears to be liquid maldistribution through non-uniformity of the scanlines through
the bed (B) Gamma scan results, enhanced with liquid retention scale, showing large density differences among the scanlines. One side of
the tower (blue scanline) shows almost dry packing as the liquid retention density is almost the same as the dry packing density
maldistribution. The typical quali- fraction calculated, based on a pro- only general guidelines and may
tative evaluation appeared to show cess liquid density of 800 kg/m3, differ based on the specific service
there was a problem in the bed of ranged from 0.01 (very low liquid the tower performs and the overall
packing. The four scanlines did not fraction) to 0.16 (bordering on flood- liquid operating rate.
match each other very well, indicating). Thus the advanced analysis
ing that the overall density between conclusively proved that the bed Conclusions
the four sets of data were different of packing was suffering from very • Using PackView advanced anal-
from each other. The radiation inten- poor liquid distribution. ysis, gamma scan data is able to
sity counts varied from 1800-3600 Figure 7 shows general guidelines measure (quantify) liquid maldis-
as read from the horizontal scale of for the magnitude of liquid reten- tribution through a packed bed in
Figure 6a. But what was the severity tion density differences seen across terms of liquid density.
of the liquid maldistribution? The packed beds from gamma scans and • The liquid retention in packing
radiation intensity or counts gave the relative quality of liquid distri- can be measured from gamma scans,
no perspective or evaluation of the bution. Please note that these are indicating excess liquid hold-up
actual liquid distribution quality. caused by fouling or flooding.
Figure 6b shows the same gamma • If the actual liquid density is
scan results from Figure 6a with 30 kg/m3 (2 lb/ft3) known, a simple calculation can
the liquid retention density scale determine the % liquid fraction, a
added. The dry packing density is Good liquid distribution measure of the maximum useful
∆ = 0−30 kg/m3 (0−2 lb/ft3)
115 kg/m3. The PackView analysis capacity of the packing.
showed the liquid retention ranged
PackView™ is a trademark of Tracerco.
from 10-130 kg/m3. In terms of liq- Fair liquid distribution
uid density across a bed of packing, ∆ = 30−80 kg/m3 (2−5 lb/ft3) Lowell Pless is Business Development
this was a large density differ- Manager - Distillation Applications with
ence. Reinforcing the liquid mald- Poor liquid distribution Tracerco, located in Pasadena (Houston),
istribution diagnosis was the fact ∆ => 80 kg/m3 (>5 lb/ft3) Texas. He has been applying radioisotope
(worrisome) techniques in process troubleshooting for
that one scanline (the blue data
30 years, originally with Tru-Tec Services
curve in Figure 6b) had almost the 80 kg/m3 (5 lb/ft3)
(acquired by Tracerco in 2006). He holds a
same overall density as dry pack- BS degree in chemical engineering from the
ing alone. Thus, this scanline was Figure 7 General guidelines for evaluating University of Texas at Austin, is a registered
nearly dry or there was very lit- liquid distribution quality based on gamma Professional Engineer in the State of Texas,
tle liquid on that side of the scrub- scan results using the advanced analytics and participates on the Design and Practices
ber. Furthermore, the liquid volume of the liquid retention scale committee for Fractionation Research (FRI).
q2 tracerco.indd 5 13/03/2018 10:46

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jonell.indd 1 09/03/2017 12:22

Dividing wall columns for gas plants
Uniting two unit offerings into one column shell can lead refiners to improve the
profitability of their gas plants
MANISH BHARGAVA, ROOMI KALITA and DAVID KOCKLER

GTC Technology
D
ividing wall column (DWC) high operating pressures and pro-
technology provides refiners pane losses in the off-gas. In some
Off gas
with a unique way of improv- (C1−C4, heavies) processes, these losses are mitigated
ing the efficiency and profitability Fuel gas (C1, C2) by using refrigeration in the over-
of traditional refining techniques. head system. This increases the cap-
This technology, which has been in ital cost of the process.
use since the 1940s, can be modi- LPG These problems can be recti-
fied for various applications ranging (C3) fied by using a top DWC. Doing so
from naphtha/reformate splitters allows the top section of the column
to gas plants, and can even be used to be operated under two differ-
to transform established technolo- ent unit operations: absorption and
gies like isomerisation and naphtha distillation. The section of the col-
hydrotreating. C4,
umn where the feed enters operates
In this article, we discuss the dis- heavies under reboiler absorption. The other
Deethaniser Depropaniser
tinct advantages that DWCs can section of the column separates a
offer to improve and modify tradi- light liquid product and a heavy
tional gas plant process schemes, Figure 1 Conventional LPG recovery unit bottom product using regular distil-
with emphasis on top DWCs. DWCs lation. This arrangement offers the
are often characterised by the pres- ate in a sequence and under similar following advantages.
ence of a vertical wall in a regular operating pressures and temper- First, use of absorption allows the
distillation column. When the dis- atures. The DWC will potentially column to be operated at a lower
tinctive wall is present at the top combine the operation of two or pressure. The absorbing solvent
of the column, the column can be more columns, thereby minimising captures the valuable C3-C4 com-
referred to as a top DWC. both capital and energy consump- ponents in the off-gas and moves
Top DWCs offer a host of advan- tion of the whole sequence. them towards the bottom of the col-
tages, especially in gas plants umn. These components are then
which are generally operated at Uniting wall columns in LPG concentrated on the other side of
high pressures. Unlike a conven- recovery from off-gas the DWC using distillation. For
tional distillation column, the top Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) feeds which contain a good amount
of these columns is segregated recovery units are an integral part of C5 and heavier components, a
into two separation zones within of any refinery. In general, in an portion of the heavy bottom prod-
the same shell with no intermixing LPG unit two or more columns uct can be used as the absorption
between the two zones. As a result, remove the C1-C2 components along medium (see Figure 2a). Using the
they can be operated in separate with other non-condensable gases, bottoms is highly beneficial when
modes and basically behave as two while concentrating the C3-C4 com- the feed contains at least 10 wt% of
independent columns. Absorption ponents to generate LPG. Figure 1 C5s. Table 1 shows a sample GT-LPG
and distillation can be carried out shows a standard design consist- Max feed.1 If the C5 concentration in
in a single column. This principle ing of a deethaniser column fol- the feed is low, the bottoms solvent
forms the basis of uniting two unit lowed by a depropaniser column. can be supplemented by an addi-
operations into a single column The deethaniser column operates at tional heavy oil solvent from nearby
shell known as the GTC Uniting a high pressure, wherein the C1-C2 processes.
Wall Column (GT-UWC). components are removed as the A water-cooled partial condensa-
The concept of top DWCs can also top product. The C3 rich (or C3-C4) tion is used in the off-gas side of the
be implemented in a reformer unit stream is removed in the next col- column. This is highly economical
gas plant and an FCC unit gas plant, umn. The recovery of LPG in this compared to using refrigeration to
wherein two or more columns oper- design is generally poor due to the mitigate C3-C4 losses.
q2 gtc.indd 1 09/03/2018 17:42

a Sample feed composition for GT-UWC
Off-gas
Product class Feed composition Product specifications

Components wt%
Fuel gas Hydrogen 0.0 Minimise propane
Top liquid Methane 0.3
product Ethylene 0.0
Feed Ethane 3.0
H2S 0.5
CO2 0.0
LPG product Propene 0.1 Propane >90.0 wt%
Propane 11.7 Ethane <1.0 wt%
i-C4 product I-Butane 8.3 Propane <3.0 wt%
n-C4 <4.0 wt%
Bottoms
Bottoms product is product n-C4 product n-Butane 19.6 i-C5 <3.0 wt%
the absorbing medium
i-C4 <5.3 wt%
Debutaniser bottoms C5 and heavier 56.6
b
Table 1
Projected economics of GT-UWC
Variables Conventional design GT-LPG Max design

Deethaniser Depropaniser
Operating pressure, MPaG 3.1 2.1 2.1
Reboiler duty, MMKcal/hr 2.0 3.5 5.0
Propane recovery, % 55.0 97.0
Table 2
Uniting wall columns in reformer umn. The C4 and lighter cut is then
unit gas plants processed in a deethaniser column,
A typical reformer unit gas plant which removes an LPG cut at the
Figure 2(a) GT-UWC process scheme usually has a depentaniser column, bottom.
scheme; (b) Inside view of a uniting wall followed by a debutaniser and a The three columns in this
column deethaniser. In Figure 3, the depen- sequence operate at high pres-
taniser column removes the C5- cut sures. Additionally, the debutan-
Additionally, this DWC design from the reformer bottoms as the iser and deethaniser columns see
sees a reduction in energy consump- top product. C6 and heavier cuts are partial overhead condensation.
tion by about 10-30% compared removed as the bottom product. In Due to these, a major portion of the
to traditional columns with better the next column, the C5s are con- LPG components (C3-C4) end up
product recoveries (see Table 2). centrated in the bottom of the colin the off-gas. These components
can be recovered by use of a DWC
configuration.
Fuel gas
As Figure 4 shows, the operation
of the deethaniser can be squeezed
into the bigger depentaniser col-
umn by means of a dividing wall.
The column has two distinct zones
Feed from within: a pre-fractionation zone
reformer and a main fractionation zone. The
pre-fractionation zone sees a com-
Debutaniser Deethaniser bination of absorption and distil-
lation. The lights are separated on
Depentaniser this side as the off-gas, with the
absorption medium reducing the
liquid losses. On the main fraction-
C5 cut LPG
C6+ to ation side, the C5 and lighter com-
reformate splitter
ponents are removed as the other
top product. Similar to a GT-UWC
b
Figure 3 Conventional reformer unit gas plant configuration design, a portion of the heavy
q2 gtc.indd 2 09/03/2018 17:42

