After desalting and dehydration, crude is separated

into fractions by distillation.

The distilled fractions cannot be used directly.
The reason for such a complex set of processes is the
difference between the crude oil properties and the
needs of the market.
Another reason for complexity is environmental.
Legislation demands cleaner products and is the major
drive for process improvement and development of
novel processes.

Typical Physical and Chemical processes in a

Petroleum Refinery
Physical
Desalting/dehydration
Distillation
Solvent extraction
Propane deasphalting
Solvent dewaxing
Blending

Thermal
Visbreaking
Delayed coking
Flexicoking

Chemical
Catalytic
Hydrotreating (e.g.,
Hydrodesulfurization)
Catalytic reforming
Catalytic cracking
Hydrocracking
Catalytic dewaxing
Alkylation
Polymerization
Isomerization

INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES IN THE PETROLEUM REFINING INDUSTRY

The process of oil refining involves five major processes which are briefly described:
SEPARATION

CONVERSION

TREATING

BLENDING

AUXILIARY

SEPARATION PROCESSES
These processes involve separating
the different fractions of hydrocarbon
compounds that make up crude oil
base on their boiling point differences.
Additional processing of these
fractions is usually needed to produce
final products to be sold within the
market.

ASSOCIATED OPERATIONS

Atmospheric distillation
Vacuum distillation
Light ends recovery (gas processing)

INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES IN THE PETROLEUM REFINING INDUSTRY

SEPARATION

CONVERSION

TREATING

BLENDING

AUXILIARY

CONVERSION PROCESSES

Include processes used to break down

large longer chain molecules into smaller
ones by heating using catalysts. Change
the size and/or structure of hydrocarbon
molecules. These processes include:
Decomposition (dividing) by thermal and
catalytic cracking;
Unification
(combining)
through
alkylation and polymerization; and
Alteration
(rearranging)
with
isomerization and catalytic reforming.

ASSOCIATED OPERATIONS

Cracking (thermal and catalytic)

Reforming
Alkylation
Polymerization
Isomerization
Coking
Visbreaking

INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES IN THE PETROLEUM REFINING INDUSTRY

SEPARATION

CONVERSION

TREATING

BLENDING

AUXILIARY

TREATING PROCESSES
ASSOCIATED OPERATIONS

Petroleum-treating processes are used

to
separate
the
undesirable
components and impurities such as
sulfur, nitrogen and heavy metals from
the products.

Hydrodesulfurization
Hydrotreating
Chemical sweetening
Acid gas removal
Deasphalting

INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES IN THE PETROLEUM REFINING INDUSTRY

SEPARATION

CONVERSION

TREATING

BLENDING/COMBINATION PROCESSES

Is the process of mixing and combining

hydrocarbon fractions, additives, and other
components to produce finished products
with specific performance properties. Some
examples of this are lubricating oils, asphalt,
or gasoline with different octane ratings.

BLENDING

AUXILIARY

ASSOCIATED OPERATIONS

Storage
Blending
Loading
Unloading

INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES IN THE PETROLEUM REFINING INDUSTRY

SEPARATION

CONVERSION

TREATING

AUXILIARY PROCESSES

Processes that are vital to operations

by providing power, waste treatment
and other utility services. Products
from these facilities are usually
recycled and used in other processes
within the refinery and are also
important in regards to minimizing
water and air pollution.

BLENDING

AUXILIARY

ASSOCIATED OPERATIONS

Boilers
Waste water treatment
Hydrogen production
Sulfur recovery plant

LPH and Gas

REFINERY FLOW
DIAGRAM

Refinery fuel gas

Gasoline

Sweetening Sweet Gasoline

Unit

LPG

Stabilizer
Naphta
HydrotreatingMiddle Distillates

Gas

Washed Crude

Gas Oil

Lube-Base
Stocks

Catalytic
Cracking

Gasoline
Light Gas Oil

Lube Oil
Solvent
Extraction and
Waxes
Dewaxing
Gasoline, Naphtha and
Middle distillates

Vacuum
Distillation

Visbreaker

Fuel Oil
Asphalt

Solvents

Treating and Blending

Middle Distillates

Gasoline

Aviation fuels
Diesels
Heating oils
Lube oils
Greases
Asphalts
Industrial fuels
Refinery fuel oil

Flow scheme of a modern refinery

REFINING TECHNOLOGY

10

Desalting/dehydration
Crude oil often contains water, inorganic salts, suspended solids, and water
soluble trace metals.
First step in the refining process is to remove these contaminants so as to
reduce corrosion, plugging, and fouling of equipment and to prevent poisoning
catalysts in processing units.
The two most typical methods of crude oil desalting are chemical and
electrostatic separation, and both use hot water as the extraction agent.
In chemical desalting, water and chemical surfactant (demulsifiers) are added
to the crude, which is heated so that salts and other impurities dissolve or attach
to the water, then held in a tank to settle out.
Electrical desalting is the application of high voltage electrostatic charges to
concentrate suspended water globules in the bottom of the settling tank.
Surfactants are added only when the crude has a large amount of suspended
solids.
A third (and rare) process filters hot crude using diatomaceous earth.

