Construct a Pre-Heat Train Model

Workshop
Files can be found in folder: 11_PreHeatTrain

Objective
In this workshop, you will gain additional experience with heat transfer unit operations in
Aspen HYSYS by building a typical pre-heat train model. Once the raw crude is heated
and treated, it will enter a section of transfer piping before being sent onto fractionation.
To model this transfer piping, you will make use of the HYSYS Pipe Segment unit
operation. You’ll also re-familiarize yourself with the Balance and Adjust logical
operations. Finally, you will use the Case Study analysis tool to study how various
independent variables affect certain dependent variable sin the pre-heat train process.

In order to process a raw crude stream and refine it into usable products, various degrees
of pre-heating and pre-treatment must first be applied. In this workshop you will construct
a pre-heat train model using a variety of heat transfer unit operations, separators, piping,
and logical operations.

This workshop includes the following tasks:

• Task 1 – Build the Pre-Heat Train

• Task 2 – Add a Pipe Segment
• Task 3 – Install the Balance and Adjust

Task 1 – Build the Pre-Heat Train

The Pre-Heat Train will heat and treat a raw crude stream for processing in an atmospheric
crude fractionation unit. This raw crude information is already available as it was defined
and computed in the Oil Characterization and HP Separation workshop. Recall that you
exported a petroleum assay file titled Crude06.afam during that exercise. This assay file
will serve as the basis of your pre-heat train.

1. Open Aspen HYSYS and start a New simulation.

2. Select the Petroleum Assays folder from the Navigation Pane.

3. View the Assay Management ribbon tab and click the pull-down option on the
New Assay button.

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 4. Choose the option to Import from File.

5. Keep AspenTech as the Assay data format and click the green, plus-sign add
button to add an Assay.

6. Browse to the Crude06.afam file you exported during the Oil Characterization
workshop. Click Open after you select it.

Note: If you cannot locate the Crude06.afam file you exported, browse to the folder
location containing your provided course files and open the 06_OilCharacterization
folder. The file should be available there.

7. After selecting the assay file, click the Import button

8. Assay Component Selection window will appear. Select the Assay

Components Celsius to 850C and click OK. Then click OK to the next
message.

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 Note: If you select the Petroleum Assays node in the Properties environment and click
the Add button to add an assay, if you have not added an assay-compatible component
list to your case, the Assay Component Selection dialog box appears. You must add a
component list in order to characterize an assay

Once the import is completed, note that the Component Lists and Fluid Packages folders
are fully defined.

When you import an Aspen Assay Management assay into a new simulation case, HYSYS
automatically loads the default HYSYS Petroleum Refining component list and selects
Peng-Robinson as the Property Package. Thus, following the import step, you may

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continue on into the Simulation Environment. Of course, you may remain in the Properties
Environment to make any necessary modifications to the Petroleum Assay or Fluid
Package.

9. Keep the default Component List and Fluid Package options and click the
Simulation Environment button.

10. View the main flowsheet and add a new Material Stream. Specify the following
items on the Conditions form:

In this cell... Enter...

Name Raw Crude

Temperature 15 °C (59 °F)

Pressure 1000 kPa (145 psia)

Mass Flow 6.0 E+05 kg/h (1.323 E+06 lb/hr)

11. Select the Petroleum Assay form and select the Attach Existing radio button.

12. Chose Assay – 1; composition data should be automatically generated and the
stream should solve.

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 13. In the Pre-Heat Train and crude processing units you will need to take into account
the presence of water. Add another Material Stream with the following
information:

In this cell... Enter...

Name Water

Temperature 15 °C (59 °F)

Mass Flow 21600 kg/h (47620 lb/hr)

Component Mole Fractions

Water 1.0

A Mixer operation is used to combine the raw crude with the water, and the output
represents the oil entering the refinery. Further downstream, much of the free water is
knocked out using a Desalter, which you will model with a three-phase separator.

14. Add a Mixer with the following connections.

In this cell... Enter...

Connections

Name Mixer

Inlets Raw Crude

Water

Outlets To Heater

15. Move to the Design | Parameters page of the Mixer. Select the Equalize All
option for the Automatic Pressure Assignment. All flowsheet objects should solve
at this point.

