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tillation unit Many heavy crudes contain more
(CDU) problem vacuum gas oils. Refiners, therefore, of-
areas and identifies ten increase the atmospheric tower bot-
specific sections tom (ATB) product cut point to stay
World’s
World’s Evolving
Evolving Crude
Crude Slate
Slate
requiring invest- within the vacuum column diameter
ment to maintain limits. As ATB cut point increases, how-
profitability ever, vacuum unit feed gets heavier re-
throughout a 4-5 sulting in higher vacuum tower bot-
year run length for toms (VTB) yield.
refiners processing Increasing the vacuum heater outlet
heavy crudes. carefully consider the flow scheme and temperature can sometimes offset a
Some heavy crudes are blends of 6-8° equipment design in order to maintain higher ATB cut point. But many refiners
API bitumens combined with hy- crude charge rate, product yield and have existing heater design problems
drotreated lighter products from bitu- quality, and unit reliability. that prevent a higher outlet temperature
men upgraders. Crude blends with gravities <22° without shortening heater run length.
The blended lighter products that API require sufficient cold exchanger Refiners, therefore, must optimize ATB
help produce synthetic crudes generally train preheat to achieve efficient desalt- product cut point to maximize heavy
distill in the atmospheric column leav- ing, which typically requires a desalter vacuum gas oil (HVGO).
ing a very heavy 6-8° API feed to the temperature between 270° and 300° F. An optimized ATB cut point is about
vacuum unit. CDUs must operate at in- The desalter must separate the emul-
creased severity to maintain product cut sion into low-salt crude and oil-free
points and qualities. water. COMMON PROCESSING Table 1
Heavy crudes are more difficult for With a heavier crude feed, the de- PROBLEMS
High crude-side pressure drop
the CDU to process. Historically, refin- salter temperature can decrease by 30° Desalter upsets and poor desalting
ers processing heavier crudes have had to 40° F., if no additional surface area Rapid crude-column condenser corrosion
problems maintaining: is added to the cold exchanger train. Crude column naphtha-jet fuel section fouling
Low diesel product yield
• Crude charge rate. The desalted crude’s salt content can Vacuum heater coking
• Product yield and quality. increase dramatically if the temperature Vacuum column coking
Vacuum column fouling (top section)
• Unit reliability. is too low. Many heavy crudes such as High vacuum-column operating pressure
Zuata or Merey can have high salt con- Low HVGO product draw temperature
CDU processing difficulties tents depending on production field Low HVGO product yield
High metals feed to the cat feed hydrotreater
Table 1 shows some specific prob- operations; therefore, good desalter General corrosion problems
lems refiners face when processing performance is critical. Poor cold ex-
Reprinted with revisions to format, from the November 18, 2002 edition of OIL & GAS JOURNAL
Copyright 2002 by PennWell Corporation
PROCESSING
700° F. for heavy Venezuelan Merey, becomes more important. TBP distillation
BCF-17, and Zuata crudes, assuming no In some cases, vanadium in the Accurate crude TBP curves are essen-
downstream equipment limits. CFHT feed has increased from less than tial when CDUs are revamped to
Most refiners and designers adjust 1 ppm to 5-10 ppm with heavy process heavy crude feeds. Figs. 1 and 2
ATB cut point vs. crude heater outlet Venezuelan crudes.1 show TBP curves for selected heavy
temperature only. High feed-stream contaminants can Venezuelan and Canadian crudes.
Other parameters are, however, more reduce run length to less than half the TBP curves are typically generated
effective in adjusting ATB cut point: planned turnaround interval. from ASTM D2892 and D5236 tests.
Optimizing the Some refiners now use high-tempera-
atmospheric col- ture simulated distillation (HTSD) to
L ATIN AMERICA HEAVY CRUDES Fig. 1 umn flash-zone characterize the whole crude. Signifi-
and wash section, cant differences between the two meth-
1,500
Maya Merey Zuata and the vacuum ods become more pronounced as crude
unit design can re- API gravity decreases.2
Temperature, °F
1,000
duce CFHT feed We found that HTSD curves provide
vanadium by 30- the best characterization of product
40%. yields in the 650+° F. portion of the
500
distillation curve.
Heavy crude We reviewed several comprehensive
properties test runs on crude units processing
0 True boiling heavy crudes and compared synthesized
0 20 40 60 point (TBP) distil-
80 100 whole crude TBP curves generated from
Distilled, vol % lation curve, con- product stream HTSDs, whole crude
taminants (MCR, HTSDs, and crude assay TBP curves
asphaltenes, and generated from ASTM D2892 and
minimized atmospheric column flash- metals) distribution, viscosity, salt con- D5236 tests.
zone pressure, minimized percent over- tent, and total acid number (TAN) in- During a CDU revamp to process
flash, and optimized ATB stripping effi- crease CDU operating severity and heavy crude, the designer must accu-
ciency. make heavy crudes inherently more rately characterize crude feed; other-
This maximizes diesel recovery and difficult to process. wise, predicted product yields, operat-
reduces vacuum ejector condensable Venezuelan heavy crudes include ing conditions, and equipment design
load, which permits lower vacuum col- Merey, BCF-17, Zuata, BCF-22, and La- may be flawed.
