Energy Saving in Crude Oil Atmospheric Distillation Columns by Modifying the Vapor Feed Inlet Tray
Journal article, 2011

Optimization of a typical crude oil atmospheric distillation unit and reduction of energy conservation were carried out through modifying the implementation and change in the flash zone of the tower. A conventional procedure in such units involves the combination of liquid and vapor product of the prefractionation train surge drum upon introduction to the tower. However, it is theoretically illustrated and represented by simulation means that introducing the vapor feed into the upper stages of the distillation column separately can lead to an energy saving of 12.6 % in the condenser duty, an increased liquid-to-gas flow (L/G) at certain points of the column, and hence to a reduction in diameter and investment costs of new tower designs of approximately US$ 0.7 million a–1. The proposal can be put into practice without the need of additional equipments or additional cost of difficult rerouting the streams. An industrial case study of a steady-state crude oil distillation unit is given by simulation provision of AspenHysys™.

Crude oil

Atmospheric distillation column

Flash zone

Energy saving

Author

Mehdi Arjmand

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Environmental Inorganic Chemistry

Luis Moreno

Longcheng Liu

Chemical Engineering and Technology

0930-7516 (ISSN) 1521-4125 (eISSN)

Vol. 34 8 1359-1367

Areas of Advance

Energy

Subject Categories

Chemical Engineering

DOI

10.1002/ceat.201000277

More information

Created

10/8/2017