SUMMER VOCATIONAL TRAINING

(From 1th June 2018 to 14th July 2018)

REPORT

SUBMITTED BY: GUIDED BY:

Jayant Mathur Mr. A.K. Aggarwal

Btech (Chemical Engineering) (C.P.N.M.)

Roll no: 40216101415 IOCL, Mathura Refinery
University School of Chemical
Technology, GGSIPU,
New Delhi
 CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that Jayant Mathur of B.Tech (Chemical Engineering) of
University School of Chemical Technology, GGSIPU, New Delhi has
undergone summer vocational training at IOCL (Indian oil corporation
Limited), Mathura from 1st June 2018 to 14th July 2018. He has
completed his training in following trends successfully:

1. AVU (Atmospheric & Vacuum Distillation Unit)

2. VBU (Visbreaker Unit)

 INDEX
1. ABOUT IOCL MATHURA REFINERY
2. INTRODUCTION
3. FIRE AND SAFETY DEPARTMENT
4. ATMOSPHERIC AND VACUUM DISTILLATION UNIT
5. VIS-BREAKER UNIT
6. CONCLUSION
 IOCL MATHURA REFINERY
Mathura Refinery, the sixth refinery of Indian Oil was commissioned in 1982 with a capacity of
6.0 MMTPA to meet the demand of petroleum products in north western region of the country,
which includes National Capital Region. Refinery is located along the Delhi-Agra National
Highway about 154 KM away from Delhi. The major secondary processing units provided were
Fluidized Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCCU), Vis-breaker Unit (VBU) and Bitumen Blowing Unit
(BBU). The original technology for these units was sourced from erstwhile USSR, UOP etc.
Soaker drum technology of EIL was implemented in VBU in the year 1993. For production of
unleaded Gasoline, Continuous Catalytic Reforming Unit (CCRU) was commissioned in 1998
with technology from Axens, France. A Diesel Hydro Desulphurization Unit (DHDS) licensed
from Axens, France was commissioned in 1999 for production of HSD with low Sulphur content
of 0.25% wt (max). With the commissioning of once through Hydrocracker Unit (licensed from
Chevron, USA) in July 2000, capacity of Mathura Refinery was increased to 8.0 MMTPA.

Diesel Hydro-treating unit (DHDT) & MS Quality Up-gradation Unit (MSQU) was installed with
world class technology from Axens and UOP respectively in 2005 for production of Euro-III
grade HSD & MS w.e.f. 1st April 2005 as per Auto Fuel Policy of Govt. of India. Project for FCC
Gasoline Desulphurization (FCCGDS) and Selective Hydrogenation Unit (SHU), the Prime-G
technology of Axens, France was commissioned in February 2010 and supply of Euro-IV grade
MS and HSD started on continuous basis.
Mathura Refinery is having its own captive power plant, which was augmented with the
commissioning of three Gas Turbines (GT) and Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRG) in phases
from 1997 to 2005using Natural Gas (NG) as fuel to take care of environment.

For upgrading environmental standards, old Sulphur Recovery Units (SRU) were replaced with
new Sulphur Recovery Units with 99.9 % recovery in the year 1999. Additional Sulphur
Recovery Unit is under implementation as a hot standby. Mathura Refinery had also set up four
continuous Ambient Air Monitoring Stations far beyond the working area before commissioning
of the Refinery in 1982 as a mark of its concern towards the environment and archaeological
sites. Its close proximity to the magnificent wonder Taj Mahal adds extra responsibility towards
maintaining a cleaner environment.

Mathura Refinery has planted 167000 trees in surrounding areas including refinery & township
and 115000 trees in Agra region around Taj Mahal. The Ecological Park which is spread across
4.45 acres, is a thriving green oasis in the heart of sprawling Refinery.
At Mathura Refinery, technology & ecology go hand in hand with continuous endeavor for
Product Quality up-gradation, Energy Conservation and Environment Protection. Mathura
Refinery is the first in Asia and third in the world to receive the coveted ISO-14001 certification
for Environment Management System in 1996. It is also the first in the World to get OHSMS
certification for Safety Management in 1998.