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bottoms (mainly C6-C7) is used as an
absorption medium. The GT-UWC
Fuel gas
depentaniser column is operated at
a lower pressure compared to the
conventional column.
Since the majority of the lighter
LPG components is removed in the first
Feed from column, the subsequent debutan-
reformer iser column operates with a total
overhead condenser. This column
Debutaniser removes the LPG cut and the C4 cut.
GT-DWG Table 3 compares the performance
Depentaniser
of the two configurations. For the
same heating duties, the DWC con-
C5 cut figuration generates better prod-
uct recovery while minimising the
C6+ to reformate splitter amount of equipment needed. The
DWC configuration has a lower
b total installed cost over the conven-
Figure 4 Reformer gas plant configuration with GT-UWC technology tional configuration.
Performance of GT-DWC vs conventional design Uniting wall columns in FCC unit

gas plants
Parameters Conventional design GT-DWC design
Figure 5 shows a traditional FCC unit
Columns Depentaniser Debutaniser Deethaniser Depentaniser Debutaniser gas plant. The process scheme pri-
No. of trays 40 33 27 40 40 marily consists of absorber/strip-
Operating pressure, MPaG 0.9 1.1 3.1 0.5 1.1 per columns, where the gases and
Total heating duty, MMkcal/hr 37.1 2.2 0.5 29.0 2.7
Total installed cost, MMUSD 10.7 8.5
the liquid in the feed are separated.
Feed, tonnes/hr 386.8 386.8 Unstabilised naphtha (supplemented
C6+ cut, tonnes/hr 365.5 365.5 with a portion of stabilised naphtha
C5- cut, tonnes/hr 8.1 8.2 bottoms) prevents C3-C4 losses from
Off-gas, tonnes/hr 5.8 1.7
LPG, tonnes/hr 7.4 11.4
the absorber column. The remain-
ing C3-C4 is stripped using lean oil
in the sponge absorber column. Sour
Table 3 fuel gas and rich oil are removed at
the top and bottom respectively. The
liquid product from the stripper col-
Stabilised naphtha umn is processed in a debutaniser
recirculaion Sour fuel gas column. Sour LPG is extracted as the
Lean top product, while stabilised naph-
Unstabilised oil Sponge tha is recovered at the bottom.
naphtha absorber The conventional design consists
of three stages for the separation:
Absorber the absorbing and stripping sec-
Rich oil
tion followed by distillation in the
Sour LPG main debutaniser column. Using
Compressed GT-UWC technology, the three
feed gas
stages can be integrated into a sin-
gle column (see Figure 6).
Due to the segregation of the top
Absorber/stripper halves, the two sides of the column
feed drum behave as individual columns with
Stripper Debutaniser independent overhead systems and
controls. The parallel zones pro-
vide similar stages for separation
in a single column. A portion of the
Stabilised bottoms product is circulated as the
naphtha product absorption medium in the section
where the feed enters. This opera-
tion is similar to that of the absorber
Figure
b 5 Typical FCC unit gas plant configuration in the conventional design. The liq-
q2 gtc.indd 3 09/03/2018 17:42

uid portion of the feed enters below
the absorption section. The C3-C4 Sour fuel gas
components move down the wall
Lean oil
aided by absorption. Once across Sponge
absorber
the wall, these components are con-
centrated as the top product by rec-
tification and stripping. Stabilised Rich oil
naphtha is removed as the bottom Sour LPG
product. Table 4 shows a compari-
son between the two designs.
Unstabilised
naphtha
Conclusion Compressed Absorber
Gas plants are a vital component of feed gas
any refinery. These columns have
Stripper
always been operated using well-es-
Debutaniser
tablished distillation techniques. Absorber/stripper
feed drum
However, using the UWC concept
can generate a leaner and more
Stabilised
efficient system. DWCs not only naphtha product
lower the equipment count (col-
umns, pumps, and reboilers); they
also lower the energy consumption Figure 6 FCC unit gas plant configuration with GT-UWC design
of any configuration. Occasionally,
they can even provide better or new Comparison between conventional design and GT-DWC design
products compared to conventional
columns. Integrating DWCs into Parameters Conventional design GT-UWC design
gas plants could change the way the No. of columns 4 2
refining industry improves the prof- Total heating duty, MMKcal/hr 9.9 7.9
itability of gas plants in the coming Utility savings, % - 20.0
No of columns 4 2
years. Feed rate, tonnes/hr 55.3 55.3
LPG recovery, vol% 85.1 85.1
Reference C4 recovery, vol% 98.8 99.6
1 Bhargava M, Nelson C, Gentry J C,
Siddamshetti V, Improved distillation efficiency,
Hydrocarbon Processing, Jan 2015. Table 4
Roomi Kalita is a Process Engineer/Advanced David Kockler is a Senior Process Manager/

Manish Bhargava is Technical Director/ Distillation Systems with GTC Technology US. Advanced Distillation Systems with GTC
Advanced Distillation Systems with GTC She holds a master’s in chemical engineering Technology US. He holds an MS in chemical
Technology US in Houston, Texas. He holds a from Carnegie Mellon University and a BS in engineering from the University of Virginia
master’s in chemical engineering from Illinois chemical engineering from National Institute and a BS in chemical engineering from
Institute of Technology. of Technology, Trichy, India. Northwestern University.
T +49 2961 7405-0

T +44 1234 783366
T +65 6702 3707
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Made
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www.rembe.de www.rembe.co.uk www.rembe.sg
q2 gtc.indd 4 09/03/2018 17:42

york.indd 1 08/03/2018 09:58
Process flow determines coker
heater performance
Uniform tube metal temperature resulting from a change in process flow
enhances the run length of a delayed coker heater
RAHUL C PATIL, PINAKIRANJAN PATRA, AJAY GUPTA, VED PRAKASH MISHRA and ASIT KUMAR DAS
Reliance Industries
A
delayed coker in a petroleum increase the run length of the coker
refinery processes vacuum Flue gases heater so as to increase the produc-
residue from the vacuum tivity of the delayed coker unit as
distillation unit as feed and ther- VR inlet well as the life of the coker heater
mally cracks it into useful products Convection tubes.
including liquid petroleum gas, section A coker heater (see Figure 1) con-
naphtha, gasoline, diesel, heavy gas sists of horizontal tubes where feed
oil, and petcoke. While it is desir- conventionally enters from the con-
able to have the majority of the vection section to the radiant section
cracking and coking taking place of the heater (a down-flow config-
in the coker drum, a small amount uration). The outlet temperature of
of these reactions occurring inside the heater, the COT, is measured at
the heater tubes is inevitable. The the radiant section outlet. The burn-
coke so produced inside the heater Radiant ers are normally floor mounted at
tubes provides additional resist- section the bottom of the radiant section of
ance to heat transfer between the the heater where they fire fuel with
flue gas and the process fluid. Since air. The radiative heat from the
the coil outlet temperature (COT) combustion of fuel gas in the radi-
is to be kept constant, one may end ant section is transferred to vac-
up by firing more fuel to achieve uum residue from the convection
VR outlet
the desired COT, thereby increas- Burners section. The remaining heat from
ing the tube skin temperature or the combustion gases is transferred
tube metal temperature (TMT) due to preheat vacuum residue in the
to the additional resistance offered Air and fuel convection section. In the process,
by coke. Coke depositing on heater vacuum residue cracks into lighter
tubes thus usually limits the run components. As pressure reduces
length by limiting the TMT which a Figure 1 Schematic of delayed coker heater in the heater tubes, the lighter com-
heater tube can be allowed to expe- ponents, typically from C1 to light
rience in view of its metallurgy. For tubes by two processes: by utilising naphtha, evaporate to form two
example, if the TMT at start of run the difference in thermal expansion phase flow in the heater. Along with
(SOR) conditions is 550°C and the coefficient between coke and tube cracking, asphaltenes in the vac-
maximum allowable TMT is 650°C by applying sudden temperature uum residue contribute to the cok-
(generally governed by its metal- variations (spalling); or by physi- ing phenomena, and part of this
lurgy), for a rate of 2°C/day rise in cal scraping of coke from the tube coke deposits on the heater tubes
TMT, the heater would run for 50 with the help of a moving pig (pig- to increase the TMT as time pro-
days. Therefore, it is desirable to ging). The typical time required for gresses. Besides feed characteristics
restrict the rate of the TMT increase spalling and pigging is 1-1.5 days such as asphaltenes, saturates, and
to a low value, which as such is a and 3-5 days, respectively. During residence time, coking inside the
function of the rate of increase in this period, the throughput of the coker heater is a very strong func-
the thickness of coke deposits. Once coker unit is reduced, which results tion of the temperature it reaches
the limiting value of the TMT is in a loss in production. Further, the in the tubes throughout the radi-
reached, coke needs to be removed tubes are subjected to a harsh envi- ant section of the heater. Various
from the inner surface of the tubes, ronment in both removal methods, measures are taken when designing
which normally would require and the frequency of coke cleaning the heat exchanger to eliminate or
downtime and consequent produc- eventually determines the life of the reduce the possibilities of localised
tion loss. Coke is removed from the heater tubes. Thus it is desirable to peak temperatures.
Q2 RELIANCE.indd 1 09/03/2018 17:43

