SUMMER PRACTICE 2010

FAIZAN MIR

MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

NORTHERN CYPRUS CAMPUS

INTERNSHIP REPORT(MECH 400)

1586692

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………….04-05

SAFETY AND QUALITY CONTROL..............................................................06-08

EQUIPMENTS

Centrifugal Pumps………………………………………………………..09

Heat Exchanger (with figure) ..………………………………………10-11

Furnace……………………………………………………………………..12

Burner (with figure)……………………………………………. ……….. 13

Soot Blower…………..…………………………………………………….13

Stack, Insulation & Cooling towers (with figure)………………….....14

Fractionating Column (with figure)………………………………… 15-16

Electric Desalter……..……………………………………………………..17

UTILITIES

Boiler(with figure)…………………………………………………………..18

Electric Generator(with figure) ………………………………………….19

Instrumental Air……..……………………………………………………...19

QUALITY CONTROL (with table)………………………………………………...20-22

STORAGE FACILITIES(with table)………………………………………………23-24

PROCESS FLOW…………………………………………………………………...25-35

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MAINTAINENCE DEPARTMENT………………………………………………….36

CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………37

ABBRIVIATIONS………………………………………………………………………38

REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………39

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 SUMMER PRACTICE 2010

INTRODUCTION

The aim of doing internship in the Bosicor company limited was to experience the work
environment of a mechanical engineer in an oil refinery. Following is a brief profile of the
company:

Profile:

COMPANY NAME Bosicor Pakistan Limited (MKP-1)

OWNED BY BOSICOR GROUP

ESTABLISHED January 1995

REVAMP Sept – Oct 2003

ADDRESS PLANT ADDRESS

Mouza Kund Plant, Sub Tehsil Gadani, Near Hub

Power

Company Ltd. Power plant (HUBCO), District

Lasbela,Balouchistan .

MANAGING OFFICE

Bosicor Pakistan Limited Oil Marketing Unit 6th

Floor,Business Plaza, Mumtaz Hassan Road, Karachi
Phone: 021-111-222-081 (EXT: 519)

email: info.omu@bosicor.com.pk

STATUS Bosicor Pakistan Ltd is the fifth Oil refinery in Pakistan.

DEPARTMENTS EHS(Environment, Health and Safety)

Laboratories(7 chemicalcengineers, 12 technicians)

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Maintainence(8 machenical engineers, 20 technicians)

Operation(10 chemical engineers, 25 technicians)

Oil Moment(3 engineers, 5 technicians )

Decanting and Shipping(no engineers or technicians)

CRUDE TYPE Imported (QATAR MARINE CRUDE OIL) Q M C O.

Collected from Ships at ZOT(PSO),Port Qasim

PRODUCTS -Naphtha

- Gasoline

- HSD

- LPG

- Kerosene
PLANT CAPACITY 30,000-35,000 barrels per day

% CONTRIBUTION 5% to the total Crude Production of Pakistan

STATISTICS Sales(2007) 9999 Million Rs

Net profit(2007) 633 Million Rs

FUTURE PROJECTS 1. Additional Storage Facility

2. Sub-Sea Pipeline Project

3. Isomerization Unit

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SAFETY AND QUALITY CONTROL

Safety:

Safety is generally interpreted as implying a real and significant impact on risk of death,
injury or damage to property. Safety measures are activities and precautions taken to
improve safety (i.e.reduce risk related to losses).

Safety against fire:

The biggest danger which BOSICAR can face is fire. As it is an oil refinary which deals
with the fuel which in any condition can burn steadily and can destroy the plant area and
even the workers working there.

Types of fire:

There are four types of fire:

Solid /Combustible

Liquid/Flammable

Gas/ Electric

Metal

Quenching the fire:

Following are the ways through which we can remove the fire:

Smothering

Starvation

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Cooling

Few types of equipment are used which help us controlling fire:

Dry chemical Powder

Carbon dioxide

Foam

Water

Safety department:

Byco has it department for safety called EHS (Environment, Health and Safety). The
work of this department is to monitor all the plant area and take all precautions to
protect the plant and even to protect all the workers at the plant .More than that it is
also capable of tackling any emergency situation at the plant area or at the whole
covered area.

The objectives of this department are as follows:

 To ensure there is no fire at the plant area, and taking it out if any.
 To ensure that fire extinguishers are placed at the plant in good and working
condition where ever it is needed.
 To ensure no body is carrying anything which can burn or can help in burning.
(e.g match boxes, lighters mobile phones or batteries).
 To provide electronic equipments with IS(intrinsically Safe ) batteries.

Practicing the capabilities:

Apart from all the safety provided by the department, this department also tests there`s
and worker`s skills at times:

 Fire drills are held time to time to train workers of different departments.
 Safety alarms are rung to prepare workers for any emergency situation.
 To check emergency equipments from time to time.