PRODUCT MANUFACTURED AND REFINED HERE ARE:

• Indane Gas

• Auto Gas

• Natural Gas

• Petrol/Gasoline

• Diesel/Gas oil

• ATF/Jet fuel

• SERVO lubricants & greases

• Marine Fuels & Lubricants

• Kerosene
 INTRODUCTION
The word ‘petroleum’ has been derived from two Latin words ‘Petra’ (meaning rock) and
‘Oleum’ (meaning oil). As petroleum is obtained from sedimentary rocks of earth, it is also called
mineral oil. Petroleum is a fossil fuel which is formed when dead plants (like sea weeds, marine
algae) and lower forms of animals (like plankton) remain buried for several hundred years. It
consists of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights (mostly alkanes, cycloalkanes and various
aromatic hydrocarbons), organic compounds (like oxygen, nitrogen and Sulphur) and trace
amounts of metals such as iron, nickel, copper and vanadium.

Petroleum is also called crude oil which is the mixture of various components. Crude oil cannot
be used directly. It has to be separated in various fractions and that purpose is fulfilled in a
refinery. Crude is the raw material for petrol, diesel, LPG, kerosene etc, which are major
conventional fuels used all over the world. The process of manufacture of petroleum products
consists of first drilling out of the crude oil from various sources like sea beds, oil wells and then
the various products are separated by the process of refining and then treated in different units to
maintain the norms and standards.
 FIRE AND SAFETY DEPARTMENT

Fire and Safety Department of Indian Oil Corporation Limited is concerned about the fire
hazards and safety of the company employees and labors. Fire and Safety officials train the
labors in a daily manner. A person can enter the Battery Area if and only if he/she has a safety
pass. This safety pass is issued by the Fire and Safety Department officials only.

IMPORTANT TERMINOLOGIES:
• Safety- Safety is a condition which gives us freedom from hazards, risk, accidents which may
cause injury, damage and loss of materials or property and even death.
• Accident- It is an unexpected or unplanned event which may or may not result in injury or
damage or property loss or death.
• Injury- It is defined as harmful conditions sustained by the body as a result of accident.
Hazards- Inherent properties of a substance or an occurrence which has potential to cause loss
or damage of properties or life.
• Risk- The probability of the potential for loss or damage or injury.

SAFETY MEASURES:

Different safety measures are taken to reduce the chances of hazards. Mobiles, laptops, pen
drives and cameras are prohibited inside the battery area. Cars which are allowed to enter the
battery area are provided with spark arrestors. Cigarette, alcohol and other inflammable objects
are not allowed inside the battery area. Fire alarms and Fire Extinguishers are present within a
considerable distance inside the refinery. Workers are always advised to use their PPEs.
Personal Protection Equipment’s or PPEs
Personal Protection Equipments are provided for the workers. These equipments are as follows:
• Safety shoes/Gumboots for protection of feet

• Safety helmet for protection of head

• Face shield for protection of face

• Ear plug and ear muffs for protection of ears

• Hand gloves for protection of hands

• Apron for protection of body

• Dust mask for protection of nose

• Safety goggles for protection of eyes

• Safety belt for work at height

Hazard Siren Code

The major types of Siren codes are:

• A continuous test siren is sounded every morning at 7 am for 2 minutes.
• Small fire-no siren.
• Major fire- a wailing siren for 2 minutes
• Disaster-3 times wailing siren for 2 minutes at intervals of 1 minute in between (8
minutes in total)

Fire Extinguisher
Three types of fire extinguishers are there:

• Dry Chemical Powder (DCP) - for control of any type of fire.

• CO2 gas extinguisher-for control of electrical fire hazards.

• Foam for control of liquid/oil fire hazards.

Red and Green tag system is there for marking of an object. Workers are always advised not to
use the red tag objects as they may cause an accident.
There are also 5 assembly points in the refinery. All employees and workers are advised to
assemble there in case of a siren.
The aim of Indian Oil Corporation Limited is Zero Accident and Fire and Safety department
plays an important role in that.
 AVU Unit (Atmospheric & Vacuum
Distillation Unit)

Introduction:
The crude distillation unit was designed for desalting and primary distillation of light Arabian
crude and North Rumalia mixture in the proportion of 1:1. The nominal designed capacity of the
unit was 6MMTPA of the above crude on mixture. However the designed provided a possibility
of processing 7MMTPA of crude of containing 2% weight of gas. Process calculation, sizing of
vessels and equipment was made for the same. The unit has been revamped in different stages to
raise its capacity and to process different types of crude including indigenous crude from
Bombay High. Subsequent to these revamps, the nominal capacity of the unit stands at 8 MMTPA
for processing imported Middle East crude and 7MMTPA for processing Bombay High. Based on
50:50 processing of imported and BH crudes in blocked out operation, the nominal capacity of
the unit stands at 7.5 MMTPA. The unit has been designed to produce the following cuts: LPG to
be sent to Merox treating unit.

PROCESS DESCRIPTION:
Distillation of crude oil is carried out in two units, first in an Atmospheric Distillation Unit (also
known as Crude Distillation Unit, CDU), with further processing of the residue from atmospheric
distillation in the Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU), as illustrated in Fig 2 .

For sake of simplicity, Figure 2 does not include the network of heat exchangers and pump
around loops to pre-heat the desalted crude before it is fed the fired furnace.

FEED SUPPLY: Crude is stored in eight storage tanks (six having a nominal capacity of
50,000 m3 each and remaining two are of 65,000m3 each). Booster pumps located in the off-sites
are used to deliver crude to the unit feed pumps. Filters are installed on the suction manifold of
crude pumps to trap foreign matter. For processing slop, pumps are located in
the offsite area which regulate the quantity of slop into the crude header after filters. Provision to
inject proportioned quantity of demulsified into the unit crude pumps suction header with the
help of dosing pump is available.

Crude oil obtained from the desalter at temperature of 250 °C-260 °C is further heated by a tube-
still heater to a temperature of 350 °C-360 °C.

DESALTING: Desalting is a purification process used for the removal of salts, inorganic
particles and residual water from crude oil and thereby reducing corrosion and fouling of
equipment. These impurities are brought along with the residual water content of the crude oil.
Water drops ordinarily are so small that simple gravity settling is very poor .in an oil pool, the
molecules that are least similar to the bulk of oil are subjected to less intermolecular forces.
Being less attracted to the inner body of the oil, the exceptional material will be rejected to an
inter-face of the oil/water drops. Such rejected surface active materials comprise a physical
barrier that prevents water drops from getting close enough to bring about coalesce. Before the
drops can coalesce the stabilizer film must be reduced in thickness, tenacity and therefore
ruptured. The electric field is a powerful tool for overcoming the resistance of stabilizing films.
The collision and coalescence of drops is accomplished by an induced dipole attraction between
them. As the droplets then approach each other, the force between them becomes very great. The
stabilizing films are squeezed between the drops and coalescence is rapid.

The hot crude oil is then passed into a distillation column that allows the separation of the crude
oil into different fractions depending on the difference in volatility. The pressure at the top is
maintained at 1.2-1.5 atm so that the distillation can be carried out at close to atmospheric
pressure, and therefore it is known as atmospheric distillation column.
The vapors from the top of the column are a mixture of hydrocarbon gases and naphtha, at a
temperature of 120 °C-130 °C. The vapor stream associated with steam used at bottom of the
column is condensed by the water cooler and the liquid collected in a vessel is known as reflux
drum which is present at the top of the column. Some part of the liquid is returned to the top plate
of the column as overhead reflux and the remaining liquid is sent to a stabilizer column which
separates gases from liquid naphtha. A few plates below the top plate, the kerosene is obtained as
product at a temperature of 190 °C-200 °C. Part of this fraction is returned to the column after it
is cooled by a heat exchanger. This cooled liquid is known as circulating reflux, and it is
important to control the heat load in the column. The remaining crude oil is passed through a side
stripper which uses steam to separate kerosene. The kerosene obtained is cooled and collected in
a storage tank as raw kerosene, known as straight run kerosene that boils at a range of 140°C-270
°C. A few plates below the kerosene draw plate, the diesel fraction is obtained at a temperature of
280 °C-300 °C. The diesel fraction is then cooled and stored. The top product from the
atmospheric distillation column is a mixture of hydrocarbon gases, e.g., methane, ethane,
propane, butane, and naphtha vapors. Residual oil present at the bottom of the column is known
as reduced crude oil (RCO). The temperature of the stream at the bottom is 340°C-350 °C, which
is below the cracking temperature of oil.