from Golden & Barletta) of a single
Single-fired tube
fired and dual fired coker heater are
Peak heat flux 1.8× average heat flux shown in Figure 2. While for a con-
ventional single fired coker heater
with an uneven temperature pro-
Refractory file around the tube circumference,
the peak heat flux is 1.8 times that of
Tube Tube the average heat flux, for a dual fired
coker heater this peak flux is only
1.15-1.2 times that of the average
heat flux, thus offering a more even
temperature profile around the cir-
Burner
cumference of the tube. These design
Double-fired tube
Peak heat flux 1.15–1.20× average heat flux changes have not only resulted in
uniform circumferential TMTs but
have enabled an increase in average
Refractory Refractory heat flux value by as much as 50%
for the same peak heat flux.
Tube
Strategies to improve the run
length of a coker heater
Once the above provisions are made,
a simple approach to increase the
Burner Burner
run length of the coker heater is
to offload the radiant section by
Figure 2 Single fired and dual fired coker heater shifting its heat load to the con-
vection section or redistributing
Design considerations for a arrangement of burners and tubes, its heat load locally to reduce non-
coker heater termed a dual fired coker heater, uniformity in the temperature expe-
Owing to the very strong depend- causes both sides of the tube to experienced by vacuum reside inside the
ence of coking reactions on temper- rience the same temperature, unlike radiant zone tubes. In a conventional
ature, it is particularly important the single fired coker heater arrange- delayed coker heater, the process
to provide a uniform temperature ment. The schematics (adopted fluid flows from top to bottom. Here,
profile along the length of the tube. high fluid temperature inside the
Non-uniform coking is caused by an tubes meets high temperature flue
irregular temperature profile expe- gas from outside. This causes higher
rienced by the process fluid. Proper Radiant film formation as well as TMTs at
inlet
burner placement along the tube which cracking and coking takes
ensures a uniform temperature pro- Radiant place. Ultimately, these tubes in the
file along the length of the tube. outlet bottom section of the heater limit
The other important factor which the run length of the coker heater.
is considered in the latest designs The temperature at which coking
of coker heater is uniform tempera- takes place can be reduced either by
ture distribution across the diame- changing the process side temper-
ter of the tube. In earlier designs of atures (by varying the direction of
coker heater, the burners are placed the process fluid) or by changing the
at the centre of the heater, with tubes flue gas temperature in the fire box
placed horizontally along the wall. (using more excess air) or by varying
This arrangement of burner and the emissivity of the tubes (by var-
tubes, termed a single fired coker ying the emissivity coating) so as to
heater, causes the half of the tube make it more uniform.
facing a burner flame to experience Radiant One way to evenly distribute the
outlet
higher temperatures compared to heat load across the radiant zone is
the other half which faces refractory Radiant to apply emissivity coatings to the
at a lower temperature. This results A inlet outer surfaces of the tubes. The coat-
Downflow
in a non-uniform temperature pro- ings are applied in such a way that
file across the circumference of the B the tubes with high fluid temper-
tubes. Newer designs provide tubes Upflow ature in the bottom (the high tem-
at the centre of the heater facing perature region) are covered with
flames from burners placed symmet- Figure 3 Coker heater configurations: a low emissivity coating so as to
rically on two sides of the tube. This (A) downflow (B) upflow absorb less heat, and the tubes with
Q2 RELIANCE.indd 2 13/03/2018 10:46

HIGH STANDARD
VALVES FOR
NON-STANDARD
CONDITIONS.
TRI-CON TRI-CHECK TRI-BLOCK
WWW.ZWICK-ARMATUREN.DE
low fluid temperature in the top cess fluid to the upper portion with the heater. The model is used to
low-temperature region are smeared a lower heating rate, resulting in mimic the flue gas side heat trans-
with a high emissivity coating so as lower TMTs, reduced coking rates fer in actual plant operation. Lobo
to absorb more heat. Because of these and higher run length. and Evans have presented a general
different emissivity coatings, the This article attempts to study the and simple theoretical treatment
heating rate experienced by hot fluid effects of change in process flow of the radiant section in a heater
reduces and that experienced by direction on heat transfer distribu- to correlate various variables and
cold fluid increases, which causes a tion in the radiant and convection their effect on its performance. The
more uniform cracking temperature. sections of a delayed coker heater. calculations to determine the radi-
Such coatings have also been used to This was determined by applying a ative and convective heat transfer
make the heating rate uniform across heater model employing commercial in a heater is carried out by using
the circumference of the tube in a as well as newly developed tools. commercial software which uti-
single fired heater. lises more rigorous heater models to
In a new configuration of coker Coker heater modelling and determine localised heat fluxes.
heater with respect to the flow of simulation On the process side, vaporisation
process fluid, termed upflow con- A heater model which takes into and molar expansion due to crack-
figuration (see Figure 3b), vacuum account both process side heat ing were computed using a com-
residue enters the radiant section transfer and combustion side heat mercial simulator which employs
from the bottom and exits at the top transfer is not available for predict- a kinetic model having five feed
of the radiant section. This means ing the performance of a delayed and product lumps to predict the
that fluid at a lower temperature coker heater. Thus, this study was yield pattern and properties of liq-
has a higher heating rate and fluid carried out by dividing the model uid and gas products at the outlet
at a higher temperature has a lower into three parts: a heater model, a of the heater. Here, the feed is char-
heating rate compared to conven- cracking model and a coking model. acterised by its distillation curve,
tional heaters, leading to a more A heater model for evaluating asphaltenes, density, and so on. The
uniform cracking temperature. This the performance of box heaters model breaks the feed into stand-
design claims to give improved with dual side firing was utilised. ard feed cuts, and applies calculated
coker heater performance by migra- It accounts for both convective as values for conversion and severity
tion of the hottest part of the pro- well as radiative heat transfer in to determine product yields. The
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Q2 RELIANCE.indd 3 09/03/2018 17:44

tuning parameters of the cracking
model have been calibrated for the 1.0
base case to match the outlet stream Plant
Rate of temperature rise

Model
bulk properties like liquid API and
mass vaporisation. 0.5
The cracking model furnished the
information on tube velocity pro-
0
files in the heater. Having obtained
the required inputs, coke deposi-
tion on the tubes was computed
−0.5
using a model developed in-house
and validated with plant data.
Simplified coke formation kinet- −1.0
ics were used wherein the rate of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
coke formation was considered Day
to be a first order reaction (see
1.0
Equation 1): R2 = 0.8286
!"
= kC! (1) 0.5
!"
where CA is asphaltene
Model
concentration. 0
The reactions were considered to
occur inside the fluid film at an aver-
age temperature of the fluid film −0.5
and the bulk fluid. The oil film tem-
perature and TMT were estimated
based on API 530 calculations. Heat −1.0
−1.0 −0.5 0 0.5 1.0
flux required for determination of
Plant
the fluid film temperature (FFT)
and TMT were taken from the com-
bustion side simulations. The heat Figure 4 Coking model: plant values vs model predictions for TMTs
transfer coefficient (HTC) required
for the calculation of the oil film one of the delayed coker units in dent from the figure, the model was
temperature can either be calculated the refineries. TMT profiles pre- able to accurately take into account
from API 530 or estimated from the dicted from the model matched the all these changes and predict the
thermal cracking simulations. plant data very well. The coefficient TMT rise rate.
Each heater tube was further of determination (R2) observed From the above analysis of dif-
divided into ‘n’ number of parts between the model and the plant ferent models, it is apparent that
and solved for mass conservation in data was around 83%. The rise and the coking model with a commer-
each of these parts by the finite dif- fall seen in Figure 4 is because of the cial heater and cracking model
ference method. Properties like liq- actual variations occurring in the can be used effectively to predict
uid viscosity, liquid density, vapour plant with respect to feed flow, radi- the run length of a delayed coker
viscosity, vapour density and bulk ant heat flux, and so on. As is evi- heater. The different configurations
velocity, required for the calcula-
tion of the film velocity and film
thickness, were estimated from the 1.70 0.78, 1.61
1.60 Upflow
thermal cracking simulations. A Bottom
Downflow
1.50 IN
calibration factor was also intro-
1.40
duced in the model to quantify the
Heat flux ratio
1.00, 1.30
1.30
amount of coke depositing inside Bottom
1.20 OUT
the heater tubes from the total 1.10
amount of coke formed. The reac- 1.00
tion kinetic parameters were tuned 0.90 0.77, 0.84
to match the actual operating data. Top
0.80 Top OUT
If the maximum design limit of the 0.70 IN
1.00, 1.72
heater tube metallurgy is known, 0.60
run length can be predicted for var- 0.75 0.80 0.85 0.90 0.95 1.00
ious scenarios from a coking model. Bulk temperature, non-dimensional
The model was tuned to match
actual plant operations data from Figure 5 Heat flux ratio vs bulk temperature ratio in down- and upflow configurations
Q2 RELIANCE.indd 4 09/03/2018 17:44

film temperature will eventually
Bottom
lead to lower TMTs. It should be
Upflow
OUT noted that the heat flux range in an
1.00 Downflow
1.00 upflow configuration has increased
Top compared to that in a downflow
OUT
0.95 configuration. But this increased
0.95
0.91 range results in more uniformity
TMT/Tmax SOR
0.90 of temperatures along the height

Bottom
IN of the radiant section. The same is
explained subsequently in terms of
0.85
resultant TMT profiles arising from
1.80 the heat flux profiles.
0.80
Top
Figure 6 compares TMT for both
IN configurations at SOR. TMT is rep-
0.75 resented in this figure, relative to
Furnace height the highest TMT in a downflow con-
figuration to present the compari-
Figure 6 TMT profile in down- and upflow configuration at SOR son more clearly with respect to a
downflow configuration. The TMT
of flow in a coker heater explained the flux is highest at the exit of at SOR for an upflow configuration
in the previous section were stud- the heater and lowest at the inlet, at the bottom tube is lower and at
ied utilising the model. It should be whereas when the process fluid the top tube it increases compared
noted that the run length determi- flow is reversed, as in an upflow to a downflow configuration. This
nation for different configurations configuration, the opposite occurs, makes the TMT profile flat in an
is carried out for fixed operating with the tubes at the exit experienc- upflow configuration compared to
conditions: fixed feed flow, inlet ing the lowest heat flux. The maxi- a downflow configuration. It should
temperature, outlet temperature, mum heat flux ratio experienced be noted that, in the upflow con-
and asphaltene content of the feed. by tubes having vacuum residue at figuration, TMTs are higher in the
a higher temperature is reduced by majority of tubes compared to the
Downflow vs upflow configuration ~85% in an upflow configuration. downflow configuration.
Figure 5 shows the variation in heat On the other hand, the heat flux The flat film and TMT profile as
flux across the tubes for both down- ratio experienced by tubes con- well as lower TMT at SOR in an
flow and upflow configurations in taining vacuum residue at a lower upflow configuration results in a
the radiant section. The ratio of the temperature is increased by almost slower rise in TMT. The rise rate
heat flux of an individual tube to 100% in the upflow configuration, of maximum TMT along the run
the average heat flux in a down- compared to the downflow config- length of the heater is shown in
flow configuration versus the non- uration. The process fluid with the Figure 7. The TMT is presented with
dimensional bulk temperature (ratio highest temperature realising the respect to end of run (EOR) TMT
of bulk temperature in tube to the lowest heat flux in an upflow con- which is the limiting TMT of metal-
COT of the heater) is depicted in the figuration will have a lower film lurgy. The lower film temperature
figure. temperature compared to a down- results in a lower coking rate and
In a downflow configuration, flow configuration. The lower subsequently lower coke thickness.
This results in more run length for
the upflow configuration compared
to the down-flow configuration. The
1.00 1.00
1.00 same is reflected in the TMT profile,
where the rise in TMT is slower in
0.95 an upflow configuration compared
to a downflow configuration. Table
1 shows the prediction of an inte-
TMT/TMTEOR
0.90
grated model for upflow configura-
tion in terms of percentage change
0.85 from a downflow configuration for
various parameters.
0.82
0.80 The estimated average radiant
Upflow heat flux for an upflow configura-
0.78 Downflow tion is greater than for a downflow
0.75 configuration by 4.79%. Better distri-
Run length
bution of heat in the radiant section
improves the heat input to the feed.
Figure 7 Rate of temperature rise to maximum TMT in down- and upflow configurations This results in a higher average heat
Q2 RELIANCE.indd 5 09/03/2018 17:44

flux and is reflected in 30% more vaporisation and lower
Model prediction for upflow configuration
residence time in the heater for an upflow configuration.
As is evident in increased vaporisation and cracking,
an upflow configuration gives a higher exit tube veloc- Parameters (% change w.r.t. downflow configuration) Upflow
Average radiant flux +4.8
ity than the conventional downflow scheme. Since HTC Residence time (Rad) -6.8
is directly proportional to velocity, the higher the veloc- Mass vaporisation +30.2
ity, the higher the HTC. This enhanced HTC and lower Av. velocity (last tube) +19.1
heating rate lowers the oil film temperature by 2.6% in Film temperature (last tube) -2.6
Run length +61.6
an upflow configuration.
Overall, a reduction in film temperature and lower
residence time in the tube have resulted in an increase Table 1
in the run length of the coker heater by 61.6% due to
a reversal in the direction of flow of feed. It should be and Technology centre, Mumbai. His areas of expertise include
noted that the increase or decrease is with respect to computational fluid dynamics, reactor design and scale-up, and mixing
the base case in the heater considered in this study. The systems. He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from REC,
numbers would vary on a case by case basis. Tiruchirapalli and master’s and doctoral degrees in chemical engineering
from ICT, Mumbai.
Asit K Das is Vice President and heads Refining R&D with Reliance
Conclusion
Industries Ltd., Jamnagar. He has vast experience in developing petroleum
An upflow configuration will help to improve delayed refining processes including modelling and simulation, pilot plant studies
coker heater performance by introducing feedstock to and scale-up. He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from
the lower section of the heater, through the process coil, Jadhavpur University, West Bengal, India, a master’s degree in chemical
to the outlet located in the upper portion of the radiant engineering from IIT, Kanpur, India and a doctoral degree in chemical
zone. The benefits of such a configuration will include engineering from Ghent University, Belgium.
enhanced vaporisation, as well as migration of the hot-
test part of the process fluid to the upper portion with
lower heat flux, resulting in lower TMTs, reduced coking
rates and achieving a higher run length.
Further reading
1 Adam J, Hughes G C, Coker furnace online on-line spalling – safe, clean,
proven & profitable, AFPM AM, San Diego, California, 11-13 Mar 2012.
2 Gupta A, Patil R C, Mishra V P, Das A K, Hydrocarbon Processing, 2013,
92, 101.
3 Catala K A, Karrs M S, Seili G, Faegh A A, Hydrocarbon Processing, 2009,
87, 45.
4 Melton M S, US 5078857, 1992.
5 Golden S W, Barletta T, PTQ, 2006, 11, 105.
6 Zhu N, US 6626663, 2003, Fosbal Intellectual AG.
7 Gibson W C, Gibson R L, Eischen J T, US 6241855 B1, 2001, Petro-
Chem Development Co. Inc.
8 Lobo W E, Evans J E, Trans. Am. Inst. Chem. Engrs., 1939, 35, 748.
9 Bhirud V L, US 9359555B2, 2016, SBT Technology Inc.
Rahul C Patil is Lead Research Scientist in the Refining R&D division of

Reliance Industries Limited, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. He has 10
years of experience in debottlenecking, applications of computational
fluid dynamics, process modelling and optimisation in refinery and  PRESSURE VESSELS,
petrochemical units. He hold a MTech in chemical engineering from IIT HEAT EXCHANGERS
Kanpur and BChem Eng. in chemical engineering from ICT Mumbai.
• Waste Heat Recovery Systems
Pinakiranjan Patra is a Senior Technologist (Gasification) in the Centre • Transfer Line Exchangers
Of Excellence (CoE) department of Reliance Industries Limited, Mumbai. • Scraped Surface Exchangers
He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and has more
than 11 years of experience in process engineering, plant operations,
modelling and simulations.  MEMBRANE TECHNOLOGY
Ajay Gupta is Assistant Vice President and currently heads the fixed bed
• Emission Control Units
process development group of Refining R&D with Reliance Industries • Product Recovery Units
Ltd., Jamnagar, Gujarat, India. His experience includes modelling and • Gas Separation
simulation of chemical processes, implementation of advanced process • Liquid Separation
control strategies and development of reactor models for various
chemical processes. He holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees
in chemical engineering from IIT, Delhi, India.
www.borsig.de
V P Mishra is Assistant Vice President and currently heads the
Reaction Engineering and CFD Modelling group with Reliance Research
BORSIG GmbH
Phone: +49 (0)30 4301-01
E-mail: [email protected]
www.eptq.com
Q2 RELIANCE.indd 6 09/03/2018 17:44