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Precautions:

Byco uses following sources or equipments for safety:

PPE’s(Personal Protective Equipments)

Safety shoes

Safety Cover

Gloves, Air Filters, Goggles, at sensitive areas

Body Safety Harness at height (Above 6 feet).

Work Permits (PTW)

These permits are classified by the work that is required to be done:

Hot Work Permits: This includes the work in which sparks are produced.

Cold Work Permits: Activates involve working in plant areas.

Excavation work Permits: Including civil work

Confined Space Entry Certificate: Work inside Confined Spaces.

Conditions:

Following conditions should be maintained in order to have the confined permit.

- H2S level must

be

- Oxygen level must be 20.9%

minimally.

- LEL (low explosive level) must be 0.00% maximally

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EQUIPMENTS

In this section the brief detail of some most important equipments, which act as
a backbone of an oil refinery, without the knowledge of which, it is impossible to
understand the processes.

Centrifugal Pumps:

A centrifugal pump is a rotodynamic pump that uses a rotating impeller to increase the
pressure of the fluid. Centrifugal pumps are commonly used to move liquids through a
piping system. The fluid enters the pump impeller along or near to the rotating axis and
is accelerated by the impeller, flowing radially outward into a diffuser or volute chamber
(casing), from where it exits into the downstream piping system. Centrifugal pumps are
used for large discharge through smaller heads.

A centrifugal pump works by converting kinetic energy into potential energy measurable
as static fluid pressure at the outlet of the pump. This action is described by Bernoulli’s
principle.

With the mechanical action of an electric motor or similar, the rotation of the pump
impeller imparts kinetic energy to the fluid through centrifugal force. The fluid is drawn
from the inlet piping into the impeller intake eye and is accelerated outwards through the
impeller vanes to the volute and the outlet piping. As the fluid exist the impeller, if the
outlet piping is too high to allow flow, the fluid kinetic energy is converted into static
pressure. If the outlet piping is open at a lower level, the fluid will be released at greater
speed.

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Heat exchanger:

A heat exchanger is a device built for efficient heat transfer from one medium to
another; both the medias are separated by a solid wall so that they never mix. They
are extensively used in petroleum refineries over a wide range for various
purposes, such as:

• Heating the crude streams up to desired temperature before entering the

desalters.

• Cooling the product streams to ambient temperatures. e.t.c.

• As a condenser for condensing the vapors.

• As a re-boiler for maintaining the columns bottom temperature.

Shell & tube heat exchangers

Shell and tube heat exchangers consist of a series of tubes. One set of these tubes
contain the fluid that must be either heated or cooled. The second fluid runs over the
tubes that are being heated or cooled so that it can either provide the heat or absorb the
heat required. A set of tubes is called the tube bundle and can be made up of several
types of tubes : plain, longitudinally finned etc. Shell and tube heat exchangers are

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typically used for high pressure applications. This is because the shell and tube heat
exchangers are robust due to their shape. There are several thermal design features
that are to be taken into account when designing the tubes in the shell and tube heat
exchangers

Following are the few main parts of the heat exchanger:

• Shell

• Tubes

• Floating head

• Channel head

• Baffles

Condition that affects heat transfer:

• Proper Mixing of Medium

• Transfer Area

• Evaporation of Medium

• Arrangement of Shell and Tube

Fouling:

Deposition of undissolved particles in the exchangers that reduces the flow is

called fouling can be caused by:

• Frequent use of the Heat Exchanger.

• Not cleaning the Heat Exchanger regularly.

• Reducing the velocity of the fluids moving through the heat exchanger.

• Over-sizing of the heat exchanger.

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Furnace:

An industrial furnace or direct fired heater is equipment used to provide heat for a
process or can serve as reactor which provides heats of reaction, and is used in all
petroleum refineries. Furnace is that part of petroleum refinery which controls the
economics of whole plant. Efficient operation of furnace is vital.

How it works is that, first, fuel flows into the burner and is burnt with air provided
from an air blower. The flames heat up the tubes, which in turn heat the fluid inside in
the first part of the furnace known as the radiant section or firebox. In this
chamber where combustion takes place, the heat is transferred mainly by
radiation to tubes around the fire in the chamber. The heating fluid passes
through the tubes and is thus heated to the desired temperature. The gases from the
combustion are known as flue gas. After the flue gas leaves the firebox,
most furnace designs include a convection section where more heat is
recovered before venting to the atmosphere through the flue gas stack.

Following are some of the main parts of the furnace:

• Radiant Section: The radiant section is where the tubes receive almost all its
heat by radiation from the flame.
• Convection section: The convection section is located above the radiant
section. Heat transfer takes place by convection here, and the tubes are finned to
increase heat transfer.

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Burner:

The burner in the vertical cylindrical

furnace is located in the floor and fires upward.
The burner is made of high temperature refractory
and is where the flame is contained in. Air
registers are located below the burner. A furnace
can be lit by a small pilot flame. Most pilot flames now
a days are lit by an ignition transformer (much like a car's
spark plugs). The pilot flame in turn lights up the main
flame. When using liquid fuels, an atomizer is used,
otherwise, the liquid fuel will simply pour onto the
furnace floor and become a hazard.

