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9

 
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After the furfural treatment of oil streams, the streams enter the Solvent Dewaxing Unit.
The purpose of this unit is to lower the pour point of the oil streams by removing the paraffinic
components which form waxy solids at low temperatures. Thus this unit makes oil suitable to be
used at low temperatures. The major processes involved are extraction, crystallisation and filtration.

THEORY:

First we add a solvent which has affinity for the non-paraffinic substances. This will extract
and dissolve the non paraffinic part of the oil stream. This solvent is called the |
Ã
. In this
case, 
 is the oil solvent. But along with non-paraffinic components some of the waxy
components may also dissolve. To reduce this dissolving of waxy components, we add another
chemical called 
. 

  acts as the Wax-Rejecter over here. After
addition of these solvents there are 2 phases, an oil-in-solvent phase & a wax-rich phase. But to
achieve this condition, temperature has to be maintained higher than a minimum temperature
called |

  . Below this temperature, the solvent starts losing its dissolving
power and the oil starts separating out producing a 3rd phase of original composition (wax & oil). An
increase in concentration of MEK causes a rise in Oil Miscibility Temperature and therefore it is
added in limited quantities. Then the solution is crystallised by chilling it to suitable temperature by
different effluents and then by !  

. Cooling of the streams causes the waxy
hydrocarbons to solidify and form wax crystals. These are then filtered in the "   
#
. The filter separates the wax crystals and oil solution. These streams are then sent to their
respective solvent recovery sections. The solvents are recycled back.

PROCESS:

The solvent present in the dewaxed oil mix filtrate is recovered in the solvent
recovery section. The DWO mix is heated and vaporised by the overhead vapours
from the DWO First Flash column, Operating at 0.6 kg/cm2 pressure and DWO
second Flash Column operating at 2.06 kg/cm2 pressure, condensing in shell sides
of Filtrate Solvent Exchangers. The two phase DWO mix feed enters the DWO First
Flash Column having 4 valve trays. The overhead vapours are used for feed
preheating. The bottom liquid i s fed by DWO First Flash Column Bottom pump to
DWO second Flash column having 4 valve trays again. The feed to this tower is
heated and vaporised by medium pressure steam in Filtrate/Steam preheater. The
overhead vapours go for first flash feed preheating. The bottoms are fed directly to
DWO Third Flash Column which also has 4 valve trays and operates at 0.4 kg/cm 2.
A provision is kept to heat this column feed further using steam. The overhead
solvent vapours go for solvent drying whereas bottom liquid flows by gravity as feed
to 16th tray of DWO stripper having 19 valve trays. In DWO Stripper, superheated
low pressure steam MP Stream is introduced at the bottom to remove the remaining
solvent from the dewaxed oil. The solv ent and water vapours from overhead go t o
settler drum. The 3


 from column bottom is pumped by DWO
Product Pump for product cooling and routing to storage.
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The solvent from the settler is pumped into the Solvent Drying Column. In this
column it is dried with other vapour streams from the flash towers. The dry solvent
from pump is added as reflux to DWO second flash.

The slack wax mix from the filtration section is sent to slack wax recovery
section in order to recover Solvent from Wax mix. It is heated in wax mix preheater
by MP steam at about 64 üC. The wax mix then goes under back pressure control to
settling tank which is blanked with inert gas. The slack wax mix is then pumped by
wax mix charge pumps. Before being fed to wax mix first flash column, the wax mix
discharge first exchanges heat with vapours, then it passes through 2 heat
exchangers where it exchanges heat with hot slack wax product bottom and hot
vapours and enters flash column at a temperature of 103 -105 üC. Hot vapours from
the flash tower top go to the solvent drying column where other streams are dried
too.
Liquid from bottom is pumped and further heated in the heat exchangers (where it
exchanges heat with DWO product stream going to storage and by MP steam under
temperature control) and enters another column. Overhead vapours from this go to
solvent drying column after exchanging heat or directly. Operating pressure of this
column is 1.5 kg/cm2. Liquid from bottom of this column is fed to 3rd column at a
temperature of about 165 -1700 C, after getting heated with MP steam. Overhead
vapours from here go to solvent drying column. Bottom Liquid is fed by gravity to
slack wax stripper. In the stripper, superheated steam is introduced below the bottom
tray in order to remove the remaining solvent from the slack wax. The solvent and
water vapour leaving the top (along with solvent and water vapour from DWO
stripper) goes to heat exchanger to preheat 1st flash column feed. From the bottom
of the stripper, the product slack wax is sent to storage after preheating the column
feed.