Fig 1:Desalter
 *"c LPG
AVU FLOW SHEET
Pr« 40-60 mm Hg a

Stabilized Naphtha To Steam Ejector

T»2O0 Deg C Instabibed I in H'.:
N pH ► Eight Naphtha

u>.
► HLMVN \.I| Ltli.i
■n

185 190 C

. Ufl * Heavy Kero Ji\ GO

son c j?5 385(

LOO
Vac Slop
Y£-11C! C
FURNACE

1*130-140 T= 370 Deg

Crude Oil FURNACE

340-350 C T* 415 Deg C

280 Deg C

Fig 2: Flow Diagram of AVU

The heavy hydrocarbon residues are sent to a Vacuum Distillation Column for further separation
of hydrocarbons under reduced pressure.Heavies from the atmospheric distillation column are
heated to approximately 400°C in a fired heater and fed to the vacuum distillation column where
they are fractionated into light gas oil, heavy gas oil and vacuum reside. Some heavy
hydrocarbons cannot be boiled at the operating temperature and pressure conditions in the
atmospheric distillation column. Hence they exit the bottom of the column in liquid state and are
sent to the vacuum distillation column where they can be boiled at a lower temperature when
pressure is significantly reduced. Absolute operating pressure in a Vacuum Tower can be reduced
to 20 mm of Hg or less (atmospheric pressure is 760 mm Hg). In addition, superheated steam is
injected with the feed and in the tower bottom to reduce hydrocarbon partial pressure to 10 mm
of mercury or less. Lower partial pressure of the hydrocarbons makes it even easier for them to
be vaporized, thus consuming less heat energy for the process. Steam ejectors can be used to suck
the lighter hydrocarbon vapors at low pressure from the top of the column. These vapors are then
cooled down to condense the steam which had been introduced in the column earlier. The
condensed oily water is removed and can be recycled to the column after boiling it. Hydrocarbon
vapors are taken out at this stage.

Two different cuts of hydrocarbons - 'light vacuum gas oil' and 'heavy vacuum gas oil' are
separated in the vacuum distillation column at different stages of the column, based on the
difference between their boiling point ranges. The liquid being drawn at low pressure needs to be
pumped. Then it is heated and partially recycled back to the column. Part of it is taken out as
vacuum distillation products - 'light vacuum gas oil' or 'heavy vacuum gas oil'. Light vacuum gas
Oil is sent to a hydro-treater and then to a 'catalytic cracking' unit to obtain smaller chain
hydrocarbons. Heavy vacuum gas oil is also sent for cracking using hydrogen in a 'hydrocracking
unit' to produce smaller chain hydrocarbons.
Heavy hydrocarbons which cannot be boiled even under reduced pressure remain at the bottom
of the column and are pumped out as 'vacuum residue'. The vacuum distillation column bottom
residue can only be used for producing coke in a 'coker unit' or to produce bitumen.

Information of Products distilled from AVU:

To be sent to Merox treating

LPG unit
Cs-140 °C Naphtha component
140-250T To be used as ATF after
Merox treatment
140-270 °C To be used as superior
kerosene after Merox
treatment
Light gas oil (HSD
250(270)-320 °C component)
Heavy gas oil (HSD
320-380 °C component)
<380 °C Lisht Vacuum gas oil to be
used as HSD component or
as LDO
380-425 °C LDO to be used as LDO
component or FCCU
feedstock
425-530 °C I FCCU feedstock
Vacuum slops To be blended uito finished
FO or to FFS
To be sent to refinery fiiel
Hydrocarbon gas gas system
Atmospheric Residue To be used as YBU feed
component for the menial
fuel oil and as a FFS
component
Vacuum Residue To be used as feed for
BBU.YBU. a component for
internal fiiel oil and a
 Vis-Breaker Unit (VBU)