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Innovation in supply chain planning
Software that can be configured to solve any problem in the supply chain is
critical to planning in the oil and gas industry
DENNIS OSTENDORF
Quintiq
T
he oil and gas industry expe- improve. A move towards sustain- and transportation have increased
rienced the most severe able profitability is the new norm, demand for innovative solutions
downturn in recent his- with many companies looking to in refinery processes to produce
tory with the price of oil declin- achieve optimal profits while reduc- more and better fuels, while break-
ing by 75% from mid-2014 to early ing expenditure. throughs in exploration and extrac-
2016, throwing oil and gas compa- tion have increased the options for
nies into a state of survival. Many Why innovate? supply. Efficiency improvements
resorted to cost cutting measures While the worst has passed for in planning have proven especially
such as drastic reductions in their now, the crisis is far from over. It beneficial, particularly for primary
workforce, cancellation or post- will take years for the industry to distribution. In 2015, BP reported
ponement of new projects, and recover, and companies that invest record profits on the back of major
reduced investments in large scale in innovation to reduce costs and efficiency improvements in its
capital projects. increase their profit margins will downstream sector, which in turn
Today, companies are cautiously be the ones to come out of the cri- partially offset the negative effects
optimistic as the industry contin- sis stronger than before. Shell’s of a weakened environment in its
ues to recover. While prices are takeover of BG Group is a prime upstream division. The company
still far below the pre-downturn plans to continue streamlining its
peak of $115/bbl (March 2011), downstream operations to deliver
they are slowly but surely stabilis-
In the current oil annual cost savings of $1.6 billion
ing. An unprecedented agreement and gas climate, by 2018. With optimised logistics
between OPEC and non-OPEC planning in the downstream sector,
nations to reduce production and innovating can products can be delivered to stor-
tighten imbalances in supply and age facilities in the right amounts
demand have contributed to this mean the difference and the right time, with an empha-
positive outlook. Additionally, sis on cost effectiveness.
global energy demand is expected between surviving Ideally, innovations to increase
to rise by a third over the next two efficiency would be applied before
decades, while the shale revolu- the crisis and falling a crisis happens, enabling com-
tion and advances in oil recovery panies to be more robust in chal-
technology are expected to provide
even further behind lenging conditions. However,
an abundant supply to meet that innovation during a crisis can also
demand. example of a post-downturn invest- help to mitigate its adverse effects.
While the downturn was dev- ment in innovation. This mega- It is never too late to innovate; in
astating, it has led to an increased merger grants Shell extensive the current oil and gas climate,
focus on exercising capital and access to LNG assets and acceler- innovating can mean the difference
operational cost discipline. ates its global LNG and deep water between surviving the crisis and
Efficiency improvement was strategies, enabling the company falling even further behind.
emphasised, resulting in projects to adapt and thrive in a changing
with break-even prices as low as energy landscape. Three core capabilities of
$25/bbl, as claimed by Statoil for Oil and gas companies can also innovation in planning
its flagship oil project in the North look beyond the industry for inspi- The oil and gas industry is
Sea. This is a level that would ration to innovate. Even before the extremely complex – while there
have been unthinkable prior to the downturn, innovations in other sec- are key concerns that affect all play-
downturn and signals the possibil- tors have benefitted the oil and gas ers, no two companies will have
ity of even lower break-even prices industry – both directly and indi- the exact same planning issues. Oil
as planning processes continue to rectly. Advances in manufacturing and gas companies have historically
q2 qnitiq.indd 1 09/03/2018 17:45

Applications of optimised planning Previously, planning opera-
tions in isolation was the norm
for departments in the oil and gas
Planning horizon Examples
Strategic Future investments, such as replacing ageing assets vs
industry. Post-downturn, there
Long-term decisions that steer a upgrading/maintenance, investments into alternate is an increased emphasis on the
company’s direction methods of distribution importance of integrating the sup-
Tactical ply chain – both internally and
Mid-term decisions that affect the Production and distribution, with the aim to avoid with external parties – in order to
coming months under/overstock and maintain the company’s momentum improve visibility and efficiency.
(How much to produce of all products and where,
what stock levels to aim for) Full visibility over operations gives
Operational companies a single source of truth
Short-term decisions that affect the Pipeline, logistics and inventory decisions to ensure that all departments can draw
immediate future activities align with the tactical plan information from. This in turn ena-
bles these departments to cohe-
Table 1 sively and effectively integrate to
achieve high level goals.
focused on maximising production, actionable visibility is the effective
with many innovations developed use of existing data to plan for the Optimisation
to strive towards that goal. A long future. This includes taking into What if you could enhance your
history of economic dominance and account relevant business KPIs that planners’ knowledge and experi-
high margins resulted in many com- can still be improved upon, rather ence by giving them the support
panies paying far less attention to than belatedly trying to rectify past they need to create not just feasi-
the need to maximise efficiency. In errors. ble plans, but optimised ones? How
the current reality, increased effi- much value do you leave on the
ciency throughout the supply chain table due to suboptimal planning?
is crucial, and many companies are
The benefit of The final and most elusive capa-
now working to find solutions to innovative planning is bility of innovative planning is
weather the recent downturn and optimisation. True optimisation is
prepare for a challenging future. that it incrementally the result of visibility and integra-
There are three core capabilities that tion – it cannot be attained with-
every company needs in an innova- improves a out first achieving success in these
tive planning solution: capabilities.
company’s existing True optimisation goes far
Visibility beyond forecasting outcomes and
What if you could see the oper- strategies and profit providing decision support based
ational efficiency of your fleet a on existing knowledge. It examines
month in advance? Could you still
potential possible scenarios based on ana-
make the improvements? lysed historical data and uses the
Oil and gas companies operate on Integration best option as a basis for planning.
a very large scale, often with oper- What if your upstream and down- It can be applied across all aspects
ations spanning different regions stream planning processes are fully of planning (see Table 1).
across the globe. Adding complex- aligned? Could you increase your
ity to the planning effort is the scale margins? Applying innovation to primary
and scope of their operational envi- Integration is the next step in distribution
ronments, with diversified business enabling an innovative plan- Innovation in the oil and gas
interests being pursued in separate ning solution. Once visibility has industry is not an option but a
regions. been achieved, oil and gas compa- necessity. With competition at a
Visibility over these operations nies can proceed to planning opti- constant high, companies that fail
is crucial, but for it to be truly val- mal connections throughout their to take advantage of technologi-
uable it has to result in something organisations from production to cal advances in planning risk an
actionable. A key factor in enabling distribution. extended recovery period and a
An oil shipping operation Additional profits with reduced shipping costs
Total number of vessels 100

Voyages per year 4000 Scenario 1 Scenario 2 Scenario 3
Average vessel size 120 000 barrels/voyage Reduced shipping cost, % -1.0% -2.5% -5.0%
Average price $52/bbl Reduced shipping cost, $ $7.67 M per year $19.16 M per year $38.33 M per year
Average shipping costs $21 000/vessel /day
Table 2 Table 3
q2 qnitiq.indd 2 09/03/2018 17:45

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downstream.indd 1 08/03/2018 10:08
loss of economic dominance. These ative impact the oil industry has data and KPIs and is also capable of
companies are also at a higher risk on the environment and shifting generating and performing what-if
of being affected by negative mar- demand on fossil fuels as sustaina- analyses on alternative scenarios in
ket conditions. ble options become more common real time. The results for this com-
While the thought of innovation – can be predicted and managed pany are that planners can now
can seem daunting, the application in a way that enables companies to schedule the movements of marine
of it in planning processes does not remain robust, no matter the chal- and inland logistics, monitor fuel
have to mean a huge shift in the lenges they face. The use of tech- and stock demand, handle spot
status quo. The benefit of innova- nology in their operations can also trades and monitor for potential
tive planning is that it incremen- have a positive impact on their outages. With end to end visibil-
tally improves a company’s existing brand, signifying better produc- ity, planners are equipped to create
strategies and profit potential. Each tivity, efficiency and customer plans that are sustainable, feasible
incremental improvement then con- satisfaction. and cost effective.
tributes to a larger, accumulated
positive value. Adopting innovation Integration: mastering complex
The reality of planning in the digi- No matter the industry, planning multi-modal logistics
tal age is that there are so many var- puzzles can be largely addressed This company initially made its
iables to consider that a company by applying the three capabilities name as a worldwide transporter of
could be losing money without even of visibility, integration and opti- grain by-products before establish-
realising it. An example of this is misation. The following cases are ing itself as a key player in crude oil
in vessel utilisation in primary dis- examples of how applying each logistics. Today, it transports crude
tribution. Variables include capac- innovative planning capability has from its source location by train to
ity and load of each vessel, sailing brought real value to the company. a terminal, and from there by barge
speed in relation to fuel use and age to refineries.
of chartered vessels. Compromises A 1000% increase in operations
are inevitable, but the decision on No matter the in the span of six months resulted
which compromises to make and in an incredible number of bottle-
when can often make the difference
industry, planning necks. The difference in capacity
between breaking even and making puzzles can be between its barges, trains and ter-
a profit. minal also created challenges in
Here is a simplified example of largely addressed matching the barge cycling rate,
the real value that can be obtained optimising tank levels and antic-
from incremental improvements as by applying the ipating the supply received. The
a result of better vessel planning. company sought a logistics solution
An oil shipping operation is out- three capabilities of that could integrate both rail and
lined in Table 2. barge operations. It needed a solu-
Even with small reductions in visibility, integration tion that could process information
shipping costs, the potential addi- from different sources on a day-to-
tional profits are significant (see
and optimisation day basis and propagate it through
Table 3). the entire system.
From these calculations, it can be Visibility: optimising sourcing, With such a system in place, the
seen that a reduction of shipping opportunities and utilisation company’s planners now have a
costs as a result of better logistics While not strictly within the oil and granular view on the cycling of all
planning has led to a significant gas industry, this energy provider trains and barges. Having a unified
increase in revenue. Better logistics deals in an alternative to fossil solution also means that planners
planning also enables oil and gas fuels, giving a possible future direc- were able to improve overall plan-
companies to have better insight tion for companies in oil and gas. A ning efforts to significantly cut costs
into where to ship and sell their large producer of renewable power, and utilise the company’s tank cars
products to gain the most economic it provides energy via a power sta- and barges more efficiently.
benefit. However, this capability tion fuelled by biomass and coal.
requires close integration between As the company grew, it came Optimisation: cutting down
all relevant departments in the face to face with a major challenge: planning time, increasing overall
company, which can be challenging the need for end to end visibility of efficiency
without the right planning solution. its supply chain. This included vis- As a new energy provider in a
The right planning solution ibility over transport movements, growing market, this company
can also help oil and gas compa- inventory levels, buying and sell- utilises over 200 trucks to deliver
nies to adapt quickly in an envi- ing opportunities and possible billions of litres of petroleum prod-
ronment that is evolving at an disruptions. ucts from dozens of terminals and
unprecedented pace. The effect of For this organisation, the solution depots to nearly 700 service stations
constant changes – such as new was a planning system that gives throughout a continent.
laws designed to reduce the neg- planners a clear view of all relevant One of the key challenges for this
q2 qnitiq.indd 3 09/03/2018 17:46