Furnace draft:

This draft or difference of pressure is caused by the difference between the weight
of the vertical column of the hot flue gas in the furnace stack and the weight of the
column of the cooler outside air of the same height. The cooler, outside air is
heavier. As outside air enters the opening around the furnace burners, it’s greater
weight causes it to rush through these opening and push the lighter, hotter flue
gases up the stack. In this manner the movement of air through the furnace becomes
continuous.

Soot blower: Soot blowers are found in the convection section. As this section is above
the radiant section and air movement is slower because of the fins, soot tends to
accumulate here. Soot blowing is normally done when the efficiency of the convection
section is decreased.

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Stack: The flue gas stack is a cylindrical structure at the top of all the heat
transfer chambers. The breeching directly below it collects the flue gas and brings it up
high into the atmosphere where it will not endanger personnel.

Insulation: Insulation is an important part of the furnace because it prevents excessive

heat loss. Refractory materials such as firebrick, castable, refractories and ceramic
fiber, are used for insulation.

Cooling towers:
Cooling towers are heat removal devices used to transfer process waste heat to
the atmosphere. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove
process heat and cool the working fluid to near the wet-bulb air temperature or rely
solely on air to cool the working fluid to near the dry-bulb air temperature. It is an
important part of any refinery it is used to cool hot water circulated from the refinery,
which is re-used after cooling. In BOSICOR there two cooling towers:
• THE OLD TOWER: The old cooling tower consist of six fans and it is of counter
current type.
• THE NEW TOWER: The new tower consist of one fan which is cross flow type.

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Fractionating column:

A fractionating column is an essential item used in the distillation of liquid

mixtures so as to separate the mixture into its component parts, or fractions, based on
the differences in their volatilities. In refineries, the crude oil feedstock is a very complex
multi-component mixture that must be separated called fractions and that is the origin of
the name fractional distillation or fractionation.

All materials that enter the column as feed leave as products in either the make
or tails this material balance is an application of the principle of conservation of
mass.Conditions necessary to make distillation works are:

• The components in the system are chemically & thermally stable.

There is a significant difference between the boiling points & vapor pressures of
the components to be separated.

• The components are miscible.

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• The desired concentration of low boilers in the make & high boilers in the tails
are achieved through use of a practical number of separations (trays or stages) in
the column.

• There are no solids formed in the system as high boilers are concentrated.

Temperature control:

Head temperature is the lowest temperature in the column and is the boiling point
temperature of the stream leaving the column. Therefore the head temperature is used
to monitor the composition of the make. Head temperature is controlled through the
reflux. Head temperature is a critical control in distillation process. The temperature
profile across a distillation column operating at a fixed pressure represents the boiling
points thus the concentration of components, up & down the column, on each tray. An
increase in temperature at constant pressure represents an increase in high
boiler concentration and decrease in temperature at constant pressure represents
an increase in low boiler concentration.

Reflux:

The vapor velocity up the column can be stabilized at different feed rates by recycling a
portion of the OH condensate. This in essence is a way to maintain a constant feed
rate to the column. This
stream is called the reflux and serves a second purpose of increasing low boiler
concentration overhead by sending high boilers back down the column. Reflux is also
a means of controlling the temperature profile in the column. Increasing the amount of
reflux flow lowers the temperatures in the column. Decreasing the reflux flow raises the
column temperature. Changing the temperature by reflux rate is simply the result of
changing the concentration of high & low boilers.

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Electrical desalter:

An electrical desalter is a process unit on an oil refinery that removes salt from
the crude oil by meals of electrical field. The salt is dissolved in the water in the crude
oil, not in the crude oil itself.

Why desalt crude?

• The salts that are most frequently present in crude oil are Calcium, Sodium and
Magnesium Chlorides. If these compounds are not removed from the oil several
problems arise in the refining process. The high temperatures that
occur
downstream in the process could cause water hydrolysis, which in turn allows
formation of hydrochloric acid.
• Sand, Silts, Salt deposit and Foul Heat Exchangers.
• Water Heat of Vaporization reduces crude Pre-Heat capacity.
• Sodium, Arsenic and Other Metals can poison Catalysts.
• Environmental Compliance, i.e., By removing the suspended solids, which
might otherwise become an issue in flue gas opacity norms, etc.,
A typical desalter comprised of a vessel, electric transformer, oil outlet header,
electrodes, inlet header, water effluent header, mud wash header and mixing valve .The
vessel is a horizontal gravity
settling vessel in which brine water is separated from the crude oil. Electrical
desalting process
consists of two steps. The first step consists of forming an emulsion of crude oil & water.
Second step is a demulsification process in which the emulsion of crude oil &
water formed in the first step is broken by means of an electrical field.