By making use of the Equalize All pressure option on the Mixer, we eliminated the need
to define pressure on the Water inlet stream. Since pressure is known in the Raw Crude,
the Mixer writes that value into all other inlets and into the outlet stream, resulting in
pressure equalization at this point of the flowsheet.

The pre-heat train you will build consists of various heat transfer unit operations, separation
operations, piping, and logical/mathematic operations. First you will install a simple
HYSYS Heater model.

16. Add a Heater to the flowsheet and use the following conditions to define it:

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 In this cell... Enter...
Connections
Name Simple Heater 1
Inlet To Heater
Outlet To Heat Exchanger
Energy H1-Q
Parameters
Delta P 50 kPa (7.25 psi)
Worksheet
To Heat Exchanger, Temperature 65 °C (149 °F)

Next, a second stage of pre-heat will be added. This time you will use the HYSYS Heat
Exchanger model. The Heat Exchanger requires process streams on both the hot and cold
side of the exchanger.

Before adding the Heat Exchanger, we need to define an assumed hot side stream. The hot
side stream will be a pump around from an atmospheric crude column. Since neither this
column nor the pump around stream currently exist, you will make a reasonable initial
estimate for the pump around stream.

17. Add a Material Stream to the flowsheet and title it Hot Pumparound and click
the Define from Stream button.

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18. Highlight Raw Crude in the Available streams list.

19. Uncheck all checkboxes in the Copy Stream Conditions section except for
Composition. You will specify temperature, pressure, and flow rate in the next
step.

20. Click OK to complete the copy.

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 21. Enter the following conditions for the Hot Pumparound stream:

In this cell... Enter...

Temperature 180 °C (356 °F)

Pressure 200 kPa (29 psia)

Std Ideal Liq Vol Flow 175 m3/h (26420 barrel/day)

A Heat Exchanger is added to continue heating the crude stream. The Heat Exchanger
performs two-sided energy and material balance calculations. The Heat Exchanger is
capable of solving for temperatures, pressures, heat flows (including heat loss and heat
leak), material stream flow rates, UA, and other heat transfer parameters.

22. Add a Heat Exchanger from the Model Palette.

23. On the Design | Connections page of the Heat Exchanger, enter the following
information:

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 In this cell... Enter...

Name Heat Exchanger

Tube Side Inlet To Heat Exchanger

Tube Side Outlet To Desalter

Shell Side Inlet Hot Pumparound

Shell Side Outlet Cold Pumparound

24. Move to the Design | Parameters page and choose Simple Weighted as the Heat
Exchanger Model.

25. Enter a Shell-Side Pressure Drop of 5 kPa (0.725 psi) and a Tube-Side Pressure
Drop of 35 kPa (5.076 psi).

26. Navigate to the Design | Specs page. You should see that there is one degree of
freedom shown for the Heat Exchanger, meaning that one more piece of input is
required to solve the model.

27. You will first need to deactivate the UA specification. To do this, click the Active
checkbox for the UA specification to un-check it.

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 28. To add a specification, click the Add button; the Exchanger Specification view
displays.

The HYSYS Heat Exchanger accepts a wide variety of specification types. You can use
the Exchanger Specification form to create targets for temperature differences, temperature
approaches, a UA value, and much more. It is also possible to use the Worksheet tab of
the Heat Exchanger property view to simply enter desired hot or cold side outlet
temperatures. This flexibility makes it very straightforward to define the HYSYS Heat
Exchanger with virtually any fixed conditions.

29. Provide the following information to define a Minimum Approach

Temperature specification for the exchanger:

In this cell... Enter...

Name Temp Approach

Type Min Approach

Pass Overall

Spec Value 30 °C (54 °F)

The Heat Exchanger should be solved after defining the temperature approach spec. If not,
make sure that the spec has been checked as Active and that both inlet streams are fully
defined. You can also verify that the HYSYS Solver is active.

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QUESTION: What is the calculated temperature of the To Desalter stream? What about
the heat duty of the Heat Exchanger? [Write your answer below]

30. Continue by adding a 3-Phase Separator with the following stream connections:

In this cell... Enter...

Connections
Name Desalter
Inlet To Desalter
Vapour Ovhd Vap
Light Liquid Crude
Heavy Liquid Desalter Water

QUESTION: What is the mass flow rate of the Crude stream? Desalter Water? [Write
your answer below]

You can finish the pre-heat train by adding the last three units before the crude enters the
transfer line to the Atmospheric Column: two Heaters and a pre-flash Separator. Like the
Simple Heater 1, both remaining heat transfer units will be modelled as Heater unit
operations.

31. Add a Heater to the flowsheet with the following inputs:

In this cell... Enter...

Connections
Name Simple Heater 2
Inlet Crude
Outlet To Preflash
Energy H2-Q
Parameters
Delta P 372.3 kPa (54 psi)
Worksheet
To Preflash, Temperature 175 °C (347 °F)

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 32. Add a Separator from the Model Palette and provide stream connections as given
below:

In this cell... Enter...

Connections
Name Pre-Flash
Inlets To Preflash
Vapour Outlet Light Prod
Liquid Outlet Btm Liq

33. For the last operation in the pre-heat train, add a Heater with the following
values:

In this cell... Enter...

Connections
Name Furnace
Inlet Btm Liq
Outlet To Trans Line
Energy H3-Q
Parameters
Delta P 172.4 kPa (25 psi)
Worksheet
To Trans Line 400 °C (752 °F)
Temperature

34. Save your case as 11-PreheatTrain.hsc.

Task 2 – Add a Pipe Segment

After the pre-heated crude exits the Furnace, it is ready to move on to the Atmospheric
Crude Column. However, we will assume that the Atmospheric Column is situated about
an eighth of a mile from the Furnace. To simulate the pressure losses that will occur in this
line and check for any other fluid flow phenomena, the HYSYS Pipe Segment unit
operation can be added.

The Pipe Segment is a very versatile piping operation that allows for single and multi-phase
flow, customizable piping geometry, and various heat transfer considerations. Flow
assurance capabilities, such as slug flow and erosional velocity calculations further enhance
the capabilities of the Pipe Segment. You can build the Pipe Segment to whatever level of

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detail you wish depending on the simplicity or complexity of the piping configuration you
are studying. Follow the steps below to add a Pipe Segment to the Pre-Heat Train.

35. From the Model Palette, select the Pipe Segment and add it to the flowsheet.

36. View the Design | Connections page of the Pipe Segment and define it using the
screenshot below:

37. Move to the Design | Parameters form. This page allows you to modify the
multi-phase flow correlations being used by the Pipe Segment for different
orientations of flow. Select the Tulsa Unified Model (2-Phase) for all three
orientations.

38. Navigate to the Rating tab. The Rating | Sizing form allows you to build the
physical piping arrangement of the Pipe Segment.

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 39. Click the Append Segment button. Specify a Length/Equivalent Length of 76.2
m (250 ft) and an Elevation Change of -3.35 m (-11 ft).

For providing the piping diameter, it is possible to directly specify the outer and inner
diameter values. You can see these as available inputs on the Rating | Sizing form.
However it is usually more convenient to define piping diameter based upon standard,
nominal pipe sizes. These can be accessed rather easily in the HYSYS Pipe Segment, and
you can use the following steps to see how.

40. Click the View Segment button at the bottom of the form; a Pipe Parameters
window should appear.

41. Set the Pipe Schedule as Schedule 40, then click the Nominal Diameter drop
down menu and select 600 mm (24 inch).

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 42. You can close the Pipe Parameters window and return to the Rating | Sizing
form. Note that the segment diameters are now defined.

The heated crude transfer line continues on into a standard 90° elbow and then into a further
run of pipe to meet up with the atmospheric column. You can add these piping items here
in the Rating | Sizing form by simply appending additional segments. The Pipe Segment
also allows you to clone/copy existing segments, making it easier to build and define
similar piping objects. Follow the steps below to utilize this functionality and complete
the Transfer Line.

43. Click the Append Segment button. Select Elbow: 90 Std from the Fitting/Pipe
field.

44. Manually enter an Inner Diameter for the elbow as 574.6 mm (22.62 in).

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Note: For fittings, the View Segment button does not provide a list of nominal sizes, as it
did for regular piping; it is necessary to manually specify the inner diameter in this case.

45. The final run of pipe will have the same diameter of the first run, only the length
and elevation change will differ. So click and highlight any cell under Segment 1
on the Rating | Sizing form and click the Clone Segment button.

