Distillation in refinery

The separation of a liquid mixture into its components on the basis of differences in boiling
points is known as distillation. In refinery usually two types of distillation are uses for refining of
crude oil.

Atmospheric distillation
Vacuum distillation

A simple diagram of these processes is given below.

Atmospheric Distillation:
Atmospheric distillation is also known as crude oil distillation. The crude oil distillation unit
(CDU) is the first processing unit in virtually all petroleum refineries. The CDU distills the

incoming crude oil into various fractions of different boiling ranges, each of which are then
processed further in the other refinery processing units.
Modern crude distillation towers can process 200,000 barrels of oil per day. They can be up to
150 feet (50 meters) tall and contain 20 to 40 fractionation trays spaced at regular intervals. In
some towers, the trays in the top section are replaced with structured packing. Before reaching
the tower, desalted oil goes through a network of preheat exchangers to a fired heater, which
brings the temperature up to about 350 C. If the oil gets much hotter than this, it starts to crack
and deposit carbon inside the pipes and equipment through which it flows. The hot crude enters
the distillation tower just above the bottom. Steam is added to enhance separation; it does so
largely by decreasing vapor pressure in the column. When hot oil enters the tower, most of it
vaporizes. Unvaporized heavy fuel oil and/or asphalt residue drops to the bottom of the tower,
where it is drawn off. The vapors rise through the distillation trays, which contain perforations
and bubble caps.

Vacuum distillation:
Vacuum distillation is a key part of petroleum refining industry. About 80% of the refineries
operating in the United States have a vacuum distillation unit (VDU), a secondary processing
unit consisting of vacuum distillation columns. Vacuum distillation is a part of the refining
process that helps to produce petroleum products out of the heavier oils left over from
atmospheric distillation.
In the refining process, the atmospheric distillation unit (ADU) separates the lighter
hydrocarbons from the heavier oils based on boiling point. The ADU is capable of boiling crude
oil fractions to temperatures of 750oF. Above this temperature, the oil will thermally crack, or
break apart, which impedes the distillation process. As lighter products are boiled off, the heavier
oils, called bottoms, remain at the bottom of the ADU. To increase the production of high-value
petroleum products, these bottoms are run through a vacuum distillation column to further refine
them.
As the name vacuum distillation implies, the distillation column is under a vacuum, or
significantly less than atmospheric pressure of 760 millimeters of mercury (mmHg). At low
pressures, the boiling point of the ADU bottoms is low enough that lighter products can vaporize
without cracking, or degrading, the oil.

Comparison:
Main difference between the atmospheric and vacuum distillation is the pressure. Atmospheric
distillation is take place at atmospheric pressure and vacuum distillation is take place at usually
below the atmospheric pressure.

Atmospheric distillation

Vacuum distillation

Atmospheric distillation operates at

atmospheric pressure (which is 760 mm of Hg).
And its easy to work at this pressure so
atmospheric distillation is economic for large
amount of crude oil.

Vacuum distillation operates at 10-20 mm of

Hg. And achieving this temperature is costly
although we need less heat for separation of
fraction of oil bul overall energy consumption is
high.

The atmospheric distillation unit is capable of Than we use vacuum distillation unit to
boiling crude oil fractions to temperatures of decrease the boiling point of oil component.
750oF. Above this temperature, the oil will
thermally crack, or break apart, which impedes
the distillation process

Mostly trays are used for contacting liquid and Most of the column uses packing material for
vapour.
the vaporliquid contacting because such
packing has a lower pressure drop than
distillation trays.
Atmospheric distillation produces light product,
which include naptha, jet fuel ,diesel and light
gasoline.

Vacuum distillation produce heavier component

and require more processing e.g. cracking
coking to produce lighter component.

Comsats institute of information technology

ASSIGNMENT #01

SUBJECT:
Petroleum refinery engineering
ASSIGNED TO:
Muhammad Sultan
REGISTRATION NO.:
DDP-FA12-BEC-054
SECTION:
B
SUBMITTED TO:
Dr.Saif-ur-Rehman