company is that the distribution outages and urgent trips – and gas, it is all about getting the bal-
of flammable goods requires strict speed of response to disruptions is ance just right – offering reliable
compliance with complex rules and improved, resulting in a significant stability while pushing for constant
regulations. To manage this pro- reduction in gross distance trav- innovation.
cess and to maintain prompt, reli- elled and operational costs. Innovations fuel the future. Oil
able supply to its customers, the and gas companies need to master
company needed to generate opti- The right supply chain solution the complexity of their operations
mal plans for its tanker fleet while A single, powerful software that with end to end visibility, cohesive
taking into account numerous can be configured to solve any puz- integration and true optimisation to
constraints. zle is a critical feature for a plan- enable improved decision-making,
The solution for this company is ning solution in the diverse oil robust growth and higher revenue.
a unified planning system that pro- and gas industry. The right solu-
vides end to end visibility of the tion should be able to empower top
supply chain and takes into account oil and gas companies to improve References
all safety requirements, complex their operational efficiency, navi- 1 Statoil makes flagship project profitable at
operational and loading constraints gate complex constraints, decrease $25 a barrel, Financial Times, 2016.
and business rules across multiple transportation costs and increase 2 A springboard for transformation, Ben van
Beurden, Shell Global, 2017.
regions. The system also optimises production without increasing cap-
3 BP Strategic Report, 2015.
day of operation schedules for both ital expenditure.
company owned and subcontractor A fully integrated solution with
vehicles and compartment tankers optimisation and advanced ana-
to deliver multiple fuel products to lytics technology gives businesses
Dennis Ostendorf is Solutions Director
different sites. the flexibility and power to han-
with Quintiq’s oil and gas division. He joined
As a result, planners can now dle all stages of the supply chain. Quintiq in 2008 as a consultant and has
create higher quality, lower cost The right solution must also prove had a lead role in implementing projects in
schedules with approximately 70% that it can provide its users with various industries including oil and gas. He is
reduction in the time taken to create the support they need even as they a graduate in econometrics and operations
an executable plan. Delivery per- continue to evolve. In an industry research from the University of Groningen,
formance is enhanced – with fewer as economically volatile as oil and The Netherlands.
Level Measurement
■ Visual Level Indicators VLI
■ Tank Level Instruments TLI
■ Meets the design standards of the oil & gas,

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■ Densities down to 0,27 g/cm³
■ No maintenance (fit and forget)
sit us
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si
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ARCA Flow Group worldwide:

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Machine learning in asset maintenance
Application of machine learning to asset performance management marks a transition

from estimated and statistical models towards measured patterns of behaviour
John Hague
AspenTech
N
ew methods and cutting edge How we got here itoring, and computational power
technologies are driving asset The foundation for realising a new continued to increase. Systems
performance management APM vision has existed for some were still isolated, but in separate
(APM) well beyond historical capa- time, with engineers having applied systems, engineers started to see
bilities, rapidly increasing its bot- performance models for decades. something resembling real-time
tom line value. Technologies like Such pioneering APM adopters asset-level data.
cloud computing, data science and faced the challenges and constraints By the late 2000s, this situation
machine learning are now being of the technologies surrounding had changed significantly and we
integrated with automated method- their models. Disparate systems started to see multiple parallel tech-
ologies directly into APM solutions. evolved to manage and optimise nology innovations coalesce into the
This wave of integration places maintenance functions, to develop modern state of the art APM meth-
advanced analytical techniques into risk assessment and criticality, and odology. Best in class systems could
the hands of operators and engi- to perform continuous condition now incorporate detection of pre-
neers with previously unimagined monitoring. cise patterns of normal and failure
scale and ease of use. The incremen- behaviours, and perform the com-
tal progress in APM over the last 20 Low-touch machine putational isolation of key indi-
years pales in comparison to what cators of degradation. Especially
is now possible through digital learning ushers important was the 2006 debut of
transformation. Amazon Web Services for scala-
Low-touch machine learning is in a new era of ble cloud computing. Advances in
the key catalyst to scale APM’s structured and unstructured data-
potential beyond existing first prin- performance and bases and operational data pools
ciples based solutions and ‘armies’ were tested and improved at the
of consultant engineers and data
optimisation for enterprise level during this period.
scientists. A widespread integra- every industry Around the same time, smart
tion of machine learning in APM sensors saw a dramatic shift in
marks a transition from estimated performance, size, reliability and
engineering and statistical models These systems were isolated, price. Added to this was a dra-
towards measuring patterns of asset resulting in limited connectivity matic improvement in the compu-
behaviour. and integration, as well as workflow tational and analytical capability of
Operators of refineries can now impairments. Due to limited inte- machine learning called ‘deep belief
readily extract value from decades gration, early computers processed networks’ or ‘deep learning’. This
of existing design and operations small volumes of available related breakthrough was pioneered by
data to better manage and opti- data in batch mode instead of in real Geoffrey Hinton at the University
mise asset performance. This low- time, when insights are most valua- of Toronto, who is now tightly cou-
touch machine learning method ble. Outputs came too late, typically pled with Google.
continuously embraces changes in in days or weeks. Computational The result was a quantum leap
asset behaviour, empowering real- power limited the advancement of in capability, and this has enabled
time APM value creation. Vetted new algorithms. And assured static machine learning to surpass the
and tested across diverse indus- models were fixed, low frequency performance of previous analytical
tries, scalable across multiple assets, and not adaptable to new failure techniques, which limited modelling
and powered by cloud and parallel behaviours and incremental opera- and statistical methods. Machine
computing, low-touch machine tional changes. learning is now the dominant ana-
learning ushers in a new era of As the 2000s arrived, leading lytical method in all IT fields around
performance and optimisation for industries started to better organ- the world. It is used for credit card
every industry. ise assets for condition based mon- fraud detection, facial recognition
q2 aspentech.indd 1 09/03/2018 17:52

by Facebook, voice recognition by for connecting disparate systems solve the problems of unexpected
Amazon, Apple, and Google, for and work process inter-operation, asset breakdowns. According to
driving automated cars, medical particularly between operations and the ARC Advisory Group,1 82% of
diagnoses and more. maintenance systems. mechanical breakdowns display
The smartphone rose in promi- Such initiatives assured compre- a random failure pattern and are
nence during this period, led by the hensive use of data combinations caused by process induced condi-
iPhone debut in 2007, which greatly to address problems and afford tions that current maintenance prac-
advanced computer literacy and solutions that were previously tices do not monitor.
afforded complex application (app) unattainable. Blending such meth- Market-leading companies realise
capabilities for the masses. odologies and automation of tech- that they have gone as far as they
Between 2007 and 2010, culminat- nology approaches set the stage for can go with traditional preventative
ing with the iPad debut, the process a major leap in APM performance maintenance techniques. Predictive
industry workforce moved from and value. maintenance represents the next
experimentation with the indus- During this period, emergent frontier.
trial internet of things (IIoT) to techniques for maintenance oper-
demands for smart devices and con- ations on assets, particularly for Low-touch machine learning
sumer style applications at work. mechanical assets, came under Data intensive and complex envi-
Industrial software and technology scrutiny. The movement from fail- ronments in manufacturing indus-
began to update offerings with user fix – through calendar, usage and tries are prime candidates to deploy
interfaces incorporating low-touch, condition based planned mainte- the new advances in reliability man-
readily navigable applications and nance events – all the way to relia- agement. Deployed coherently, with
displays. Vendors started deliver- bility centred maintenance (RCM) appropriate automation, machine
ing intuitive software that did not techniques provided incremen- learning enables greater agility
require intense skills and experience tal improvements. However, the and flexibility to incorporate cur-
to be productive. cost, complexity, time and staffing rent, historical and projected condi-
At the same time, cross-indus- skill set requirements constrained tions from process sensors, as well
try initiatives, sponsored by many deployments. as from mechanical and process
owner-operator companies, led to Today, there is a growing realisa- events. Systems become automatic,
the development of open standards tion that maintenance alone cannot moving past traditional, consultant
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heavy approaches. Instead there are on investment, especially in avoid- • An oil refiner struggles with
agile, flexible models that learn and ing unplanned downtime and pre- excessive asset breakdowns. Its
adapt to real data conditions, and venting damage to equipment due compressors are well instrumented
which incorporate all the nuances of to operational issues. Low-touch and receive RCM treatment, with
real asset behaviour. machine learning APM is ready to regular inspection and service, but
Data capacities and computational deliver that value. unanticipated failures persist.
capabilities are so great that inter- Every process industry organisa- • A petrochemicals producer with
nal staff can now perform active and tion deals with complex systems, multiple intermediate storage tanks
accurate management of individ- can suffer intermittent failures on
ual processes and mechanical assets. Agility, flexibility, feed pumps. Failures mean extended
This management capability can downtime and lost product.
now be applied to combinations of adaptability and • The ageing and complex electric
assets: plant-wide, system-wide or grid requires a sophisticated ana-
across multiple locations. The pivot scale are essential lytics approach. Knowing only the
in APM’s capabilities arrives at an average asset lifespan creates main-
important time for manufacturing in to truly deliver tenance schedules based on guess-
process industries and many other work. There is no ability to model
sectors.
reliability in the future demands that might cause a
Organisations are under tremen- rolling blackout. This creates costly
dous economic pressure, and recent
process industries over-spend on maintenance and
conversations, along with indus- does not avoid grid performance
try-wide estimates, indicate that fluctuating conditions and a myriad gaps.
operations is seeing less than 1% of assets. A spectrum of pressure Low-touch machine learning
in incremental savings year over points exists, in varying degrees, APM can address all of these issues.
year due to historical gains already due to diverse market needs, time
realised. However, current razor- criticality, staffing levels and skill Best practices in low-touch machine
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reliability in the process industries. preparation process to assure trust Work management history
Only low-touch machine learning and to reveal previously undiscov- The history of work provides the
APM can deliver these capabilities. ered opportunities with minimal trail of past solutions to failure
These are five machine learning user preparation. prevention and/or remediation.
best practices that drive state of Problem identification, coding and
the art reliability management Condition based monitoring a standard approach of problem res-
that is applicable to any asset in Once data are trustworthy, condi- olution provide an important base-
any industry at any level, from a tion based monitoring (CBM) can be line for the precise failure point in
single location to a country-wide applied. The plant conditions vary the lifecycle of an asset. OEM data
system. constantly, according to mechani- that may live in a big data solu-
cal performance of assets, feedstock tion can provide insight into pro-
Data collection and preparation variations in quality, weather con- cess issues and outliers specific to
Over the last two decades, every ditions and production timeline the configuration and engineering
attempt at massive data analysis and demand changes. Static models within the plant process.
from diverse sources of plant data cannot work under such duress. In Forward thinking organisations
collected from sensors has run into addition, focusing CBM on mechan- understand the importance of these
serious issues around collection, ical equipment behaviour can reveal data and how they contribute to
timeliness, validation, cleansing, only a small fraction of the true hyper-accurate predictions of pro-
normalisation, synchronisation and issues causing degradation and duction degradation that ultimately
structure issues – ‘garbage in, gar- failure.1 lead to asset failure.
bage out’. Leading organisations recognise
Often, such data preparation can that legacy CBM is now inadequate, Predictive and prescriptive analytics
consume 50-80% of the time to exe- since it typically ignores the salient Clean data and CBM enable in-place
cute and repeat data mining and process induced conditions causing predictive analytics: a process to
analysis. However, that process the bulk of the breakdowns. New interpret past behaviour and, based
is essential to ensure appropriate advances in APM deliver compre- upon that analysis, predict future
and accurate data that allow end hensive monitoring of the mechan- outcomes. In contrast, using engi-
users to trust in the ensuing analytical and upstream and downstream neering and statistical models to
ical results. New advances in APM process conditions that can lead to estimate the future readings of sen-
have automated the bulk of the data failure. sors, and interpret variances from
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3/8/18 8:35 PM
Wireless instruments in corrosive and
hazardous locations
Wireless instruments introduce a range of benefits in corrosive and
hazardous process areas
SHEIKH RAFIK MANIHAR AHMED and KULEESHA MALIK