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UTILITIES
Utilities play an important role in process of any Industry. Following are few of the
utilities used in BOSICOR.

Boiler:

The steam requirement of the industry is fulfilled by two boilers in BOSICOR.

Types of both of them are:
• Fire Tube Boiler
• Water Tube boiler
Water from reservoir is soften first by the help of chemical injection and all
salts of Mg+2 and Ca+2 which produce hardness are converted into the salts of
Na+ which don’t produce hardness. Then it is passed through Deaerator where salts of
PO4-3 and SO3-1 are injected where oxygen is removed from the water. After that it is
injected to Economizer and then to the Boiler. Where water is converted into steam and
then it is used further.

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Electric generation:
BPL has its own dependable electric power generation facility consist of 6 generators
out of which 4 meets plant requirements, 3 in working condition ,1 stand-by. Each
having 1.5 MW capacity producing 60Hz of electricity. Apart from that 2 for electrical
official requirement ,1 in working 1 stand-by producing 500KVA 50Hz.

Instrumental air:
Nearly all of the instruments are pneumatic. So pressurized air is required for there
working. The air is supplied by the compressors one of which is in working condition
and other is stand-by. The compressor has its capacity 650 m3/hr and its working
pressure is 7.6 - 8.4 bar. The other standby is 345 m3/hr. It can produce 6.5 - 8.5 bar
pressure

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QUALITY CONTROL

Quality is controlled in the industry to make their products marketable. Standards

are set and maintained which is an important thing. The quality is tested time by time
and is reported to the engineers where they compare the results with the standard. If
the result is not of the standard they take steps to maintain their standards. Following
are the tests which are performed at the lab:

Materials Tests

Specific Gravity
Color
Light Naphtha Reid Vapor Pressure
Doctor Test
Distillation

Specific Gravity
Color
Heavy Naphtha Doctor Test
Reid Vapor Pressure

Specific Gravity
Color
High Speed Diesel Before Flash Point
Injection Cloud point
Pour Point
Distillation

Specific Gravity
Color

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High Speed Diesel After Flash Point
Injection Cloud point
Pour Point
Distillation
Sulphur test

Specific Gravity
Furnace Fuel Oil Before Flash Point
Injection Viscosity
Pour Point

Furnace Fuel Oil After Flash Point

Injection Viscosity
Pour Point

Alkalinity
TDS(total dissolved solids test)
Boiler Blown Down pH
Water Sulfite
Phosphate
Iron

Wash Water pH
Chloride

Boot Water pH
Specific Gravity

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LPG Cu Corrosion
Weathering

pH
TDS
Zinc
Iron
Cooling Water Free Chloride
Cooling Water
Alkalinity
Hardness

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STORAGE FACILITIES
Tank farm:
Tank farm area is basically the storage facility for the rundown streams coming
continuously from plant area. There are 22 storage tanks in total and 4 LPG storage
vessels. This area also serves for the pumping of products to shipping area for filling the
bowsers when required. Further detail of area is given below.

PRODUCT NUMBER OF TANK MAX CAPACITY (barrels)

FURNACE OIL 4 48000
HIGH SPED DEISEL 6 38000
HEAVY NAPTHA 2 10000
LIGHT NAPTHA 1 50000
SOUR NAPTHA 1 5000
SWEET NAPTHA 1 15000
PMG(Petrol for vehicles) 5 25000
LPG(liquefied petroleum 4 3050
gas)
JP(Jet fuel) 2 10000
SLOP 1 5000

API separator & slop oil tank:

The oil from different sampling points before every new sampling is drained from the
lines which then through pipe lines go to the API separator, also any leakage of
plant is forced to go to this separator. This separator is simply the tank where water is
allowed to settle down under the gravity action and is drained to water pond located
nearby through pump. The oil from top is then pumped to the slop oil tank wherefrom it
goes to the booster pump through pipeline and mixed with the feed line of crude oil to
plant. Also if any product becomes out of desired set points goes to this slop oil tank.

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This process takes place to separate oil from the drain so that the drain entering the sea
is less harmfull to marine life.

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PROCESS FLOW

This portion includes the brief discussion of ,process flow of BPL(MKP-1),nearly all the
aspects are covered including the decantation up to shipping, detail of various
equipments has been covered in the last portion, but further explanation of
technicalities involved in process is also discussed wherever necessary. Also the PFD's
of different unit's are given for better understanding of process. The whole process flow is
divided into three segments.
Pre-refining flow:
In this division various operations, which are performed before refining area, are
discussed.
Decanting section:
This section serves for unloading crude oil being transported through bowsers. Before
receiving the crude oil bowsers are inspected for the crude level by dip rod for any loss
during transportation. After inspecting the level bowsers are allowed to move towards
oil gantries, where crude is pumped from bowsers to the storage tanks located nearby.
There are 16 gantries, so at a time 16 bowsers are unloaded. Crude bowsers have
nearly 50,000-60,000 Ltr. Capacity. It takes nearly 45 minutes to withdraw the crude
from bowsers.