A vis breaker is a processing unit in an oil refinery whose purpose is to reduce the quantity of
residual oil produced in the distillation of crude oil and to increase the yield of more valuable
middle distillates (heating oil and diesel) by the refinery. A visbreaker thermally cracks large
hydrocarbon molecules in the oil by heating in a furnace to reduce its viscosity and to produce
small quantities of light hydrocarbons (LPG and gasoline).The process name of "visbreaker" refers
to the fact that the process reduces (i.e., breaks) the viscosity of the residual oil. The process is non
catalytic.
The objectives of vis-breaking are:

• Reduce the viscosity of the feed stream: Typically this is the residue from vacuum distillation of
crude oil but can also be the residue from hydro-skimming operations, natural bitumen from
seeps in the ground or tar sands and even certain high viscosity crude oils.
• Reduce the amount of residual fuel oil produced by a refinery: Residual fuel oil is generally
regarded as a low value product. Demand for residual fuel continues to decrease as it is
replaced in its traditional markets, such as fuel needed to generate steam in power stations, by
cleaner burning alternative fuels such as natural gas.
• Increase the proportion of middle distillates in the refinery output: Middle distillate is used as a
diluent with residual oils to bring their viscosity down to a marketable level. By reducing the
viscosity of the residual stream in a visbreaker, a fuel oil can be made
using less diluent and the middle distillate saved can be diverted to higher value diesel or
heating oil manufacture.

Air-cooled
condenser

Gas

Reflux Reflux
Drum

—W Sour
Atmospheric Water
Pump
Fractionator Naphtha

---Sidecut
Stripper
Soaker stm
Drum
(optional)
Fuel oil
Feed
Pump
stm Vacuum
system
Fuel
OS
oil
Pump
Pump
Fired
Heater Vacuum
Flasher
(optional)
os

Residue
Notes:
stm = steam
cs = cooling stream Pump

Fig 3.Visbreaking Unit Flow Diagram

Process of Vis Breaking:-

The feedstock is introduced into the coil heated in the furnace where the thermal cracking
reactions take place. At the furnace outlet, the reaction products are immediately quenched using
a portion of the gas oil product from the fractionator to stop the thermal cracking reactions. The
quenched products are sent to the fractionator for separation into gas, gasoline, light gas oil, and
visbroken residue streams. A steam stripper can be used with the fractionator for better separation
of the visbreaking products. In the soaker visbreaking process, a soak drum is placed after the
furnace. Most of the thermal cracking reactions in this case take place in the soaker drum.

Depending on the process objectives and feedstock characteristics, reaction temperatures range
from 450°C to 485°C and pressures range from 3 to 10 bar. Higher temperatures and lower
residence times are used in the coil visbreaking process.

Residence times can vary from 1 min (associated with high temperatures in coil visbreaking) to
10 min (for lower temperatures used in soaker visbreaking).

Similar to de-asphalting and distillation, the environmental impact of visbreaking is associated

with burning fuel in the furnace to provide energy for thermal cracking, and, to a lesser extent,
burning off the coke deposited in the coil or soaker drum leading to emissions of CO2, oxides of
nitrogen (NOx), and oxides of sulfur (SOx) in the flue gases.
Types of Vis- Breaking:

• Coil Vis-Breaking

The term coil (or furnace) visbreaking is applied to units where the cracking
process occurs in the furnace tubes (or "coils"). Material exiting the furnace is
quenched to halt the cracking reactions: frequently this is achieved by heat
exchange with the virgin material being fed to the furnace, which in turn is a good
energy efficiency step, but sometimes a stream of cold oil (usually gas oil) is used
to the same effect. The gas oil is recovered and re-used. The extent of the cracking
reaction is controlled by regulation of the speed of flow of the oil through the
furnace tubes. The quenched oil then passes to a fractionator where the products of
the cracking (gas, LPG, gasoline, gas oil and tar) are separated and recovered

• Soaker Vis-Breaking:

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
pre-determined period of time to allow cracking to occur before being quenched. The oil then
passes to a fractionator. In soaker visbreaking, lower temperatures are used than in coil
visbreaking. The comparatively long duration of the cracking reaction is used instead.
Feed quality and product quality
The quality of the feed going into a visbreaker will vary considerably with the type of crude oil
that the refinery is processing. The following is a typical quality for the vacuum distillation
residue of Arabian light (a crude oil from Saudi Arabia and widely refined around the world):