46. Enter a Length/Equivalent Length of 121.9 m (400 ft) and an Elevation Change of
4.57 m (15 ft) for the third segment.

47. Change the number of Increments for the third segment to 10. Adjusting the
number of increments influences the frequency of internal pressure, flow, flash,
etc. calculations performed by the Pipe Segment.

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The Pipe Segment also needs information on how to conduct heat transfer calculations.
You can specify a variety of heat transfer related inputs; fixed duty, fixed heat transfer
coefficients, or estimated heat transfer coefficients based upon internal and external
conditions. Follow the steps below to define enough conditions to allow HYSYS to
calculate the heat transfer between the piping system and the environment.

48. Select the Rating | Heat Transfer form and choose the Estimate HTC option.

49. Check all four check boxes at the left-side of the form to include all heat transfer
contributions.

50. Assume and Ambient Temperature of -9.4 ° C (15 °F).

51. Keeping the default Insulation Type, enter an Insulation Thickness of 3.81E-2 m.
(1.5 inch).

52. Change the Ambient Medium to Air and enter an assumed wind Velocity of
11.176 m/s (25 MPH or 36.667 ft/s).

53. Check your input for the Heat Transfer conditions against the screen shot below.
At this point the Transfer Line should be solved.

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QUESTION: What is the pressure of the Atm Feed material stream? [Write your answer
below]

The HYSYS Pipe Segment features five powerful flow assurance calculation capabilities.
These calculations check the physical structures of the pipe itself versus the predicted wear
caused by the type of fluid being conveyed. This allows the process simulator to quickly
and easily judge the viability of a pipeline over time based on whatever fluid is being
modeled.

The particular flow assurance calculations that can be performed are as follows: hydrate
formation calculation, rate of corrosion due to CO2, erosional velocity, slug flow analysis,
and wax deposition. You will investigate the potential for slug flow in the Transfer Line
using this feature.

54. Select the Flow Assurance | Slug Analysis form.

55. Keeping all the default slug flow calculation options, check the Do Slug
Calculations checkbox.

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QUESTION: Does there appear to be slug flow at the exit of the Transfer Line? [Write
your answer below]

56. Save your case as 11-PreheatPipe.hsc.

Task 3 – Install Balance and Adjust Blocks

Look at the vapor fraction for stream To Desalter – it should be equal to zero. The feed to
the Desalter has to be liquid, but it could begin to vaporize given changes in the pressure
at the Desalter separator. Keeping track of the bubble point temperature of the To Desalter
stream would be extremely helpful.

The stream parameters on To Desalter are already calculated, so there is no way you can
force the stream to calculate a bubble point. However, adding a Balance operation allows
you to create a second stream with the same molar flow rate and composition as To
Desalter, but with no vapor fraction, temperature, or pressure defined.
Follow the steps below to add a Component Mole Flow-type Balance operation and
compute the bubble point temperature of the To Desalter material stream.

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 57. Add a Balance operation from the Model Palette and enter the following
information:

In this cell... Enter...

Connections

Name Bubble Point

Inlet Stream To Desalter

Outlet Stream Bubble Temp

Parameters

Balance Type Component Mole Flow

58. Specify a Pressure of 915 kPa (132.7 psia) for the stream Bubble Temperature
(This matches the pressure of the “To Desalter” stream).

59. Set the Vapour Fraction of Bubble Temperature to 0.0, thus calculating the bubble
point temperature.

QUESTION: Up to what temperature can the To Desalter stream be heated and still
remain in the liquid phase? [Write your answer below]

The Adjust operation is another logical operation: a mathematical operation rather than a
physical unit operation that models a piece of processing equipment. It will manipulate the
value of one stream variable (the independent variable) to match a required value or
specification (the dependent variable) in another stream or operation.

We are going to use this tool to optimize the pre-heat train by fixing the molar flow rate of
Light Prod leaving the Pre-Flash vessel, which depends on the temperature of the feed
stream. Note that the adjusted variable of an Adjust must always be a user specified value.

60. Double-click on the Adjust icon in the Model Palette and the Adjust property view
displays.

61. Click the Select Var… button in the Adjusted Variable group to browse for and
define the adjusted/independent variable.

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62. A Variable Browser window should appear where you can select To Preflash as
the Object and Temperature as the Variable. Click Select when finished.

