Abstract:
Crude oil distillation is most significant and energy intensive process in oil
refineries. The crude is fractionated based on associated volatilities and the mass
transfer phenomena occurring at each stage of a distillation column. Before crude
oil is subjected to separation it must undergo pretreatment processes to remove
the impurities it contains at the time of extraction from the well. One of the key
impurities that must be removed is Sulphur as it poses threat to the environment.
Besides sulfur other impurities that need to draw out are salt, water and solid
particles that lead to operational problems during refining such as corrosion,
fouling of equipment or poisoning of catalyst.
After pretreatment steps, crude is passed through a heat exchanger network
followed by the distillation column. The rising vapors are enriched with more
volatile compounds that leave towards the top of the distillation column. The
heavier, less volatile compounds leave from the bottom of the column. Naphtha,
kerosene, gas oils, and residue are common distillation products. Residual oil
(FFO), which is a heavy refinery product, is transferred to a heat-integrated
storage tank.
Due to high pour point of residue oil, it becomes highly viscous and ceases to flow
at room temperature, which can neither be transported nor used for any other
purpose at normal environment temperature. Therefore, these heavier refinery
products need to be heated and kept at temperature above their pour point. To do
this, most enterprises rely on traditional steam heating systems, which are
inefficient by today's standards and have high operating and maintenance costs.
The objective is to replace the existing steam heating system with thermal oil
heating system. Compared to traditional methods like steam heating, thermal oil
heating technology offers safety, little maintenance, and longer operational
lifetimes. This technology provides extremely efficient, non-corrosive heating and
more sustainable process, achieving the modern international standards
