h i g h l i g h t s
Single & multiple pre-flash designs of the crude distillation unit are studied.
The trade-off between CO2 emissions and the residue yield has been investigated.
Multi-objective optimization was used to find the trade-off solutions.
Introducing crude pre-flashing reduces the total CO2 emissions.
Optimum vapour feed location has been investigated.
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: The Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) is among the major CO2 emitters in any petroleum refinery. In view of
Received 6 January 2014 the simultaneous increase in the energy cost and environmental concerns, there is strong motivation to
Accepted 8 September 2014 analyse alternative methods to improve the energy efficiency and consequently, to minimize CO2
Available online 16 September 2014
emissions from conventional crude distillation. Crude pre-flashing is among promising techniques for
minimizing the heating energy requirements of the CDU. However, this might be at the cost of product
Keywords:
yield and/or throughput. This paper investigates the effects of using different pre-flash designs on the
Oil refining
energy efficiency and associated CO2 emissions of the CDU. The resulting optimal solutions are presented
Crude distillation unit
Pre-flash design
and their significant features are discussed.
Heat integration © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Multi-objective optimization
CO2 emissions
1. Introduction about 2% of the energy contained in the crude oil [1]. For this
reason, many attempts have been made over the years to analyse
The continual increase in the global energy demand and the and improve the energy efficiency of the CDU and to identify
decline in fossil fuel reserves provide motivation for energy con- promising modifications based on pinch analysis and heat recovery
servation in energy-intensive industrial processes. Different systems [2e6].
methods are used to improve energy efficiency of industrial pro- Crude pre-flashing is one of the promising energy conservation
cesses such as the implementation of less energy-intensive tech- methods, which can save a notable amount of energy within the
nologies and the use of waste heat recovery systems. The Crude CDU. The basic principle of crude pre-flashing is to separate the
Distillation Unit (CDU) is among the largest energy consumers and light fractions of the crude upstream of the furnace. Then, the light
consequently a large CO2 emitters in industrial processes. It is fractions stream obtained is either mixed with the furnace outlet or
estimated that the energy required for the CDU is equivalent to separately introduced into the main column at an appropriate
location. This could improve the hydraulic performance of the
furnace and reduce its energy consumption [7,8].
In the literature, research studies have been conducted to
* Corresponding author. Department of Petrochemical Engineering, Technical
College, Basrah 61001, Iraq. Tel.: þ964 7722748739. investigate the effect of the implementation of crude pre-flashing
E-mail addresses: moh1973may@gmail.com, muh_petro@yahoo.com on the energy efficiency of the CDU using different retrofit strate-
(M.A. Al-Mayyahi), Andrew.Hoadley@monash.edu (A.F.A. Hoadley), chegpr@ gies. Feintuch et al. found that the implementation of a pre-flash
nus.edu.sg (G.P. Rangaiah).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2014.09.024
1359-4311/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
M.A. Al-Mayyahi et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 73 (2014) 1204e1210 1205
drum before the desalter is a cost effective solution to increase the objective (energy saving) is compromised by another objective
energy recovery in the heat exchangers downstream of the furnace (distillate yield), a single optimal solution may not be obtained. An
[8]. The implementation of different pre-flash schemes and energy alternative approach is to use Multi-Objective Optimisation (MOO)
saving opportunities were studied by Ji and Bagajewicz [9]. A step which examines both objectives simultaneously. This is the
by step optimization procedure based on the heat demand-supply approach taken in this study to investigate optimization of the CDU
diagram was used to target the energy consumption of the CDU pre-flash for minimizing both the residue yield (an economic
under the maximum distillate yield conditions. They explained the objective) and total CO2 emissions (an economic and environ-
carrier-effect of the light fractions of the crude and its importance mental objective).
in improving the separation of the gasoil fraction. In another work
[10], the same authors studied the effects of the pre-flashing on the 2. Overview of the crude distillation unit
main column system integrated with the vacuum column. They
found that only a small reduction in the energy requirements of the The CDU is the first and the major fractionation unit in any re-
whole system can be obtained with the pre-flash unit. finery. It is used to separate crude oil into a number of petroleum
Later, Yahyaabadi found that heating and cooling utility con- cuts of different boiling point ranges. The atmospheric and vacuum
sumptions are not considerably affected by the location of the pre- distillation units are used to separate the lighter fractions (distil-
flash device [11]. However, he concluded that additional savings on lates) from the crude oil. Fig. 1 shows a typical process flow diagram
the operating costs can be obtained by introduction of the crude of the atmospheric distillation unit. Firstly, the crude oil from
preflashing. Errico et al. compared different pre-flash devices for storage tanks is preheated by a series of heat exchangers. A desalter
energy savings within an industrial crude distillation [12]. The pre- is installed in the heat exchangers train to reduce the salt content of
flash devices were compared from both energy and economic the crude by an electric desalting process. The incoming crude oil is
perspectives. It was found that the energy savings that can be ob- heated up to 120 C and mixed with water before it is fed to the
tained from the implementation of the pre-flash drum are related Desalter. The desalted crude is then heated to about 200 C; if a pre-
to a reduction in the light distillate and an increase in the middle flash vessel is used, it is usually installed at around this tempera-
distillate. On the other hand, the implementation of the pre-flash ture. The pre-flash vessel separates vapour from the liquid feed-
column results in a high increase of the light distillate but only stock, thus reducing the vapour pressure of the crude [14]. The
smaller energy savings in the furnace duty can be obtained liquid from the pre-flash vessel is then heated to the maximum
compared to those of the pre-flash drum configuration. Recently, possible temperature (typically between 200 and 280 C) through
Luyben optimized the design of a pre-flash column before the CDU, heat exchangers, and then sent to an atmospheric fired heater to
for reducing energy costs [13]. He investigated the main optimi- achieve the required fractionation temperature of approximately
zation variables including the pre-flash column pressure, reflux- 400 C (which varies with crude type) before entering the flash
drum temperature, and furnace outlet temperature. zone of the column where the lighter hydrocarbons separate due to
The previous studies show that the introduction of the crude the sudden increase in the volume of the column [14]. Usually, the
pre-flash improves the hydraulic performance of the furnace and vapour from the pre-flash vessel is either fed into the flash zone of
reduces its energy consumption. Consequently, the reduction in the the column or introduced at a higher location of the column where
energy consumption of the furnace will lead to a reduction in total the end points of the flashed vapour and internal liquid are close.
CO2 emissions. However, the implementation of the crude pre-flash Naphtha is produced as a vapour and condensed by the over-
requires more capital investment which may impact the profit- head condensers (Fig. 1). Kerosene, diesel, and atmospheric gas oil
ability of the plant. Furthermore, the energy saving obtained by (AGO) are withdrawn as side streams and further refined using side
implementing a crude pre-flash scheme is related to a reduction in columns, which are either reboiled or use stripping steam, to
the light distillate yield, which is generally undesirable. When one reduce the content of the lighter components in each product.
Offgas
Water
Vapour
Naphtha
PA1
Steam
Kerosene
PA2
Steam
Vent Diesel
PA3
Steam
Water
AGO
Water Steam
to the vacuum tower
Crude oil Desalter Furnace Residue
These products are sent for processing in downstream units to in- Aspen HYSYS® simulator is used to simulate the CDU including the
crease the value of final products whilst the atmospheric residue is crude pre-flash unit. Based on the literature, the best location to install
further heated and distilled under vacuum conditions to achieve the pre-flash drum is directly after the desalter [8,12,14]. To simulate the
the required separation among the heavy components at lower multi pre-flash drums, the desalted crude is pumped through a heat
temperatures. exchanger to heat it up then sent to the first flash drum into which the
crude is separated into vapour and liquid phases, Fig. 2. The vapour from
3. Crude pre-flashing the first pre-flash is sent to the distillation column at a certain tray based
on the vapour compositions. The bottom liquid stream from the first
One of the primary purposes of the crude pre-flash is to reduce pre-flash is further heated up before sending it to the next flash drum.
the operating pressure of the main furnace of the CDU by sepa- This design was used for all flash drums, see Fig. 2. The vapour fraction
rating light vapours from the pre-heated crude. Pre-flashing can (V/F) for each flash drum is manipulated to turn the flash drum on and
also help in reducing the furnace duty and decreasing the vapour off. Any flash drum can be turned off by setting the (V/F) of the flash
load in the atmospheric column [13]. However, implementing drum to zero.
crude pre-flash may have implications on the performance of the
CDU, such as a reduction in the yield and quality of the distillate
products [12]. The impact of the crude pre-flash on the CDU de- 4. Multi-objective optimization
pends on many factors such as the type of the pre-flash, its location
in the crude preheat train and the feed location of flashed vapour in Often, optimization of real problems have two or more objec-
the main column. tives. Many of these objectives such as profit, safety, and emissions
It has been found that the best location for the crude pre-flash is cannot be represented by a single objective function. Also, these
after the desalter in order to reduce the water content of the crude objectives are often conflicting, and so consideration of the trade-
which may cause corrosion in the following devices [8,12,14]. Two off is essential leading to a set of optimal (non-dominated) solu-
main types of pre-flash devices are normally used in the industry: tions. These so called “Pareto-optimal solutions” provide better
pre-flash drums and pre-flash towers or pre-fractionators. Pre-flash insight into the process, for decision making. MOO has been
drums are simple vessels used to separate light vapours from the implemented for studying many chemical process operations
crude before the furnace. Then, the separated vapours are sent including the CDU [15]. Inamdar et al. [16] used MOO to simulta-
directly to the distillation column. The vapour feed location is a neously optimize the selected conflicting objectives associated with
function of many factors such as the temperature and compositions an industrial CDU. Recently, Al-Mayyahi et al. [2] investigated the
of the vapour stream and operating philosophy [12]. Pre-flash trade-off between operating revenue and CO2 emissions from the
drums are usually used to increase the capacity of the CDU by CDU using a blend of two crudes.
reducing the vapour load on the bottom section of the distillation As has been previously mentioned, the implementation of a
column. On the other hand, pre-fractionators are used to achieve crude pre-flash system would cause conflicting impacts on some
more effective separation and improve specifications of the distil- objectives of the CDU such as energy consumption and product
lates. Vapours produced from the pre-fractionator are not sent to yields. Therefore, these conflicting impacts can be evaluated using
the distillation column [9]. MOO and an optimized, trade-off solution can be found. In the
The efficiency of crude pre-flashing can be improved by using present study, the elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm
multiple pre-flashing where multiple pre-flash drums can be used (NSGA-II) implemented in Excel™ [17] is employed to investigate
at different temperatures and pressures. Various vapour streams of the effects of crude pre-flashing on the economic and environ-
different compositions are produced and sent to different tray lo- mental performance of the CDU. NSGA-II is an upgraded version of
cations in the distillation column. The present work investigates an optimization algorithm, and uses a special ranking criterion to
the implications of using crude pre-flashing on the environmental classify solutions into different non-dominated fronts. In the Excel
performance of the CDU. Both single and multiple pre-flashing are implementation of NSGA-II, potential solutions (represented by
considered, and different vapour feed locations in the atmospheric decision variables) are encoded numerically using binary encoding;
column are examined. see Ref. [17] for more details on the Excel-based NSGA-II.
to tray 4
V1
to tray 8
D1 V2
to tray 16
Desalter crude F1
V3
D2
to tray 21
F2
V4
D3
F3
D4
F4
to the furnace
Table 1 44
Decision variables and their bounds.
34
5. Case studies
32
In the present study, Arab light crude is used as a feedstock to
the CDU unit. Information of the crude oil assay can be found
elsewhere [18]. The atmospheric column consists of 29 trays, a total 30
41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
condenser, three side strippers and three pump-around circuits. A
CO2 emissions (t/h)
naphtha product is produced overhead, whilst kerosene, diesel and
atmospheric gas oil (AGO) are produced from the three side strip- Fig. 3. Pareto-optimal solutions of case study-1.
pers. All side strippers are ‘steam stripped’ where steam is injected
into the strippers to remove light components.
Three different cases are considered wherein the residue yield is enhance energy recovery within the system and reduce heating
minimized (which corresponds to maximizing the total yield of the requirements. Consequently, the emissions that are incurred as a
distillates), as an economic objective, while minimizing the total consequence of using these utilities will be minimized [2]. Furnaces
CO2 emissions (the environmental objective). Different emission are the major energy consumers in the atmospheric and vacuum
sources (furnaces, electrical energy, and steam) were considered in distillation units [19]. The impact of higher residue yields on the
the calculation of CO2 emissions. It is estimated based on energy combined atmospheric and vacuum distillation system is consid-
integration using pinch analysis to reduce the emissions that are ered by including the vacuum distillation unit (VDU) furnace in
incurred as a consequence of using different utilities. Six decision both the total energy demand and the CO2 emissions objective
variables are allowed to vary within a realistic range to achieve functions.
optimum values for the objectives. These variables are: the flowrate In the first case study, the optimum results of the CDU without a
of the main stripping steam (MS), the furnace outlet temperature pre-flash is compared with the one having a pre-flash, where the
(FT) and the volume fraction of the vapour from each of four pre- pre-flashed vapour is fed to tray 4 (counted from the top with
flash drums (V/F). The decision variables and their bounds are condenser being zero). The multiple pre-flashing is investigated in
summarized in Table 1. The objective functions are optimized the second case study where four pre-flash drums are used. The
subject to relevant constraints (Table 2). The temperature limits of vapour from the four pre-flashes are assumed to be equivalent to
the fractions on the ASTM D86 curve, which are called Cut Points, the main four products; naphtha, diesel, kerosene and AGO
are used to define the boiling range of fractions whilst the overlap respectively. The four vapour streams (except for the first vapour
between adjacent fractions (so called Gap) is used to define the stream) are introduced above the side stream of the equivalent
degree of separation between two adjacent fractions. The Gap is product namely tray 4, 8, 16 and 21, respectively to avoid product
commonly represented by the difference between the boiling contamination [20]. The third case study investigates the optimum
temperature of 5% ASTM of heavy fraction and boiling temperature vapour feed location by comparing the results from the previous
of 95% ASTM of light fractions. The gaps between the D86 95% and two case studies with the results of feeding all vapour streams to
5% cut points are used as quality constraints. The D86 95% cut the bottom tray of the column.
points of naphtha, kerosene and diesel are used as active specifi- The optimal values of the column design specifications are
cations in the CDU simulation. They were held constant at 182, 271 calculated based on 85% flooding limit and valve trays. Suitable
and 327 C respectively, to ensure that each product meets a basic values of computational parameters in the NSGA-II algorithm were
composition specification. Another active specification is used to
maintain the internal reflux (overflash) between first tray above the
flash zone and flash zone. The overflash is held constant at 2% to
prevent the dry out of the trays below the AGO withdrawal tray.
The CO2 emissions of the CDU are estimated based on energy
integration using pinch analysis. Energy integration is used to
Table 2
Constraints in the optimization problem.
Constraint Specification
450
400
350
300
250
T (o C)
4 pre-flash drums
Comparison of the optimum results of the CDU with and without pre-flash.
38 single pre-flash drum
Minimum CO2 emissions Minimum residue yield
Table 4 44
Optimum results of multiple pre-flash drum case at minimum CO2.
30
41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
drums in series are used upstream of the furnace. The four vapour
CO2 emissions (t/h)
streams produced from the four pre-flash drums are fed to tray 4, 8,
16 and 21. Fig. 6 shows that the minimum CO2 emissions of the CDU Fig. 9. Pareto-optimal solutions of case study-3.
reduces as the number of pre-flashes increases. However, after 2
pre-flashes, the reduction in the CO2 emissions tends to be negli-
gible. Fig. 7 compares the Pareto-optimal solutions of the single the end points of the flashed vapour nearly match the internal
pre-flash of Case study 1 and the multiple pre-flash case with four liquid compositions. This case study compares two vapour feed
pre-flash drums. For the residue yield of greater than 34%, the latter locations: above and below the flash zone. In the latter option, the
case yields a slight reduction in the minimum CO2 emissions from flashed vapour is fed to the bottom tray of the column (one tray
the single pre-flash case due to the slight reduction in the mini- below the main feed location).
mum heating duty; see Tables 3 and 4. However, for residue yields Fig. 9 compares the Pareto-optimal solutions of different cases
below this value, the two Pareto-optimal curves are identical. considering different vapour feed locations for single and multiple
Similar to the single pre-flash, maximum furnace outlet tempera- pre-flash designs. In the figures, bottom feeding refers to the case of
ture is required to achieve the 2% overflash specification. introducing all vapour streams into the bottom tray ‘one tray just
The GCCs of the single and multiple pre-flashing cases have below the flash zone’. Top feeding refers to introducing vapour
almost the same trend which shows the slight effects of the mul- streams into different trays above the flash zone ‘based on the end
tiple pre-flash on the heating/cooling demands of the CDU points of each vapour stream’. One additional case is considered,
compared to the single pre-flash drum (Fig. 8). Besides the slight where only the vapour from the first flash drum is introduced into
improvement of the multiple pre-flashing over the single pre- the bottom tray whilst other vapour streams from the remaining
flashing regarding the reduction in the total CO2 emissions, intro- flash drums are introduced into the above-flash zone trays. The
ducing the flashed vapour streams into different trays reduces Dmax latter case is referred to as ‘1st bottom feeding’ in Fig. 9. The results
which will reduce the flooding problem and increase the column show that using the bottom tray as the only vapour feed location
throughput (see Table 4). At minimum residue yield, the loads on all (bottom feeding curves in Fig. 9) records higher CO2 emissions with
pre-flash drums are negligible and therefore, the results are nearly a slight improvement in the multiple pre-flash designs over the
identical to the previous case study with no pre-flashing. single pre-flash. On the other hand, sending the flashed vapour to
trays above the flash zone (top feeding curves in Fig. 9) reduces the
total CO2 emissions of the CDU with a slight preference for the
5.3. Effect of vapour feed location
multiple pre-flash design as shown in Case study 2. However, the
decrease in the CO2 emissions is accompanied by a significant in-
The feed location of the flashed vapour is an important
crease in the residue yield as shown in Fig. 9 which can be
parameter in the pre-flash design. As previously mentioned, the
vapour is usually fed either to the flash zone or to the tray where
Table 5
Comparison of the optimum results for different vapour feeding locations.
450
Single 4 pre-flash drums 4 pre-flash drums
400 pre-flash drum (bottom feeding) (1st e bottom feeding)
350 (bottom feeding)
yield (vol%)
200 4 pre-flash drums MS (kg mol/h) 10 10 12
single pre-flash drum FT ( C) 371 371 380
150 (V/F)1 (vol/vol) 3.2 2 1.5
100 (V/F)2 (vol/vol) e 0.5 1
(V/F)3 (vol/vol) e 0.57 1
50 (V/F)4 (vol/vol) e 0.46 1
0 QHmin (MW) 163.4 164 158.5
0 50 100 150 200 FQ (MW) 118.7 123 116.2
HPS (MW) 29.4 27 28.5
H (MW)
MPS (MW) 15.3 13.8 13.8
Dmax (m) 8.2 8.2 7.9
Fig. 8. GCC at minimum CO2.
1210 M.A. Al-Mayyahi et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 73 (2014) 1204e1210
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