Desalting process
The crude oil feedstock is heated to 65180C to reduce viscosity and surface
tension for easier mixing and separation of the water. The temperature is
limited by the vapor pressure of the crudeoil feedstock.
In both methods other chemicals may be added. Ammonia is often used to
reduce corrosion. Caustic or acid may be added to adjust the pH of the water
wash.
The oil/water mixture is homogenously emulsified in the emulsifying device.
The emulsifying device (as a valve) is used to emulsify the dilution water
injected upstream in the oil. The emulsification is important for contact
between the salty production water contained in the oil and the wash water.
Then the emulsion enters the Desalters where it separates into two phases by
electrostatic coalescence.
The electrostatic coalescence is induced by the polarization effect resulting
from an external electric source. Polarization of water droplets pulls them out
from oil-water emulsion phase. Salt being dissolved in these water droplets, is
also separated along the way.

Crude Desalting (typical operating conditions)

oAPI

Water Wash,
vol%

Temp. oF (oC)

>40

3-4

240-260 (115-125)

30-40

4-7

260-280 (125-140)

<30

7-10

280-330 (140-150)

Crude Distillation Unit

Crude Desalting
Depending on the amount of salt in

crudes, several stages are required

in the desalting process (e.g. if the
amount of salt is greater than 20 lb
salt/1000 bbl (expressed as NaCl),
two-stage desalting is required)

Crude Desalting
In order to promote the separation, a high-potential electrical field is

applied across the settling vessel to coalesce the droplets of salty

water more rapidly (electrostatic precipitator).
Either AC or DC fields may be used and potentials from 12,000
35,000 volts are used to promote coalescence.
For single-stage desalting units 90-95% efficiencies are obtained and
two-stage processes achieve 99% or better efficiency.

Distillation Column
Distillation is defined as: a process in which a liquid or vapour mixture of
two or more substances is separated into its component fractions of desired
purity, by the application and removal of heat.

Distillation columns are classified by the manner in which they are operated:
1. Batch, in which the feed to the column is introduced batchwise. That is,
the column is charged with a 'batch' and then the distillation process is
carried out. When the desired task is achieved, a next batch of feed is
introduced.
2. Continuous columns process a continuous feed stream. No interruptions
occur unless there is a problem with the column or surrounding process
units. They are capable of handling high throughputs and are the most
common of the two types.

Continuous distillation columns

Classified according to:
1. Nature of the feed that they are processing:
binary column feed contains only two components;
multicomponent column feed contains more than two components.
2. Number of product streams they have:
multiproduct column column has more than two product streams.
3. Where extra feed exits when used to help with the separation:
extractive distillation where the extra feed appears in the bottom
product stream;
azeotropic distillation where the extra feed appears at the top product
stream.
4. Type of column internals:
tray column trays of various designs used to hold up the liquid to provide
better contact between vapour and liquid;
packed column packings are used to enhance vapourliquid contact.

Main Components of Distillation Columns

A vertical shell where separation of
liquid components is done.
Column internals e.g. trays/plates
and/or packings which are used to
enhance component separations.
A reboiler to provide the necessary
vaporization for the distillation process.
A condenser to cool and condense the
vapour leaving the top of the column.
A reflux drum to hold the condensed
vapour from the top of the column so
that liquid (reflux) can be recycled back
to the column.

Trays and plates

Bubble cap trays
A riser or chimney is fitted
over each hole, and a cap
covers the riser. The cap is
mounted with a space to
allow vapour to rise through
the chimney and be directed
downward by the cap, finally
discharging through slots in
the cap, and bubbling through
the liquid on the tray.

Valve trays
Perforations are covered by caps lifted by vapour,
which creates a flow area and directs the vapour
horizontally into the liquid.

Sieve trays
Sieve trays are simply metal plates with holes in
them. Vapour passes straight upward through the
liquid on the plate. The arrangement, number and
size of the holes are design parameters.

Packings
Packings are passive devices designed to increase the interfacial

area for vapour-liquid contact.

They do not cause excessive pressure-drop across a packed
section, which is important because a high pressure drop would
mean that more energy is required to drive the vapour up the
distillation column.
Packed columns are called continuous-contact columns while
trayed columns are called staged-contact columns because of the
manner in which vapour and liquid are contacted.