Fluor Daniel India
T
his article explains the dif- maintenance, and minimal impact that are not permissible in today’s
ficulty, time and expense of late changes, workmanship and automated plant. Temperature and
involved in installing and materials. humidity control is the single most
maintaining a traditional instru- In a multiple wiring methods/ important factor affecting corrosive
ment wiring system or single protocols system, it is not a mat- rates when corrosive vapours are
wiring method and shows how ter of counting the number of I/O present in the environment.
multiple wiring methods/proto- signals and figuring out if they are There are many available plans of
cols along with wireless instru- 4-20 mA analogue or 0-24 Vdc, or if action designed for safety in process
ments can avoid those problems. they are input or output; it is about installations. The simplest method
In general, an instrument wiring selecting the right I\O type and to prevent, minimise or control
system (including cables, junc- wiring protocol to achieve process the risk of corrosion and chemical
tion boxes, conduits, termina- functionality by reducing effort and vapour attack is to keep instrumen-
tion racks, cabinets, enclosures, cost. The article details different tation out of the area altogether,
cable tray, tray support system, designs, engineering, deliverables or to make the area less hazard-
multi-cable transits [MCT] and and cost impacts during the imple- ous or less reactive with controlled
marshalling panels) contributes mentation of multiple wiring meth- humidity and temperature through
significantly to the plant’s total ods/protocols along with wireless process improvements. However,
instrumentation costs. The article instruments on the same project. when instruments must be installed
focuses on different impacts dur- Oil and gas, petrochemicals, in corrosion prone areas (such as
ing the implementation of multiple chemicals and other process indus- waste gas treatment and sulphur
wiring methods/protocols along tries often face problems of elec- handling areas), all the instrument
with wireless instruments on the trical downtime, electrical service wiring system (including cables,
same project in order to prevent, disruption, erratic instrumentation junction boxes, conduits, termi-
minimise or control the risk of cor- system behaviour, and loss of I/O nation racks, cabinets, enclosures,
rosion and chemical attack on an cards in DCS and PLC. Increased cable tray, tray support system and
instrument wiring system or cable resistance across the connection MCTs) must be installed and main-
infrastructure to meet the plant’s and contactor results in false data tained to appropriate standards to
requirements.. transmission through the instru- prevent deterioration of the metals
The availability of multiple wir- ment data cable to the system due used.
ing methods/protocols provides to an open or intermittent connec- Generally, metals used in wiring
numerous benefits over single tion of the power or instrument terminals have platings or coatings
type of wiring methods/protocols data cables. Wet, salt-mist, dirty, for protection against corrosion and
including reduced wiring expenses dust contaminated or corrosive chemical attack. These sacrificial
and marshalling panels, fewer vapours increase the risk of corro- or barrier layer coatings over wir-
power supplies and safety barriers, sion and chemical vapour attack ing terminals metals are intended
smaller equipment room, less docu- on the metals used in wire termi- to be consumed during a corro-
mentation and design effort, fewer nal connections, switches and con- sion reaction or to provide a protec-
input/output (I/O) channels in the tactors. Wiring connections can also tive seal. They are effective as long
distributed control system (DCS) be affected by creep corrosion and as the metal in wire terminals is
and programmable logic control- metallic dendrites due to the reac- undamaged and impermeable. The
ler (PLC) cabinets, improved self- tion of corrosive vapours with the expense of protecting wired 4-20
diagnostics and remote diagnos- metal of a connector at high or var- mA conventional, HART, Fieldbus,
tics, increased functionality and iable humid conditions. Intermittent Modbus, Profibus or Profinet instru-
transparency, more information terminations of wire connections ments in a corrosion prone envi-
from the field level, easier exten- in instrument wiring are expen- ronment or hazardous area is
sion during operation, feasibility of sive and time consuming problems significant. Wiring for field instru-
Q2 f daniel.indd 1 09/03/2018 17:54

Figure 1 Corroded wiring terminals and damaged cable caused by long term corrosion effects
ments (such as transmitters with or dency to undergo a corrosive reac- as crushed cables, excessive length,
without display, switches and con- tion with a variety of industrial mechanical fatigue, poor cladding,
trol valves) requires cables, junction gases/vapours such as sulphur, cable routing complexity, routing
boxes, conduits, termination racks, chlorine and their compounds. between moving components, and
cabinets, enclosures, cable tray, tray A harsh environment requires weight carrying.
support system, MCTs and mar- detailed engineering design of
shalling panels. If the instrument is appropriate corrosion control meas- Implementing wireless instrument
source input or four-wire, it must ures to avoid unnecessary electri- technology
have separate power wiring. All cal downtime, planned/unplanned Introducing wireless instruments to
of the wiring system must meet maintenance and inspection costs. oil and gas, petrochemicals, chem-
the requirements of protection that An instrument wiring system or icals and other process industries
the circuit is certified for. Installing cable infrastructure affected by provides such benefits as robust-
an instrument wiring system can short/long term exposure to cor- ness, fast real-time response,
be quite expensive and additional rosion displays a variety of typical reduced installation time, less wir-
operational maintenance expenses behaviour patterns: ing infrastructure, and lower power
are required on preventing, mini- 1. Electrical shutdown or total dis- consumption. Significant gains are
mising or controlling the rate of cor- ruption of electrical services due to possible with the implementation of
rosion to ensure the protection level short/open circuits wireless instruments in unclassified
is being maintained. 2. Unexplained loss of I/O section areas of process plant, hazardous
Typical corrosion related issues of a circuit locations or corrosive environments.
found in a wiring system dur- 3. I/O cards lost in DCS and PLC, These can be viewed in terms
ing inspection in a corrosion prone data reading and transmission prob- of engineering impacts, design
environment are shown in Figure 1 lems, and erratic behaviour impacts and construction/fabrica-
and include: 4. Terminals, leads, switches and tion deliverable impacts.
• Incorrect or damaged cable gland electrical contractors become cor-
• Damaged cables roded which reduces the conductiv- Engineering/design impacts
• Corroded terminals, switches and ity of the metals The introduction of wireless instru-
contactors 5. Connection of the data/power ments in process plant has many
• Corrosion across the connec- cables inside junction boxes located positive effects on project engi-
tion and contactors, resulting in in the field, and marshalling of sys- neering, such as lower installa-
increased resistance tem cabinets located in local equip- tion costs, quicker installation time,
• Corrosion fatigue failure of ment/control rooms are affected, so faster commissioning, more efficient
terminals. resistance increases across the con- change order management, removal
A wireless infrastructure could nection and contactors, resulting in of the requirement for a power sup-
possibly avoid these instrument false data transmission ply and protection barriers with
wiring system problems, corrosion 6. A combination of a corrosive replaceable battery packs, increased
related inspections, and planned/ environment and vibration assists system/vendor compatibility, and
unplanned maintenance. in the formation of corrosion fatigue device and system compatibility.
cracks in terminals leads, leading to The comparative ease of moving
Effects of corrosion on wiring wiring system failures. or adding I/O points during con-
systems In addition, non-corrosion related struction enhances the cost effec-
All instrument wiring systems or stress in a wiring infrastructure may tive management of on-site changes.
cable infrastructures have a ten- impact measurement quality, such Implementation of wireless instru-
Q2 f daniel.indd 2 09/03/2018 17:54

