Abstract

1. PRE-FLASH CRUDE FRACTIONATION* Jonathan Peters** and Miguel Bagajewicz University of Oklahoma School of Chemical, Biological, and Materials Engineering (*) This work was done as part of the capstone Chemical Engineering class at the University of Oklahoma (**) Capstone Undergraduate students Specifications Used • Abstract 2 Pre-flashes Heat integration of conventional crude fractionation by use of a single pre-flash unit has shown to be less energy efficient than conventional units alone when maintaining the same product yield. However, there is a reduction in the heat requirement when the flow rate of gas oil is reduced. Marginal improvements have been shown for heavy crude fractionation while maintaining high gas oil yield. This work shows the results of use of multiple pre-flash units in several configurations. The heat integration of conventional units with multiple pre-flash units is analyzed using both light and heavy crude fractionation and compared to purely conventional units. A new technology was proposed and its economic advantages are highlighted. - - Energy Consumption Heavy Crude Light Crude Conventional Pre-Flash Configurations have higher consumption Our Novel Technology exhibits lower consumption 4 Pre-flashes Light Crude Product Yield Heavy Crude All Pre-flash cases have lower AGO yield for light crude Our Novel Technology exhibits higher AGO for the heavy crude One Pre-flash Economics Heavy Crude Light Crude New Design (Details unavailable to public at this time) Conclusion Multiple pre-flashing increases the minimum heat utility, residue yield, and reduces gas oil yield. There is no profit increase with multiple pre-flash. The new design shows noticeable energy improvement and gas oil recovery from conventional distillation (heavy crude only). Further studies are warranted. The new design yields a profit increase of $7 million per year for a heavy crude and negative values for a light crude.