Demister Pad

Basic operation
The feed is introduced somewhere near

the middle of the column to a tray known

as the feed tray.
The feed tray divides the column into a
top (enriching or rectification) and a
bottom (stripping) section.
The feed flows down the column where
it is collected in the reboiler.
Heat (usually as steam) is supplied to the
reboiler to generate vapour.
The vapour from the reboiler is reintroduced into the unit at the bottom of
the column.
The liquid removed from the reboiler is
known as the bottoms product or simply,
bottoms.

 Vapour moves up the column, exits the top, and is cooled in a condenser. The
condensed liquid is stored in a holding vessel known as the reflux drum. Some
of this liquid is recycled back to the top of the column and this is called the
reflux. The condensed liquid that is removed from the system is known as the
distillate or top product.
Thus, there are internal flows of vapour and liquid within the column as well
as external flows of feeds and product streams, into and out of the column.

Pumpback and pumparound

Reflux is provided by condensing the tower

overhead vapors and returning a portion of

the liquid to the top of the tower, and also
by pump-around and pumpback streams
lower in the tower.
Each of the sidestreams products removed
from the tower decreases the amount of
reflux below the point of draw off.
If maximum reflux and fractionation is
obtained by removing all the heat at the top
of the tower, this will result in an inverted
cone-type liquid loading, which requires a
very large diameter at the top of the tower.
To reduce the top diameter of the tower and
to provide uniform liquid loading over the
length of the tower, pumpback and
pumparound is introduced to the tower
operation.

Pumpback and pumparound

In pumpback or pumparound,

liquid is removed from the

tower, cooled by a heat
exchanger, and returned to
the tower.
Alternatively, a portion of the
cooled sidestream may be
returned to the tower.
This cold stream condenses
more of the vapors coming
from the lower tower section
and thereby increases the
reflux below that point.

Sidestripping columns
The liquid sidestream withdrawn from the

tower will contain low-boiling

components which lower the flashpoint
(because the lighter products pass through
the heavier products and are in
equilibrium on every tray).
These light ends are stripped from each
sidestream in a separate small stripping
tower containing four to ten trays with
steam introduced under the bottom tray.
The steam and stripped light ends are
vented back into the vapor zone of the
main column above the corresponding
side-draw tray.

Tower bottom
Although crude towers do not

normally use reboilers, several

trays are generally incorporated
below the flash zone.
Steam is introduced below the
bottom tray to strip any
remaining gas oil from the liquid
in the flash zone and to produce
a high flash-point bottoms.
Moreover, the steam reduces the
partial pressure of the
hydrocarbons and thus lowers
the required vaporization
temperature.

Crude Distillation Unit (CDU)

Process Description (CDU)

Crude oil is pumped from the storage to be heated by exchange

against hot overhead and product side streams in the Crude

Unit.
At a preheat temperature of about 200-250 F (93-121oC),
water is injected into the crude to dissolve salt that is usually
present.
The mixture enters a desalter drum to remove salt water.
The crude oil leaves the desalter drum and enters a surge drum.
Some of the light ends and any entrained water are flashed off
and routed directly to the distillation tower flash zone (they do
not pass through to the heater).
On leaving the remaining heat exchanger train after the surge
drum, the crude oil is heated in a fired heater to cause
vaporization of all products withdrawn above the flash zone
plus 10-20% of the bottom product (overflash).

Process Description (CDU)

The desalted crude feedstock is preheated using recovered process heat. The

feedstock then flows to a directfired crude charge heater then into the vertical
distillation column just above the bottom, at pressures slightly above atmospheric
and at temperatures ranging from 340400C (above these temperatures undesirable
thermal cracking may occur). All but the heaviest fractions flash into vapor.
The unvaporized portion of the crude leaves the bottom of the tower via a steam
stripper section.
Distillate products are removed from the selected trays (draw-off trays) in this
sections of the tower (steam stripped and sent to storage).
The full naphtha vapor is allowed to leave the top of the tower to be condensed and
collected in the overhead drum. A portion of this stream is returned to the tower as
reflux.
The side stream distillates:
Heavy gas oil (has the highest boiling point)
Light gas oil (will be come Diesel)
Kerosene (will become Jet Fuel)

 Atmospheric column with pre flash

Vacuum distillation
To further distill the residuum or topped crude from the atmospheric
tower without thermal cracking, reduced pressure is required.
The process takes place in one or more vacuum distillation towers.
The principles of vacuum distillation resemble those of fractional
distillation except that larger diameter columns are used to maintain
comparable vapor velocities at the reduced pressures. The internal designs
of some vacuum towers are different from atmospheric towers in that
random packing and demister pads are used instead of trays.
A typical firstphase vacuum tower may produce gas oils, lubricating
oil base stocks, and heavy residual for propane deasphalting.
A secondphase tower operating at lower vacuum may distill surplus
residuum from the atmospheric tower, which is not used for lubestock
processing, and surplus residuum from the first vacuum tower not used for
deasphalting.
Vacuum towers are typically used to separate catalytic cracking feedstock
from surplus residuum.