Storage tanks:
There are four storage tanks for crude oil having the total storage capacity of 200000 bbl
(approx.). The settling time of 3-4 hr. is provided for settling the water down by gravity,
after which water is drained out through drainage line. After this mixer is turned on for
homogenizing the crude mixture & mixing the sludge (mainly the heavier particles of
crude), which settle down at bottom during settling time.

Booster pumps:
Crude oil from storage tanks flows into the suction of crude booster pumps. These
pumps provide part of necessary head required to move the crude oil through the crude
charge system.

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 SUMMER PRACTICE 2010
Refining:
This section includes various operations & processes performed with crude. This
section is further sub-divided into different sections.

CDU:
This unit performs the basic distillation process and seperates the crude feed into
different fractions. This section includes mainly desalters, PF tower, furnace,distillation
column, naphtha splitter& strippers. After fractionation the different fractions goes to
different units for further processing.

Chemical injection:
Two chemicals are injected into crude oil line ahead of crude charge pumps by PD
pumps, for diverse purposes. Chemicals & their relative details are given in the table.

CHEMICAL NAME PURPOSE FEED RATE/RATIO

Caustic solution Controlling the pH 10-20 ppm
Demulsifier Breaking the emulsion. 0-10 ppm

Charge pumps:
The crude pumped by booster pumps divided into two streams ahead of
crude charge pumps & then flows separately into the suction of crude charge pumps.
These pumps provide remainder necessary head required to move the crude oil through
the crude charge system. Crude from the discharge of charge pumps then separately
flows into heat exchanger trains (named old & new), for recovering the heat (energy)
from hot product streams & attaining the temperature necessary for desalting & again
exchanging heat separately with various streams for achieving the temperature
necessary for pre-flash tower operation.
(Note: exchanger trains are sub-classified as A & B on the basis of pre-desalter & post-
desalter streams)

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Old train(a):
Crude from charge pump divided into two parallel streams, one flowing to the tube side
of crude & other flowing to the the tube side of heat exchanger both streams leaving the
exchangers recombine and flows to tube side of crude & then flow to the tube side of
crude exchanger.The stream from here goes to the desalter 2.

New train(a):
Crude from discharge of charge pump divided into two streams, one flowing through
shell side of crude v/s TPA exchanger & the other flowing through crude v/s HSD
exchanger, the two streams leaving the exchangers recombine & then again splitting
into two stream, one flowing through tube side of crude v/s kero exchanger & other
flowing through crude v/s FFO exchanger.The two streams then recombine and flowing
to the tube side of crude v/s TPA exchanger. This stream then goes to desalter 1.

Desalters:
Streams from old & new exchanger trains separately flows to desalter-2 & desalter-1
respectively. At the inlet of desalters fresh water is injected at the rate of 4-5%vol. of
crude into these two streams, which then passes along with crude through the static
mixer to form the emulsion. In the desalters the water with salts is separated from crude
oil, drawn up from vessels by means of interface level controllers and then flows
through the shell side of desalter water exchanger where it is cooled, by exchanging
heat with fresh water inlet stream of desalters, and sent to oily sewer.

Old train(b):
Crude from desalter-2 enters the shell side of crude v/s HSD exchanger and than
passes from tube side of crude v/s HSD exchanger, then splitting into two streams one
flowing through the tube side of crude v/s FFO exchanger & other flowing through tube
side of crude v/s exchanger. The two streams then combine and then flow through HE
& goes to pre-flash tower.

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New train(b):
Crude from desalter-1 enters the tube side of crude v/s HSD exchanger then splitting
into two streams, one flowing through the shell side of HE& other flowing through the
tube side of crude v/s HSD exchanger. The two streams then recombine and pass
through shell side of crude v/s FFO exchanger and then goes to pre-flash tower.

Pre-flash tower:
Crude through new train & old train by a PCV-680 & PCV-670 combines andenters at
the tray#16 of pre-flash tower .Pre- flash tower recover most of the light ends and a part
of the light naphtha. PF tower OH via fan cooler goes to PF OH drum. Where
uncondensates (gases) are removed from top & from bottom naphtha is obtained, a part
of which returns back to the tower as a reflux & remaining part is sent to the naphtha
splitter. PF tower bottom is pumped by the pump, then divided into two streams, one
flowing through PF bottom v/s HSD exchanger & the other flowing through PF bottom
v/s FFO exchanger, the two streams then combine and again splitted into two streams,
one flowing through shell side of HE & the other flowing through tube side of HE. The
two streams then combine and goes to born heater.

Born heater:
Crude from bottom of PF tower after exchanging heat in various heat exchangers
flows to the born heater which provides the temperature necessary for desired
distillation. Crude before entering the heater divided into two streams, the flow of both
streams is controlled by FCV-604 & FCV-605. These two streams enter the convection
section of heater, where it is heated by the hot flue gases. Saturated steam also enters
the convection section & gets superheated, which is in turn use for injecting into crude
tower. Crude oil from convection section then enters into tubes located in radiation
section and heated up to temperature of 350~360 oC. after attaining the required
temperature the crude streams leave the heater and combines then goes to crude tower.
crude oil entering the crude tower has the vapor-liquid composition of 60% &40%
respectively. Heater has 10 burners and is dual fired thus having the both options of
firing with fuel oil or fuel gas, or with both at a time. fuel oil comes through PCV------&
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fuel gas through PCV-118. Atomizing steam is also provided for proper dispersion of
fuel oil which is necessary for good & complete combustion of fuel oil, otherwise fuel will
not burn completely &falls on floor. For proper atomizing the SH steam & FO mixture in
the ratio of 1.5:1 is good choice.

Crude tower:
The vapor liquid mixture of crude oil from crude heater enters the flash zone of crude
tower for desired distillation. Also the SH steam is injected at the bottom of tower for
stripping (removing) the lighter ends from reduced crude.above the designed capacity
steam feed rate will add to the heat liad of the tower. Steam rate below the designed
rate will allow excessive amount of middle distillates to be included in the reduced crude
from the bottom of tower.

Crude tower top reflux:

The top reflux controls the tower top temperature. The crude tower OH vapors along
with stripping steam is condensed first in HE, then in air cooler and finally in trim cooler
& then accumulated in OH reflux drum. Pressure in reflux drum is controlled 8 - 10
psig. The liquid hydrocarbon from OH reflux drum are pumped by reflux pumpas top
reflux to tower. Top reflux flow controls the tower top temperature. The remaining liquid
from drum under level controller is sent as feed to naphtha splitter.

Top pump around reflux(tpa):

To provide reflux for the middle / upper section of the tower, a hot stream from plate#08
is taken out. TPA pumps pumps this stream to shell side of crude v/s TPA exchanger &
then passes through shell side of HE where it preheats the crude, TPA is further cooled
in air cooler. The cooled TPA returns to crude tower plate#06.

Naphtha splitter:
Naphtha from PF tower & crude tower OH system through pumps respectively is
pumped to PF tower. Both the streams combine ahead of splitter tower to form a single
stream. Which then flows through the tube side of splitter feed v/s bottom reboiler and

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through the tube side of hot oiv/s naphtha feed reboiler temperature of feed is
controlled through TCV- 262 by controlling the hot oil flowing through the reboiler . the
stream then enter the splitter tower. In which light & heavy naphtha fractions are
seperated . light naphtha from OH flows to the fan cooler & then through the trim cooler
and ultimately goes to reflux drum . The reflux drum is installed in vertical position and
is operated at maximum liquid level to avoid separation of LPG from liquid. Light
naphtha from including LPG from reflux drum os drawn off by pump. part is sent back
to splitter as reflux, and remaining portion is sent as a feed to LPG unit for the
separation of LPG. an independent stream is drawn from the bottom of the splitter. It
passes through the shell side of splitter reboiler where it is heated by hot oil passing
through the tube side of reboiler, hot oil flow is controlled by TCV-233 to control splitter
bottom temperature. Reboiler stream is flashed back into splitter. The flashed hot liquid
vaporizes the light ends from the heavy naphtha flowing down in splitter. Heavy
naphtha from the bottom of splitter is pumped by pump to shell side of HE where it is
cooled by splitter feed. The heavy naphtha is further cooled in air cooler and then in
trim cooler wherefrom it is sent to HDT feed tank. This can be routed to merox unit for
sweetening.

Strippers:
All side streams drawn from crude tower first flow through the strippers for the removal
of lighter ends from respective streams.steam is injected at the bottom of strippers for
stripping the lighter ends. There are two strippers in function at present. One stripper
strips the lighter ends from kero. Kero.is drawn from the tray#19 of crude tower. The
second stripping column strips the lighter ends from HSD, HSD is drawn from tray#24,
the lighter ends removed from HSD are returned back to tray#26. HSD obtained from
the bottom of column is sent to storage. While kero. is sent to merox unit for sweetening

Lpg separation unit:

This unit separates the LPG from light naphtha, simply by removing propane &
butane from L/N & thus this unit also serves as naphtha stabilizing unit. L/N from the
top of naphtha splitter is the feed of this unit, which comes to LPG feed tank 21-T-1,

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wherefrom it is pumped to depropanizer column . In this column propane is removed
from L/N. one side stream is drawn from the top side which after passing through HE
goes to reflux drum where one stream is drawn from the bottom and pumped by pump,
a part of this stream goes back to the top of the column, Top flow is controlled by FCV-
11, and remaining part is sent to storage which is propane. One stream is drawn from
the bottom which goes to kettle type reboiler, where it is heated by hot oil circulation.
Two streams are drawn from reboiler, one goes back to the column for maintaining the
column bottom temperature, and the other stream is sent as feed todebutanizer. In this
column butane is removed. One stream is drawn from the top side which after passing
through HE goes to reflux tank, the bottom stream is pumped by (21-P-5-A/B), a part of
this stream goes back as reflux & remaining part is the butane which is sent to LPG
storage. The stream drawn from the bottom of debutanizer column passes through
reboiler from where a part is sent back as boilup and reamaining part after passing
through HE is sent to light naphtha merox unit for sweetening.