umn operating pressure and helps guna Blend 22. US refiners are also Inaccurate feed characterization of
maintain HVGO product cut point. processing large volumes of Mexican crude’s heavy end has resulted in poor
Maintaining HVGO cut point is a sig- Maya crude. Heavy Canadian crudes in- revamp yields and coked vacuum col-
nificant challenge with heavier crude clude Cold Lake blend, Lloydminster umn wash beds.
blends. Most refiners lose 40° F. or more (LLB), and tar sands blends.
in HVGO product cut point when switch- Only a few refiners can process these Whole crude properties
ing to a heavy crude diet. Maintaining cut crudes neat. Table 2 shows vanadium, viscosity,
point requires a combination of lower Other refiners that increase their and salt content for some heavy crudes.
operating pressure, higher heater outlet heavy crude percentage also face many Fig. 3 shows the vanadium distribution
temperature, reduced flash-zone pressure, of the same processing challenges. curve for Maya crude.
lower flash-zone oil partial pressure Some vanadium compounds begin to
(more heater coil steam), and improved
VTB stripping.The right combination will
be specific to each unit.
C ANADIAN HEAVY CRUDES Fig. 2
vaporize at 925-950° F. TBP tempera- gical upgrades to higher-alloy materials Maintaining crude charge rate
tures; therefore, HVGO vanadium will due to high naphthenic acid (Table 4), Revamp process flow schemes must
rise as cut point increases.3 high sulfur, and high crude-column account for the inherent crude hy-
Improved HVGO fractionation lowers overhead system chloride levels (Fig. 4). draulics and preheat dilemma associat-
vanadium for the same TBP cut point.4 A Crudes with a total acid number (TAN) ed with processing heavy crudes while
properly designed vacuum unit can re- of 2.4 will produce an HVGO TAN of maintaining unit reliability.
duce HVGO vanadium content by 30- 3.5 or greater.6 7 Higher-viscosity heavy crudes re-
50%. Metallurgy upgrades are needed for duce the crude-charge-pump developed
Table 3 shows how CFHT feed vana- gas oil circuits that operate between head and can also increase exchanger
500° and 650° F. fouling.
CRUDE BULK PROPERTIES Table 2
Piping and column
internal compo-
Circumventing hydraulic limits to
achieve a desired crude feed rate can be
Salt content,
Vanadium, Viscosity at lb/1,000 bbl nents such as expensive; therefore, a revamp must
Crude type ppmw 100° F., cst of crude beams, packing consider crude hydraulics early in the
Maya 291 95 6 supports, and tower process to ensure there is sufficient
Merey 295 461 40-60
Zuata 260 328 61 attachments com- capital to achieve processing objectives.
Cold Lake 124 75 20 monly use 317L. Crude charge hydraulics are not gen-
Lloydminster (LLB) 100 70 42
Canadian blend 155 80 40 Some refiners use erally evaluated thoroughly enough until
904 stainless steel late in detailed engineering when they
in the vacuum col- can result in scope growth, additional
umn for cladding and internals because expenditure, or scope rationalization.
CFHT FEED STREAM VANADIUM Table 3 it has a high molybdenum content, Crude charge rate will often decrease if
Design Actual thus making it resistant to naphthenic preheat train modifications are not made.
vanadium, vanadium,
Stream ppmw ppmw acid attack. With heavy crudes, cold-exchanger-train
Processing tar sands crudes creates heat transfer decreases because there is
AGO 1.0 8.0
LVGO 0.4 0.4 some unique challenges. These crudes less heat available from the atmospheric
HVGO 5.0 8.0 can have high sediment and clay con- column pumparounds and products.
tents and some blends also have high These exchangers also have lower
dium content can increase for a poorly viscosity. heat-transfer coefficients due to higher
designed CDU heavy crude revamp. Desalter operations are more diffi- crude viscosity. Additional cold-train-
High ATB entrainment into the atmos- cult and there is an increased likelihood exchanger surface area is needed to
pheric gas oil (AGO) and high entrain- of stable emulsion formation. If desalter meet desalter temperatures necessary
ment and poor fractionation in the vac- for efficient desalt-
uum unit caused the high CFHT feed ing.
vanadium content. M AYA VANADIUM DISTRIBUTION Fig. 3 To lower the
ATB and VTB produced from Maya 1,000.0 cold-train pressure
crude will have nearly 550 ppm (wt) drop at the ex-
and 900 ppm (wt) vanadium, respective- pense of crude ve-
ly. Operators must therefore eliminate all 100.0 locity, refiners
Vanadium, ppm (wt)
temperature heat
C OLD TRAIN EXCHANGERS Fig. 5
is available for
Heavy crude does not produce
enough atmospheric column heat crude preheat.
to meet desalter temperature Diesel and AGO
High pumparound and
viscosity Crude column Kerosine Kerosine Diesel
product tempera-
overhead product pumparound tures are about
product
120-160° F.
