Process atmospheric distillation

Process Atmospheric distillation Atmospheric distillation FCC Hydro- cracking Vis- breaking Coking Hydrocracking... 

Fractionation processes Atmospheric distillation Thermal separation of fractions Desalted crude oil Gas, gasoline, middle distillates, residual... 

Simple conventional refining is based essentially on atmospheric distillation. The residue from the distillation constitutes heavy fuel, the quantity and qualities of which are mainly determined by the crude feedstock available without many ways to improve it. Manufacture of products like asphalt and lubricant bases requires supplementary operations, in particular separation operations and is possible only with a relatively narrow selection of crudes (crudes for lube oils, crudes for asphalts). The distillates are not normally directly usable processing must be done to improve them, either mild treatment such as hydrodesulfurization of middle distillates at low pressure, or deep treatment usually with partial conversion such as catalytic reforming. The conventional refinery thereby has rather limited flexibility and makes products the quality of which is closely linked to the nature of the crude oil used. 

Consider the oil-recycling plant shown in Fig. 3.16. In this plant, two types of waste oil are handled gas oil and lube oil. The two streams are first deashed and demetallized. Next, atmospheric distillation is used to obtain light gases, gas oil, and a heavy product. The heavy product is distilled under vacuum to yield lube oil. Both the gas oil and the lube oil should be further processed to attain desired properties. The gas oil is steam stripped to remove light and sulfur impurities, then hydrotreated. The lube oil is dewaxed/deasphalted using solvent extraction followed by steam stripping. 

Naphtha is also obtained from other refinery processing units such as catalytic cracking, hydrocracking, and coking units. The composition of naphtha, which varies appreciably, depends mainly on the cmde type and whether it is obtained from atmospheric distillation or other processing units. 

The teed to the cat cracker in a typical refinery is a blend of gas oils from such operating units as the crude, vacuum, solvent deasphalting, and coker. Some refiners purchase outside FCC feedstocks to keep the FCC feed rate maximized. Other refiners process atmospheric or vacuum residue in their cat crackers. In recent years, the trend has been toward heavier gas oils and residue. Residue is most commonly defined as the fraction of feed that boils above 1,050°F (565 C). Each FCC feed stream has different distillation characteristics. 

Azeotropic and extractive distillation Distillation processes Extractive distillation(s) argon, 13 460 for aroma isolation, 11 519 atmospheric, 13 646 batch versus continuous, 3 780 of coal-tar naphthalene, 17 78-79 corrosion, 3 779-780 of crude oil, 12 401-402 13 593 debottlenecking, 13 521 in fatty acid neutralization, 22 740 favorable vapor-liquid equilibria, 3 778 feed composition, 3 778 general separation heuristics for, 22 316-317... 

In the atmospheric distillation process (Figure 2.1), heated crude oil is separated in a distillation column (distillation tower, fractionating tower, atmospheric pipe still) into streams which are then purified, transformed, adapted, and treated... 

Atmospheric and vacuum distillation units (Figures 4.3 and 4.4) are closed processes, and exposures are expected to be minimal. Both atmospheric distillation units and vacuum distillation units produce refinery fuel gas streams containing a mixture of light hydrocarbons, hydrogen sulfide, and ammonia. These streams are processed through gas treatment and sulfur recovery units to recover fuel gas and sulfur. Sulfur recovery creates emissions of ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur oxides, and nitrogen oxides. 

Petroleum distillation units generate considerable wastewater. The process water used in distillation often comes in direct contact with oil and can be highly contaminated. Both atmospheric distillation and vacuum distillation produce an oily, sour wastewater (condensed steam containing hydrogen sulfide and ammonia) from side-stripping fractionators and reflux drums. 

Prefractionation is an optional distillation process to separate economic quantities of very light distillates from the crude oil. Lower temperatures and higher pressures are used than in atmospheric distillation. Some process water can be carried over to the prefractionation tower from the desalting process. 

Fuels and other petroleum products are derived from crude oil through the use of a variety of different refining process techniques. Distillation, however, is the first significant processing step taken in crude oil refining. Both atmospheric and vacuum distillation can be utilized to process crude oil into fuels and other products. 

Since fermentation takes place in a dilute aqueous solution, the reaction continues until the alcohol concentration approaches about 14%. At higher concentrations, the process becomes self-inhibitory. By-products from starch fermentation to ethanol can include higher-molecular-weight alcohols, glycerine, and ethers. Usually no more than 10% starch is converted to these compounds. Atmospheric distillation, vacuum distillation, and membrane separation techniques can be used to recover ethanol from the final fermented product. The distillate bottoms, called stillage, are recovered as a by-product for animal feed. A biomass fermentation flow diagram is provided in FIGURE 12-2. 

A liquid which has a vapor pressure of as much as 760 mm. of mercury at any temperature which permits the use of a suitable container may be purified from nonvolatile impurities by the process of distillation at atmospheric pressure. By working under reduced pressure, the vapor pressure of the liquid need not be nearly so great as 760 mm. As a rule, a liquid may also be separated from other liquids provided the vapor pressures of the two differ enough to cause them to boil at considerably different temperatures. To effect complete separation, the process of distillation must be repeated a number of times in a systematic way and is then called fractional distillation. 

Figure 020. Standard atmospheric distillation apparatus—can be used for most distillation processes. The heating mantle can be replaced with a Bunsen burner, hot plate, steam bath, stove top, ect., ect.,... 

The new developments in catalyst improvements and in process optimization have brought new opportunities to directly process virgin naphtha from atmospheric distillation along with benzene and benzene precursors extracted from reformer feeds. This can eliminate the need for a separate naphtha hydrotreater as well as sepa-... 

---