Density Viscosity at 100 °CSulphur Content (wt

(kg/l) (centistokes) %)

1.020 930 4.0

Once this material has been run through a visbreaker (and, again, there will be considerable
variation from visbreaker to visbreaker as no two will operate under exactly the same conditions)
the reduction in viscosity is dramatic:

Density Viscosity at 100 °CSulphur Content

(kg/l) (centistokes) (wt%)

1.048 115 4.7

Yields
The yields of the various hydrocarbon products will depend on the "severity" of the cracking
operation as determined by the temperature the oil is heated to in the visbreaker furnace. At the
low end of the scale, a furnace heating to 425 °C would crack only mildly, while operations at
500 °C would be considered as very severe. Arabian light crude residue when visbroken at 450
°C would yield around 76% (by weight) of tar, 15% middle distillates, 6% gasolines and 3% gas
and LPG.

Fuel oil stability

The severity of visbreaker operation is normally limited by the need to produce a visbreaker tar
that can be blended to make a stable fuel oil.

Stability in this case is taken to mean the tendency of a fuel oil to produce sediments when
stored. These sediments are undesirable as they can quickly foul the filters of pumps used to
move the oil necessitating time-consuming maintenance.
Vacuum residue fed to a visbreaker can be considered to be composed of the following:

• Asphaltenes: large polycyclic molecules that are suspended in the oil in colloidal form
• Resins: also polycyclic but of a lower molecular weight than asphaltenes
• Aromatic hydrocarbons: derivatives of benzene, toluene and xylene.

• Paraffinic hydrocarbons: alkanes.

Visbreaking preferentially cracks aliphatic compounds which have relatively low sulphur
contents, low density and high viscosity and the effect of their removal can be clearly seen in the
change in quality between feed and product. A too severe cracking in a visbreaker will lead to the
asphaltene colloid becoming metastable. Subsequent addition of a diluent to manufacture a
finished fuel oil can cause the colloid to break down, precipitating
asphaltenes as a sludge. It has been observed that a paraffinic diluent is more likely to cause
precipitation than an aromatic one. Stability of fuel oil is assessed using a number of proprietary
tests (for example "P" value and SHF tests).
Viscosity blending

The viscosity blending of two or more liquids having different viscosities is a three-step
procedure. The first step is to calculate the Viscosity Blending Index (VBI) of each component of
the blend using the following equation (known as a Refutas equation):
(1) VBN = 14.534 x ln [ln(v + 0.8)] + 10.975

where v is the viscosity in square millimeters per second (mm2/s) or centistokes (cSt) and ln is the
natural logarithm (loge). It is important that the viscosity of each component of the blend be
obtained at the same temperature.

The next step is to calculate the VBN of the blend, using this equation:

(2) VBN Blend = [WA x VBNA] + [WB x VBNB] + ... + [wx x VBNX]

where w is the weight fraction (i.e., % ^ 100) of each component of the blend.
Once the viscosity blending number of a blend has been calculated using equation
(2) , the final step is to determine the viscosity of the blend by using the invert of equation (1):
(3) V= ee(VBN - 10.975) + 14.534 — gg

where VBN is the viscosity blending number of the blend and e is the transcendental number
2.71828, also known as Euler's Number.
 CONCLUSION
This industrial vocational training at IOCL Mathura was a golden opportunity for me and a
perfect platform for learning about the practical applications of the theories we learnt in our
course. The process of separation based on relative difference in the boiling point and volatility
was applied to commercial purpose by industries to extract valuable fuel components from crude
oil and refine them as per market demands for sale in the market. It can be clearly seen that unit
operations of chemical engineering are intertwined with the various processes used for extraction
and refining in the oil refinery.

The experience and knowledge gained from this industrial vocational training are immense. It
made me acquainted with the various basic processes which are undergoing in different units in
the refinery as well as the basic underlying concepts involved in each process. There are also
certain salient features which are unique to Mathura refinery which are not present in any other
refineries of this esteemed corporation.

I gained knowledge during this training in various aspects as an engineer in an industry. Training
here enhanced my cognition, as the employees were very helping and all the doubts and question
that arise in my mind were discussed.