550° F. and 625°
Crude
F., respectively. LV-
oil 230-260° F.
GO draw tempera-
ture is only about
Very low U-value,
Additional
330° F.; therefore
high crude viscosity diesel and AGO
heat
source product yielded in
Desalter
the vacuum col-
280-300° F. umn provides little
or no preheat. A
lower HVGO prod-
uct draw tempera-
without VTB stripping. The few units salt contents of 3-6 lb/1,000 bbl.This ture can also result due to a lighter HV-
that include a stripping section have high chloride content results in fouling GO product.
tray efficiencies less than 10-15% due and corrosion in the crude-column over- Maximizing diesel recovery is im-
to poor tray design. These stripping head condenser and an increased likeli- portant when crude rate is limited by
sections require higher steam rates, hood of column tray fouling (Fig. 6). CFHT or FCC unit capacity. This re-
which increase condenser and ejector quires optimum atmospheric column
system capital and operating costs. Revamp process design diesel-AGO fractionation, ATB strip-
Crude-unit process flow schemes ping, and AGO product stripping.
Reliability should focus on crude properties, pro- Good diesel-AGO product fractiona-
Unit reliability means the unit can cessing objectives, and design funda- tion requires adequate reflux rate (liq-
meet a targeted run length without sig- mentals. Heavy oil is inherently more uid-vapor ratio), 8-10 trays, and good
nificant deterioration in charge rate, difficult to vaporize because there is tray efficiency. Most atmospheric
product yield, or product quality. Poor less light material in the feed. columns wider than 16 ft in diameter
reliability results in unscheduled shut- Crude-unit designs must optimize will use four-pass trays. These large-di-
downs, significantly lower product ameter towers have low weir loadings
yields and quality, or reduced unit OPERATING CHANGES TO (gpm/in. weir) and the tray efficiencies
Table 5
charge rates. can be low. Low reflux and tray efficien-
Heavy crudes diminish unit reliabili-
PROCESS HEAVY CRUDES cy dramatically reduce diesel yield.
Atmospheric Vacuum
ty due to chronic heater coking,10 con- Variable column column An AGO pumparound increases
denser corrosion, crude-column tray Temperature Higher Higher
crude preheat; however, if the ATB cut
fouling, or poor desalter operations. Pressure Lower Lower point is only 700° F., there is not
Flash-zone oil
Correcting these deficiencies re- partial pressure Lower Lower enough vapor from the atmospheric
quires capital investment; otherwise, re- Residue stripping column flash zone to provide sufficient
efficiency Higher Higher
alistic run lengths may only be 1-2 internal reflux in the diesel-AGO frac-
years vs. 4-5 years that many refiners tionation section to allow heat removal
target. Refiners must always balance re- from an AGO pumparound.
vamp capital investment against run ATB cut point to balance overall unit Operating with an AGO pumparound
length. performance because it influences should be based on crude TBP distilla-
Heavy crude viscosity can cause crude and vacuum column operations. tion, acceptable diesel-AGO fractiona-
poor desalter performance. As desalter The relationship between ATB and VTB tion, and ATB cut point target, not stan-
temperature drops, oil-water separation cut points are complex and refiners dard design practices.
becomes problematic and the desalted- must evaluate the columns and ancil- The vacuum-unit design depends on
crude salt content increases. Some re- lary equipment as a single system.11 the HVGO product cut point target,
finers processing heavy crudes have had With a lower ATB cut point, there vacuum heater design, crude vanadium
to switch from series to parallel de- is less atmospheric flash-zone vapor distribution, and other detailed equip-
salter operation to eliminate oil-water available to provide pumparound and ment design issues. HVGO product cut
separation problems. product heat to the cold crude pre- points are typically less than 975° F.
Single-stage desalting removes 90-95% heat train. As diesel and AGO materials when crudes with gravities less than
of crude salt; desalted crudes may have shift to the vacuum tower, less high- 24° API are being processed.
PROCESSING
A dry vacuum unit design uses no wash section designs influence unit maximum trays, and maximum tray ef-
steam in the heater and does not have a performance.13 14 ficiency. VTB stripping and vacuum
stripping section. Maintaining cut point is Refinery vacuum heaters need to op- heater coil steam should balance with
difficult even with a well-designed unit erate at outlet temperatures between column operating pressure.
using coil steam, but a dry vacuum unit 790° and 800° F. while meeting run- Atmospheric and vacuum column
simply cannot operate reliably at cut length targets.15 flash-zone vapor horn and wash sec-
points greater than about 950° F. when Maximized ATB stripping efficiency tions should eliminate entrainment and
processing Merey, Zuata, or BCF-17 crudes. requires adequate stripping steam, the vacuum column needs to fraction-
A heater without coil steam must
operate at only 760-770° F. to avoid
rapid coking from heavy crudes. HVGO H YDROCHLORIC ACID CORROSION Fig. 6