Ministry of Higher Education

and Scientific Research

Report On:
Atmospheric crude Oil distillation

By Student: Fahad Sauod Edham

Supervised by: Prof. Dr. Aysar Talib Jarullah

Date: 2020 – 06 – 07
Preface:
Refining of crude oils essentially consists of primary
separation processes and secondary conversion processes.
The petroleum refining process is the separation of the
different hydrocarbons present in the crude oil into useful
fractions and the conversion of some of the hydrocarbons
into products having higher quality performance.
Atmospheric and vacuum distillation of crude oils is the
main primary separation processes producing various
straight runproducts, e.g., gasoline to lube oils/vacuum gas
oils. Distillation of crude oil is typically performed either
under atmospheric pressure and under a vacuum. Low
boiling fractions usually vaporize below 400°C at
atmospheric pressure without cracking the hydrocarbon
compounds. Therefore, all the low boiling fractions of crude
oil are separated by atmospheric distillation. A crude
distillation unit (CDU) consists of pre-flash distillation
column.
The capacity of the CDU ranges from 10,000 barrels per
stream day (BPSD) or 1400 metric tons per day (tpd) to
400,000 BPSD (56,000 metric tpd). The economics of
refining favours larger units. A good size CDU can process
about 200,000 BPSD. The unit produces raw products
which have to be processed in downstream unit to produce
products of certain specifications. This involves the removal
of undesirable components like sulphur, nitrogen and metal
compounds, and limiting the aromatic contents.
Process flow diagram of an atmospheric distillation unit
Atmospheric crude Oil distillation unit:
Crude oil obtained from the desalter at temperature of 250
°C–260 °C is further heated by a tube-still heater to a
temperature of 350 °C–360 °C. The hot crude oil is then
passed into a distillation column that allows the separation
of the crude oil into different fractions depending on the
difference in volatility. The pressure at the top is maintained
at 1.2–1.5 atm so that the distillation can be carried out at
close to atmospheric pressure, and therefore it is known as
atmospheric distillation column.
The vapors from the top of the column are a mixture of
hydrocarbon gases and naphtha, at a temperature of 120 °C–
130 °C. The vapor stream associated with steam used at
bottom of the column is condensed by the water cooler and
the liquid collected in a vessel is known as reflux drum
which is present at the top of the column. Some part of the
liquid is returned to the top plate of the column as overhead
reflux, and the remaining liquid is sent to a stabilizer column
which separates gases from liquid naphtha. A few plates
below the top plate, the kerosene is obtained as product at a
temperature of 190 °C–200 °C. Part of this fraction is
returned to the column after it is cooled by a heat exchanger.
This cooled liquid is known as circulating reflux, and it is
important to control the heat load in the column.
The remaining crude oil is passed through a side stripper
which uses steam to separate kerosene. The kerosene
obtained is cooled and collected in a storage tank as raw
kerosene, known as straight run kerosene that boils at a
range of 140 °C–270 °C. A few plates below the kerosene
draw plate, the diesel fraction is obtained at a temperature
of 280 °C–300 °C. The diesel fraction is then cooled and
stored. The top product from the atmospheric distillation
column is a mixture of hydrocarbon gases, e.g., methane,
ethane, propane, butane, and naphtha vapors. Residual oil
present at the bottom of the column is known as reduced
crude oil (RCO). The temperature of the stream at the
bottom is 340 °C–350 °C, which is below the cracking
temperature of oil . Simulation helps in crude oil
characterization so that thermodynamic and transport
properties can be predicted. Dynamic models help in
examining the relationships that could not be found by
experimental methods (Ellner & Guckenheimer, 2006). By
using modeling and simulation software, 80% of the time
can be saved rather than constructing an actual working
model. This also saves cost, and models provide more
accurate studies of real systems.
Operation of Crude Distillation Unit:
The CDU can be looked at from the point of view of a
process engineering as a multicomponent distillation
column. Indeed, the commercial process simulation
program models CDU as a case of multicomponent
distillation with undefined pseudo-components instead of
the normally encountered defined components. However,
because we are dealing with a mixture of thousands of
compounds and due to the limitation of any distillation
column in terms of its capacity to fractionate these
components, there are specific operational aspects which
characterize the CDU operation. In addition, there are some
practical aspects in meeting the required specifications and
boiling range of the required transportation fuels

Column Pressure:
The pressure inside the CDU column is controlled by the
back pressure of the overhead reflux drum at about 0.2–
0.34 bar gauge (3–5 psig). The top tray pressure is 0.4–0.7
bar gauge (6–10 psig) higher than the reflux drum. The flash
zone pressure is usually (0.34–0.54) bar (5–8 psi) higher
than the top tray.
Overhead Temperature:
The overhead temperature must be controlled to be (14–
17 C⁰ ) (25–31 F⁰ ) higher than the dew point temperature
for the water at the column overhead pressure so that no
liquid water is condensed in the column. This is to prevent
corrosion due to the hydrogen chloride dissolved in liquid
water (hydrochloric acid).

Products Of Atmospheric distillation: