INTRODUCTION

A visbreaking is a processing unit in oil refinery that converts

atmospheric or vacuum residues via thermal cracking to gas,
naphtha, distillates and visbroken residues.
 Purpose
To reduce the quantity of residual oil produced in the distillation
of crude oil.

To increase the yield of more valuable middle distillates(heating

oil and diesel).

To reduce the pour point and viscosity of waxy residues used

for blending with lighter fuel oil.
 Vacuum residue fed to a visbreaker can
be considered to be composed of the
following:

Aromatic
Asphaltenes: Large polycyclic molecules hydrocarbons Resins
that are suspended in the oil in a colloidal
form.

Resins: Also polycyclic but of a lower Vacuum residue fed

molecular weight than asphaltenes

Aromatic hydrocarbons: Derivatives Paraffinic Asphaltenes

of benzene, toluene and xylenes hydrocarbons

Paraffinic hydrocarbons: Alkanes

 Classification of Visbreaking

Visbreaking

Coil Soaker
Visbreaking Visbreaking
 Coil visbreaking:

The term coil (or furnace) visbreaking

is applied to units where the cracking
process occurs in the furnace tubes
(or "coils").

Charge is fed to the visbreaker heater

where it is heated to a high temperature,
causing partial vaporization and mild A schematic diagram of a Coil Visbreaker unit
cracking.

( Reference- Wikipedia)
The heater outlet stream is quenched
with gas oil or fractionator bottoms to
stop the cracking reaction.

The vapor liquid mixture enters the

fractionator to be separated into gas,
naphtha, gas oil and visbroken tar.

The visbroken bottoms are then blended

with lighter materials (cutter stock) to
meet fuel oil specifications.

The fractionated visbreaker gas oil is

often used as the cutter stock.
A schematic diagram of a Coil Visbreaker unit
 Soaker visbreaking:

In soaker visbreaking, the bulk of

the cracking reaction occurs not in
the furnace but in a drum located
after the furnace called the soaker.

Here the oil is held at an elevated

temperature for a predetermined
period of time to allow cracking to
occur before being quenched.

The oil then passes to a fractionator.

A schematic diagram of a Soaker Visbreaker unit
In soaker visbreaking, lower temperatures
(Reference- Wikipedia)
are used than in coil visbreaking.
 Coil Visbreaking vs Soaker Visbreaking
Coil Visbreaking
(Low Residence time Cracking)
In Coil visbreaking,Cracking process occur in a
furnace tube.
The higher temperatures are used in
coil visbreaking.
PROBLEM:
.De-coking: In this petroleum coke deposits in the
tube of the furnace and leads to fouling or
blocking of the tubes.
Soaker Visbreaking
(high residence time cracking )
In Soaker cracking reaction occur not in the
furnace but in a Soaker drum located after
the furnace.
The lower temperatures are used in Soaker
visbreaking.
PROBLEM:
The same will occur in the drum of a soaker
visbreaker, though the lower temperatures used in
the soaker drum leads to fouling at
a much slower rate.
Process evolution

1930-1940-At its peak in 1930, thermal cracking represented about 55% of the total crude oil capacity, or
over 2,000,000 bbl/day
A rapid decline of gas oil thermal cracking capacity occurred due to the construction and operation of
catalytic cracking units. Many of the original thermal cracking units were converted to other operations,
such as visbreaking.

1946-1960-backdrop of low oil prices, visbreaking

technology was significantly developed with feedback
from early commercial units assisting extensive design
advance
By the early to
mid 1960s, KBR (then MW Kellogg) commercial coiltype visbreaker designs included: a) two radiant cell
furnace design containing separate radiant heating and
soaking sections; b) injection of steam into the
visbreaker furnace to limit coking; c) design of
suitable special quench valves; d) optimisation of
bubble tower (main fractionator) design conditions;
 1946-1960- Visbreaking
technology was significantly developed with feedback
from early commercial units assisting extensive design
advance
MW Kellogg Limited (MWKL) and its parent
Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) have designed many
visbreaker

commercial coiltype visbreaker designs included: a) two radiant cell

furnace design containing separate radiant heating and
soaking sections; b) injection of steam into the
visbreaker furnace to limit coking; c) design of
suitable special quench valves; d) optimisation of
bubble tower (main fractionator) design conditions;
 In the 1970s and early 1980s many new
visbreakers were built outside of the United States.
The use of visbreakers containing soaker drums
downstream of the furnace coil became more
widespread. Upflow soaker drum designs were
popularized, providing for a prolonged residence time
and, therefore, a lower temperature leaving the furnace
coil. This permits savings on fuel consumption
(although against that, steam production from a coil
visbreaker is higher) or allows a greater plant capacity
for a given coil siz
 By the mid 1980s, with a declining demand for
heavy fuel oil, further improvement to visbreaker
design included design of low pressure drop packed
vacuum flashers containing structured packing and
grids. This permits enhanced yields of Heavy Vacuum
Gas Oil (HVGO). The use of low pressure drop packed
sections in the main fractionator was also introduced
 .
Between the late 1980s and 2005, few new
visbreakers have been built in Europe. This reflects the
lack of any new grassroots refinery in Europe (with
the one exception at Leuna, Germany). Despite
addition of little extra grassroots capacity, there have
been a number of further general process and
operational improvements in what can now be
regarded as a mature technology. These include:
a) optimizing of the process flowsheet; b) major
advances in process control and advanced process
control aided by powerful but cheap computers; c) use
of pigging instead of steam-air decoking for furnace
decoking; d) various equipment improvements,
including higher capacity trays/packings and the use of
twisted tubes for heat exchanger revamps; e) more
sophisticated treatment measures to reduce fouling of
heat exchangers.