You are on page 1of 25

DISTILLATION

Overview
What is Distillation?
Types of Distillation
Applications of Distillation
How is the Distillation important to
Petrotrin?
Different types of Distillation
processes Summary
Questions and Answers

What is Distillation?
Separating the components in a
liquid mixture by continuous
evaporation and condensation
Separation is based on differences in
the volatility of the components
within the mixture i.e. differences in
the boiling points of the components

Applications of Distillation

Importance to Refinery
Splitting of light and heavy naphtha with
benzene precursors specifications
Heavy naphtha must contain < 2wt% total of
precursors

LPG production
Benzene saturation
Isomerate contains <0.01wt% benzene

Higher octane gasoline


Guarantee minimum of MON 78.1 isomerate
RON ranges from 80 83
Used in gasoline pool blending

Feed Classification
Mainly C5/C6 material (basestock)
C4- material would go through unaffected
C7+ material would be hydro-cracked
producing light ends thus reducing yields

Normal paraffins (CnH2n+2)


Olefins and Naphthenes (CnH2n)
Aromatics (CnH2n-6)
Hydrogen (minimum purity 67mol%)

Unit Overview

Naphtha Fractionation Unit


Throughput of 28000 BPD
Consists of Splitter Column and
Debutaniser Column
Separates basestock material into:
Light naphtha feeds Isomerisation Unit
Heavy Naphtha feeds CCR Unit

Removes LPG type materials


LPG material goes to LPG Unit
C5/C6 material goes to Hydro-treating
section

Naphtha Fractionation Unit

Naphtha Hydro-treating Unit


C5/C6 material is hydro-treated in
hydrogen-rich Reactor
The reactor catalyst is S-120 and is an
alumina based with active metals Cobalt
and Molybdenum (Co/Mo)
Operating Conditions: 360psig/640F
Reactor effluent cooled and directed to a 3phase Separator

Naphtha Hydro-treating Unit


Hydrogen is recycled (with Makeup Hydrogen addition to maintain
system pressure and H2 purity)
Hydro-treated naphtha is stripped
in Stripper Column and goes to the
PENEX Section

Naphtha Hydro-treating Unit


Critical Reactions:
(1) Olefin Saturation
C-C-C-C=C-C + H2 C-C-C-C-C-C

(2) Sulphur Removal


C-C-C-C-C-C-SH + H2 C-C-C-C-C-C + H2S
C-C-C-S-C-C-C + 2H2 2C-C-C + H2S

(3) Nitrogen Removal


Pyridine + 5H2 C-C-C-C-C + NH3

Naphtha Hydro-treating Unit


(4) Metal Removal
Occurs at temperatures > 600F

(5) Oxygen Removal


Phenols + H2 Alkyl Benzene + H2O

Naphtha Hydro-treating Unit

PENEX Unit
PENEX throughput is 7400 BPD
Hydro-treated naphtha (low octane) combines
with recycle Isomerate (final product) & go
through the Feed Driers to remove moisture
Make-up H2 goes to Make-up Compressor and
then to the Chloride Treaters & Gas Driers
Dried Feed & H2 combine and heated with
Reactor Effluent and steam
Chloride promoter is injected and stream
enters PENEX Reactors

PENEX Unit
PENEX Reactors consist fixed bed catalyst (I8 catalyst) and a sulphur guard bed
Operating Conditions: 450psig/260F
Only Reactor A in use while Reactor B acts as
a spare/backup
Reactor effluent goes to Stabiliser Column to
remove light ends (due to hydro-cracking)
and hydrogen chloride gas (HCl) produced
Stabiliser Bottoms is Isomerate (high octane
gasoline)

PENEX Unit
Off-gas is rich in HCl and goes to the
Net Gas Scrubber which utilises NaOH
for treating
NaOH + HCl NaCl + H2O
Any H2S formed is also removed
H2S + 2NaOH Na2S + 2H2O
Treated Off-gas goes to the Refinerys
Fuel Gas System

PENEX Unit

PENEX Unit
Critical Reactions:
(1) Paraffin Isomerisation
(a) Normal Hexane (RON = 24.8)
3-Methyl Pentane (RON = 74.5)
2,2-Dimethyl Butane (RON = 91.8)
(b) Normal Pentane (RON = 61.8)
Iso-Pentane (RON = 93.0)

PENEX Unit
(2) Naphthene Ring Opening three (3)
important naphthenes which are
converted to paraffins are:
Cyclopentane (CP)
Methyl Cyclopentane (MCP)
Cyclohexane (CH)

These ring opening reactions increase


with increasing temperature

PENEX Unit
(3) Naphthene Isomerisation the MCP
& CH exist in equilibrium. MCP production
increases as the temperature increases:
CH (RON = 84.0) MCP (RON = 89.3)
(4) Benzene Saturation benzene is
saturated to CH (exothermic reaction). Hence
the limit on the feed is 5% benzene by
volume.
BENZENE + 3H2 CH

Catalyst Management
Removal of PENEX catalyst
contaminants (sulphur, nitrogen,
metals and water) in the Hydrotreating section
These contaminants deactivate the
active sites of the catalyst permanently
As the catalyst deactivates, the reactor
inlet temperature must be increased to
maintain product octane

Catalyst Management
The addition of perchloroethylene to
the process stream is to maintain acid
function of the catalyst
It decomposes to hydrogen chloride
(HCl) in the present of the I-8
catalyst
C2Cl4 + 5H2 4HCl + C2H6

The HCl is then removed in the Net


Gas Scrubber

Summary
Isomerisation results in higher octane gasoline
used for pool blending
Total benzene saturation is achieved
Isomerisation complex consists of three
sections:
Fractionation splitting of light and heavy
naphtha
Hydro-treating removal of PENEX catalyst
poisons
PENEX production of higher octane gasoline

End of Presentation
Thank you!!
Questions/Comments?

You might also like