Merox unit:
Merox is an acronym for mercaptan (RSH is a mercaptan, R signifies an organic group
such as a methyl, ethyl, e.t.c) oxidation. It is a catalytic chemical process used in oil
refineries and natural gas processing plants to remove mercaptans from LPG,
propane, butanes, light naphtha, kerosene and jet fuel by converting them to liquid
hydrocarbon disulfides.
The Merox process requires an alkaline environment which is provided by an aqueous
solution of sodium hydroxide (NaOH), a strong base, commonly referred to as caustic.
The catalyst is impregnated onto charcoal granules. Processes within oil refineries or
natural gas processing plants that remove mercaptans and/or hydrogen sulfide (H2S)
are commonly referred to as sweetening processes because they results in products
which no longer have the sour, foul odors of mercaptans and hydrogen sulfide. the
overall oxidation reaction that takes place in converting
mercaptans to disulfides is:
4 RS H + O 2 2RSSR + 2H2O

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lpg merox:
The LPG feedstock through LCV-13 enters the prewash vessel and flows upward
through a batch of caustic which removes any H2S that may be present in the
feedstock. The coalescer at the top of the prewash vessel prevents caustic from being
entrained and carried out of the vessel.
The feedstock then enters the mercaptan extractor and flows upward through the
contact trays where the LPG intimately contacts the downflowing Merox caustic that
extracts the mercaptans from the LPG. The sweetened LPG exits the tower and flows
through: a caustic settler vessel to remove any entrained caustic, a water wash vessel
to further remove any residual entrained caustic and a vessel containing a bed of rock
salt to remove any entrained water. The dry sweetened LPG exits the Merox unit.
The facilities for sweetening of light naphtha, heavy naphtha & kerosene are also
present. there merox units are nearly same for all these with few alterations.

Reformer unit:
This unit accounts for increasing the octane rating of gasoline and
HOBC(reformate) is the product of this unit. this unit consist of following units.
HYDRODESULFURIZATION:
The hydrodesulfurization reaction takes place in a fixed-bed reactor at elevated
temperatures ranging from 300 to 400 °C and elevated pressures ranging from 30 to
130 atmospheres of absolute pressure, typically in the presence of a catalyst consisting
of an alumina base impregnated with cobalt and molybdenum.
Hydrogenation is a class of chemical reactions in which the net result is the addition
of hydrogen (H). Hydrogenolysis is a type of hydrogenation and results in the cleavage
of the C-X chemical bond, where C is a carbon atom and X is a sulfur, nitrogen (N) or
oxygen (O) atom. The net result of a hydrogenolysis reaction is the formation of C-H
and H-X chemical bonds. Thus, hydrodesulfurization is a hydrogenolysis reaction.
Using ethanethiol (C2H5SH), a sulfur compound present in some petroleum products,
as an example, the hydrodesulfurization reaction can be
simply expressed as

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Ethanethiol + Hydrogen Ethane + Hydrogen sulfide

C2H5SH + H2 C2H6 + H2S

The liquid feed is pumped by pump up to the required elevated pressure and is joined by
a stream of hydrogen-rich recycle gas, the pressure of gas is controlled by PCV-340 The
resulting liquid-gas mixture is preheated by flowing through a heat exchanger. The
preheated feed then flows through a fired heater where the feed mixture is totally
vaporized and heated to the required elevated temperature before entering the reactor
and flowing through a fixed-bed of catalyst where the hydrodesulfurization reaction takes
place. The hot reaction products are partially cooled by flowing through the heat
exchanger where the reactor feed was preheated, then flows through fan cooler and
then flows through a trim cooler. The resulting mixture of liquid and gas enters the gas
separator vessel at about 35 °C and 3 to 5 atmospheres of absolute pressure.
Most of the hydrogen-rich gas from the gas separator vessel is recycle gas which is
routed through an amine contactor for removal of the reaction product H2S that it
contains. The pressure of gas is controlled by PCV-235. The H2S-free hydrogen-rich
gas is then recycled back for reuse in the reactor section. Any excess gas from the gas
separator vessel joins the sour gas from the stripping of the reaction product liquid.
The liquid from the gas separator vessel flows to the suction of pump routed through a
reboiled stripper distillation tower. The bottoms product from the stripper is the final
desulfurized liquid product from hydrodesulfurization unit.

Catalytic reforming:
Before entering the reactors two chemcials are injected into the feed:
• PERC
• Methanol
The purpose of there chemicals is to maintain the chloride level and to support
metallic reactions thus increase the rate of reaction.