63. Back at the Adjust menu; click the Select Var… button in the Target Variable
group.

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 64. For the Object, select Light Prod, and for the Variable choose Molar Flow.

65. Enter a value of 200 kgmole/h (441 lbmole/hr) in the Specified Target Value box.
The completed Connections tab is shown below:

Switch to the Parameters tab and note the Tolerance and Step Size values. Tolerance values
should be set such that they are reasonable with respect to the target variable value. Too
small of a tolerance can make convergence difficult if not impossible. Too large of a
tolerance can result in an inaccurate solution.

When considering step size, use larger (though not too large!) rather than smaller sizes.
The Secant convergence method works best once the solution has been bracketed and by
using a larger step size you are more likely to bracket the solution quickly. However, using
too large of a step size can cause the algorithm too require more iterations in bracketing
the solution.

66. Keep the default Step Size, but change the Tolerance to 0.1 kgmole/hr (0.22
lbmole/hr).

When considering the adjusted variable, it is a good practice to provide minimum or

maximum values on the Parameters form. These minimum or maximum values could
correspond to a physical limit, such as zero for pressure or flow. This will make your
model more robust in the case that the Adjust becomes unstable. Take note that the
minimum and maximum values are optional and may not be necessary for all cases.

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 67. Move to the Monitor tab of the Adjust so you can better track the results of the
calculation. Click the Start button to begin calculations.

QUESTION: What is the To Preflash temperature that achieves the Light Prod flow
rate specification? [Write your answer below]

68. Save the case as 11-PreheatBalAdj.hsc.

Challenge Exercise
When you added the Balance operation for calculating the bubble point temperature of the
To Desalter stream, you were asked to manually specify the pressure of the Bubble
Temperature stream.

The calculated bubble point temperature will be dependent upon that specified pressure.
What if the pressure of the To Desalter stream were to change? How can you link the
pressures of To Desalter and Bubble Temperature?

Recommended Reading
Knowledge Base Article 000029063
Difference between 'Define from other stream' and 'Balance' unit operation

Knowledge Base Article 000030097

Is there a way to adjust the composition of a single component using the “Adjust” or
“Case Study” tool?

Knowledge Base Article 000031530

How to vary the composition of a stream using the case study feature?

Knowledge Base Article 000029623

How do I get my Adjust, Set, or Balance to solve before my Column (or any other)
operation?

Knowledge Base Article 000029015

HYSYS is predicting two liquid phases in my stream having only hydrocarbon
components, why?

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Notes:

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 Construct a Pre-Heat Train Model
Solutions
Files can be found in folder: 11_PreHeatTrain/Solutions

Task 1
QUESTION: What is the calculated temperature of the To Desalter stream? What about
the heat duty of the Heat Exchanger?

93.71 °C (200.7 °F)

3.422E+07 kJ/h (3.244 E+07 Btu/hr)

QUESTION: What is the mass flow rate of the Crude stream? Desalter Water?

Crude: 6.003E+05 kg/h (1.323 E+06 lb/hr)

Desalter Water: 2.128E+04 kg/h (4.692 E+04 lb/hr)

Task 2
QUESTION: What is the pressure of the Atm Feed material stream?

328.3 kPa (47.61 psia)

QUESTION: Does there appear to be slug flow at the exit of the Transfer Line?

Yes; it appears to be Slug flow at the exit.

Task 3
QUESTION: Up to what temperature can the To Desalter stream be heated and still remain
in the liquid phase?

145.6 °C (294.1 °F)

QUESTION: What is the To Preflash temperature that achieves the Light Prod flow rate
specification?

172.1 °C (341.7 °F)

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Challenge
QUESTION: How can you link the pressures of To Desalter and Bubble Temperature?

You could use either a Set operation or a Spreadsheet to create a permanent link between
the two objects. The approach below will illustrate the use of a Set operation.

1. Delete the specified pressure in the Bubble Temp stream. If this value is not
deleted, a Consistency Error will appear when the Set operation is fully defined.
(You can’t manually provide an input, and have a Set, Spreadsheet, etc. also
provide that same input!)

2. Add a Set operation to the flowsheet.

3. Select Bubble Temp | Pressure as the Target Variable.

4. List To Desalter as the Source Object.

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