Refinery Processes

COKE PLANT 1.3.2 SUMMARY

Coking is one of the older refining processes, and one that is becoming more important to petroleum refiners. As the quality of the worlds crude oil supply continues to decrease, bottom of the barrel processing is becoming more attractive. The problem facing most refiners today is how to squeeze the last drop of marketable fuel (most notably gasoline) out of a barrel of crude oil. Coking is a method that refiners use to accomplish this goal. The refinery coke plant has been called the garbage can of the refinery because residual oils that are difficult or impossible to process in other refinery processes can probably be refined in the coke plant.

Contrary to what the name coke plant might imply, the purpose of the process is not to produce coke. In fact, the primary goal of most coke plant engineers is to minimize the amount of coke produced per barrel of feedstock. The purpose of a coke plant is to convert heavy residual oils (tar, asphalt, etc.) into lighter, more valuable motor fuel blending stocks. Coke is an unfortunate by-product of the process.

Refinery coking is controlled, severe, thermal cracking. It is a process in which the high molecular weight hydrocarbon molecules in residuum (bottoms from the vacuum flasher in the crude unit) are cracked or broken up into smaller and more valuable hydrocarbons. Coking is accomplished by subjecting the feed charge to an extreme temperature (approximately 950 F) that initiates the cracking process. The light hydrocarbons that are formed as a result of the cracking process flash off and are separated in conventional fractionating equipment. The material that is left behind after cracking is coke, which is almost pure carbon. The products of a coke plant include gas (refinery fuel and LPG) wild gasoline light gas oil heavy gas oil. Coke

1.3.2 DELAYED COKING The process makes use of paired coke drums. One drum (the active drum) is used as a reaction vessel for the thermal cracking of residual oils. This active drum will slowly fill with coke as the process proceeds. While the active drum is being filled with coke, a second drum (the inactive drum) is in the process of having coke removed from it. The coke drums are sized so that by the time the active drum is filled with coke, the inactive drum is empty. The process flow is then switched to the empty drum, which becomes the active drum. The full drum becomes the inactive drum and is decoked. By switching the process flow back and forth between the two drums in this manner, the coking operation can continue uninterrupted. Figure 1 shows the major components of a modern delayed coking plant.

1.3.2.1 Process Flow The residuum feed is charged to the bottom of the fractionator tower where it is mixed with the condensed tower bottoms (recycle oil). The feed and recycle oil are drawn from the bottom of the fractionator and pumped through a direct-fired furnace where they are heated to the desired cracking temperature(470 to 590C) . At this temperature, the cracking reaction is rapid. The high mass velocity of the oil through the furnace prevents the lay-down of coke inside the furnace tubes.

Figure 1.modern delayed coking plant

After being heated in the direct-fired furnace, the oil is charged to the bottom of the active coke drum. The cracked light hydrocarbons rise to the top of the drum where they are removed and charged to the fractionator for separation. The heavier hydrocarbons are left behind, and the retained heat causes them to crack to coke.

The fractionator tower in a coke plant is sometimes called a combination tower because it serves two functions. The lower portion of the tower acts as a surge tank for the residuum feed and recycle oil. The upper portion of the tower acts as a product fractionator and operates in much the same manner as an atmospheric distillation tower in a crude unit. The hot (approximately 800 F) vapors from the coke drum overhead are charged to the lower portion of the fractionator. The vapors enter the fractionator above the liquid level of the tower bottoms. As the vapors rise through the tower, they are contacted by a down flowing reflux stream and the heavier hydrocarbons are condensed. Gas and wild gasoline are removed from the tower as an overhead product. Gas oils are removed as side-draw products, and the heavier hydrocarbons are mixed with the residuum feed and recycled back to the coke drum.

1.3.2.2 Decoking During the coking process, the active coke drum slowly fills up with coke. Once the active drum is full, the feed from the direct-fired furnace is switched to the inactive drum (which is empty), and the full drum is isolated. The full drum is steam purged to remove any light hydrocarbons that may be present in the coke, and then filled with water to cool the drum and coke.

After cooling, the covers are removed from the top and bottom of the coke drum and a pilot hole is drilled through the center of the coke mass using high-pressure water. Once the pilot hole is drilled, the coke is broken up by pumping high- pressure water through a rotating cutting tool that is lowered through the pilot hole. The cut coke falls out of the bottom of the drum into rail cars or trucks for shipment.

After the coke has been removed from the drum, the top and bottom covers are replaced and the drum is steam purged to remove air. The drum is then heated to near operating temperature by allowing some of hot overhead vapors from the active drum to back up into the decoked drum.