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Following reaction takes place in the Reformer Unit :
• Naphtene Dehydrogentaion
• Naphtene Isomerisation
• Paraffins Dehydrogentaion
• Paraffins Isomerisation
• Hydrocracking •
Demethylation
• Aeromatic Dealkylation
The liquid feed from hydrodesulfurization unit is pumped through pump - up to the
reaction pressure (5 to 45 atm) and is joined by a stream of hydrogen-rich recycle gas.
The resulting liquid-gas mixture is preheated by flowing through a HE. The preheated
feed mixture is then totally vaporized and heated to the reaction temperature in fired
heater before the vaporized reactants enter the first reactor. As the vaporized reactants
flow through the fixed bed of catalyst in the reactor, the major reaction is the
dehydrogenation of naphthenes to aromatics which is highly endothermic and results in
a large temperature decrease between the inlet and outlet of the reactor. To maintain
the required reaction temperature and the rate of reaction, the vaporized stream is
reheated in the second fired heater before it flows through the second reactor. The
temperature again decreases across the second reactor and the vaporized stream is
again be reheated in the third fired heater before it flows through the third reactor. As
the vaporized stream proceeds through the three reactors, the reaction rates decrease
and the reactors therefore become larger. At the same time, the amount of reheat
required between the reactors becomes smaller. Usually, three reactors are all that is
required to provide the desired performance of the catalytic reforming unit.
The hot reaction products from the third reactor are partially cooled by flowing
through the heat exchanger where the feed to the first reactor is preheated and then
flow through a fan cooler & then through water-cooled heat exchanger.this cooled stream
goes to the gas separator.
Most of the hydrogen-rich gas from the gas separator vessel returns to the suction of
the recycle hydrogen gas compressor and the net production of hydrogen-rich gas
from the reforming reactions is exported for use in hydrodesulfurization. The liquid

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from the gas separator vessel is routed into a fractionating column called a
stabilizerThe overhead off gas product from the stabilizer contains the byproduct
methane, ethane, propane and butane gases produced by the hydrocracking reactions
as explained in the above discussion of the reaction chemistry of a catalytic reformer,
and it may also contain some small amount of hydrogen. That offgas is routed to the
refinery's central gas processing plant for removal and recovery of propane and butane.
The residual gas after such processing becomes part of the refinery's fuel gas system.
The bottoms product from the stabilizer is the high-octane liquid reformate that will
become a component of the refinery's product gasoline.

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MAINTENANCE DEPARTMENT

The following jobs were observed during my stay in this department.

 Oil caustic dosing pump was removed and relocated in tank farm area for jet fuel
graduation.
 Seals of the pumps were to be rectified because they had leakage problem in
them.
 Gland leakages for the pumps were to be rectified due to the abnormal sound.
 Mechanical seals of the pump to be changed which are also normally called
couplings.
 Burner flexible hose pipe to be changed.
 Oil cooling tower to be boxed up(Make it ready for service).

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Conclusion

In the end I would like to appreciate the helpfulness of all the department heads and the
engineers under them, who helped me in understanding the most important department
in the oil refinery. I would also like to appreciate the help of my supervisor, Mr Muzaffer
Malik, who introduced me to the department heads and explained me everything which I
couldn’t understand. The refinery experience gave me a lot of practical knowledge in the
field of operations and maintenance and would help me in taking my decision to choose
my career path.

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ABBREVIATIONS

• API: American petroleum Institute

• BPA: Bottom Pump Around
• BPL: Bosicor Pakistan Limited
• BS&W: Base Sediments and Water
• CDU: Crude distillation Unit
• FCV: Flow Control Valve
• FFO: Furnace Fuel Oil
• FO: Furnace Oil
• HDT: Hydro Theater
• HE: Heat Exchanger
• HOBC: High Octane Blending Component
• HSD: High speed Diesel
• JP: Jet Fuel
• Kero: Kerosene
• L/N: Light Naphtha
• LCV: Level Control Valve
• LPG: Liquid Petroleum Gas
• OH: Over Head Reflux
• PCV: Pressure Control Valve
• PD Pump: Positive Displacement Pump
• PFD: Process Flow Diagram
• PMG: Premier Motor Gasoline
• PR tower: Pre- flash tower
• SH: Steam Super Heated Steam
• TCV: Temperature Control Valve
• TDS: Total Dissolved Salt
• TPA: Top Pump Around
• RON: Research Octane Number

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REFRENCES

Books:

 Petroleum refinery engineering by W.I.Nelson.

 Petroleum processing hand book by William. F. Bland.

 Unit Operations of Chemcial Engineering by Warren L.

 Mc. Cabe.

 Process technology by Thomas. D .Felder.

Web-sites:

• WWW.WIKIPEDIA.COM.

• WWW.API.COM

• WWW.AMSWERS.COM

• WWW.BOSICOR.COM.PK

• WWW.GOOGLE.COM

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