ments in hazardous
DMDS is the locations
spikingor agent • Documents
of choice in most related cases to since
corro- it
decomposes
harsh, corrosive to form H2S insion
environments the proper
control. temperature range and
reduces thecontains
requirement 68% sulphur. for pro-
During
ject engineering/design sulphiding, a sufficient level of H2S must be main-
build it to a effort higher level, Conclusion
creating a ‘scalable solution’.
through: tained within the reactor to ensure complete sulphiding of
Most importantly, theThe implementation
refinery can realise substantial of a wire-
1. Reductionthe catalyst
in
savings
andat
to prevent
every levelless
materials premature
of the
reduction
instrumentation
solution from crude
of the
system oxidic
pre- in
metal sites.train Operations personnel are typically required to
weight (wiring heat system ormonitoring cable a (using hazardous simple heat exchanger
location or a cor-
sample the sour recycle gastostream withCDU Draeger tubes from
infrastructure) models) right throughrosive integrated
environment monitoring.
is a useful
open ports at least once per hour to ensure that an adequate
2. Less system
leveldesign
of H2S time is being maintained. and costThis effective
requires means
operators of pro- to
Conclusion
3. Lower cost of change
equip Refineries
themselves requests
withhave
today
tection
freshthe breathing against
technology air (SCBA) corrosion
availableintoorder
and
run to 11 – 15 June 2018
and changeavoid
order themanagement
their hazardous
assets at maximum chemical
atmosphere capacity attack
escaping while aroundencountered
reducing the
oper-sam- by
4. No civil,ple
piping
port.
ationaland electrical
To prevent
risk, H2S from
although conventional
not all dropping
have leveragedinstrument
to levelsits where wiring
value. cat-
Frankfurt am Main
work for cable
alystrouting
Improvements
damage can occur, in CDU the systems
operations
start-up orteam cable infrastructures.
cantypically
bring a consid-
injects an
5. Less timeexcessanderable
amount boost
effort to for
of spiking the bottomThe line
agent of
availability
that refineries
keeps and wireless
of
the concentration many
installing cable have already started
than necessary (>2 instruments
higherinfrastructure significantly
wt%). This practice profiting
provides from these
wastesmultiple chemi-
solutions, gaining considerable competitive advantage.
6. Junctioncalboxes,
and generatescable dangerously
tray, benefits highover levels of H2type
single S thatofcircu- wir-
latecable The scalability
throughout the unit. of the In CDUaddition,simulation solution ena-
over-injection builds
local panels, tray support ing methods/protocols
bles refineries to start at a scale that is managea-
includ-
excessively
(strut), conduits, sleeves highare gasnot density that can result in compressor
ble, allowing them toing reduced
gradually buildwiring the solution expensesto
needed. trips. To reduce the gas density,
andMore sour
marshalling gas must
panels, be purged fewer
higher, rigorous levels. importantly, a refinery
to the flare system and fresh make-up hydrogen brought in,
can derive significantpower value supplies
from everyand level safety
of thebar-
triggering potential
solution, giving themriers, environmental
a truly issues. The sulphiding
Deliverables/documents lesssustainable
space for solution
equipment, for
process canCDU
their also operations.
be somewhat unpredictable
Refineries no longer duehave to equip-to
impacts ment problems, less documentation and design
leave money such on as thecompressor
table by running trips and their heatCDU exchanger
con-
Implementation thatofextend
leaks, servatively wireless effort,
DMDSfewer I/O channels in
to the
avoid timeoperational needs
disruption, to be unplanned
injected into
instruments in a
the reactor. harsh, corro-
downtime and lost profits.
DCS/PLC cabinets, better self-
sive environment
Reactor also has anSmartSkid
Resources’ diagnostics DMDS and Injection
remote diagnos- System
effect on the production
addressesReferencesthe of engi-associated
issues tics, among withothers. catalyst sulphiding
neering/design 1documents
Carey K E, Profitand
and over-injection, making
margins areWireless
theforsulphiding
slim instrumentation
refineries, processCounty
The Delaware much in
construction/fabrication
safer and more deliv-
Daily Times, 21 Jan 2012.
accurate. unfavourable
Each SmartSkid
2 Emerson, Energy Efficient and Always On-Spec, Round Rock, Emerson
isprocess
equipped plant
with
erables. The effort
cloud-connected
Process required for
wireless
Management, environments
Texas,telemetry,
2012. allowing also has positive
Operations and
Engineering
engineering/design 3 Gorak to Schoenmakers
continuously
documenta-
A, monitoron
impacts
H, Distillation: the project
injection
Operation rate,
engineer-
and Applications, total
tion can be quantity
reduced injected,
Elsevier, by follow-
Oxford, injectioning
2014. pressure,
and design fluid temperature,
and documen- and
ing means: valve position
4 Gadalla M, via a
New secure
energy web link.
tation/deliverables,
efficient redesign of an existing crude oil
including
Another
• Cable schedule, benefit
distillation
cable of the system
unit, Chemical
sche-
Engineering
lower is Dept,
an online
The British
installation S analyser
HUniversity,
2 costs, quicker
that
Egypt,
2012.
constantly
matic diagram,5 cable measures the H S levels of the reactor gas effluent.
Jokuty P,philoso-
Properties of 2installation
crude oils and oil time, products, faster
Environment com-
Data from the 1999. H2S missioning,
online analyser is also viewable via the
phy diagram and logic
Canada, diagram
Ottawa, and more efficient
cloud 6in Giles
real-time, enabling more precise & S Jcontrol
Rand, The of the injec-
not required H N, Crude
change
Oils, In A. C.-2. Products,
order management.
Significance
tion rate andofavoiding
of Tests the hazards
Petroleum Products: A Report,and ASTMissues associated
International, Bridgeport,with
• No junction
over-injectionbox ofloading
NJ, 2003. the spiking Implementation
agent. of a wire-
(internal deliverable)
7 Yeaprequired
In certain cases, Reactor
B L, Designing Heatless
Resources infrastructure
Exchanger also provides
Networks reduces
to Mitigate an the
online
Fouling,
• No loop/segment PhD Thesis,diagrams
Department of Chemical expense
hydrogen purity analyser, another valuable tool for monitor- of
Engineering, installing
Cambridge University, instru- BE INFORMED.
required ing theUK,recycle2003.
ments and project engineering/
8 Yeap B L, gas stream. During sulphiding, the of hydrogen
• No wiring connection
content of the
Wilson
sched-
recycle
D I, Polley
gas should
G T, Pugh
be
S J, Mitigation
refinery heat exchanger fouling through retrofits based on effort
design documentation
kept above 60%
crude oil
in order
thermo- by BE INSPIRED.
ule, wiringtoreports
minimise (intermediate
coke models, In aTrans
foulingformation significant
and Partamount.
to ensure the proper phase
BE THERE.
hydraulic IChemE, A, Chemical Engineering
and mainofjunction
metalResearch box,
sulphide
and Design,mar-
is quickly
Institution and completely
of Chemical Engineers,formedCambridge,on UK,the
catalyst surface. Sheikh Rafik Manihar
With H2 analysis in real-time, the hydrogen Ahmed is a Control
shalling and shield
53-71,
bar reports)
2004.
required concentration can be easilySystems

9 Joshi H M, Brons G, Chemical
maintained Engineer
Cleaning
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Refinery Daniel,
Heat
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Applications, ECI Digital
and instrumentation
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will nodesign Fe, and
longer for the Process Industries
needed include: New Mexico, 2003. engineering, procurement, inspection and
• Design be exposed
index toF,hazardous
(database
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Macchietto S, Refinery of H2S train
pre-heat
field engineering
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sampling
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ptq

PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY QUARTERLY

HEAT TRANSFER & FLUID FLOW

cover and spine copy 27.indd 1 11/03/2018 19:47

With ULTIMet™ catalyst. It’s Honeywell UOP’s most active catalyst,

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© 2018 Honeywell International. All rights reserved.

honeywell uop ultimet achieve more.indd 1 08/03/2018 17:36

23 Challenges and opportunities of an FCC revamp

29 Heavy feed characterisation: a molecular approach

43 Maximising heat exchanger cleaning

47 Enhanced energy recovery for crude preheating

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57 Designing for a sourer future

63 Replacing a corroded column with packing internals

69 Packed bed performance analytics

75 Dividing wall columns for gas plants

81 Process flow determines coker heater performance

89 Innovation in supply chain planning

95 Machine learning in asset maintenance

101 Wireless instruments in corrosive and hazardous locations

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Criterion’s newest generation in catalysts continues to

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Grace custom catalyst solutions, co-developed

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