Heat integration projects for

refining processes
Heat integration projects can deliver substantial savings, but they require
detailed simulation and case-specific heat integration analysis

ALIŞAN DOGĂN
Turkish Petroleum Refineries Corporation

R
efining is a complex oper- projects for different refinery columns and other equipment
ation involving many process units are considered. will be necessary.
kinds of processes. All The methods, equipment and Furthermore, a complete unit
these processes have different approaches used for heat inte- model will let you find addi-
principles; some involve frac- gration (pinch) studies of tional and more accurate
tionation, some involve various refining processes, saving opportunities through
different reactions and some their similarities and differ- case studies and trial-and-er-
have both. All these processes ences are discussed. ror studies. At the end of the
have one thing in common: In order to make a pinch day, it is all about making the
they need energy. It may be a study of an existing unit, one necessary investment in an
need to heat “cold streams”: should first define the overall existing unit to gain air- or
energy to make the required picture, which is the energy water-cooled waste heat to
separation between cuts, balance and the temperature decrease furnace loads or
energy to strip off unwanted profile of all the related cold generate steam. Case studies
gases, energy to perform a and hot streams. The heating will be necessary to be able to
reaction and so on. The cooling curves and potentials select the best investment
processes also have energy-giv- saving should be determined. option. When deciding on the
ing streams (hot streams): A test run performed in the design data of new equipment
column pumparounds, over- unit will give all the necessary and retrofits, rating them with
head streams, reactor effluents information, such as flow a second set of simulation data
and so on, which are available rates, temperatures and lab representing the unit (or units)
to supply a portion of the results. Based on this test run, will be wise in order to select
necessary heat; furnaces burn- a simulation model of the unit the equipment based on a
ing fuel take care of the rest. should be made. For a start, range of operations.
Some processes are integrated; only the heat exchanger Main steps to making a
the product or residue of one network consisting of simple detailed heat integration engi-
process may be the feed to heat exchanger models may be neering study are given below.
another. The better the heat enough to define the overall The procedure may change
integration in or between heat balance. However, when from study to study, but the
process units, the less fuel is it comes to adding equipment, principles remain the same:
burned in furnaces, which making accurate cost estima- • Rigorous simulation model-
leads to more profit. In this tions and defining design data ling of the existing unit or units
article, the basics of heat inte- for retrofits and new equip- within the boundary
gration studies performed in ment, a unit model with • Formation of base case heat-
various heat integration rigorous heat exchangers, ing – cooling composite curves

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000891 PTQ Q4 2013 1

 streams are used to heat the
Crude Heating AR Heating crude charge, and hot atmos-
Unintegrated pheric residue is sent directly to
the vacuum furnace to be
heated. In a non-integrated
Crude unit
configuration, atmospheric resi-
due is sent colder to the
AR
Vacuum vacuum unit after heating the
357ºC 127ºC 300ºC
furnace crude oil. Therefore, in a
and unit
AR HVGOPA VR non-integrated layout, atmos-
duty duty duty
pheric residue is first a hot
Integrated stream giving energy to the
crude side, then a cold stream,
which is heated by vacuum unit
Crude unit
hot streams such as the HVGO
HVGOPA VR
duty duty pumparound and vacuum resi-
AR
Vacuum due run-down. This is an
~357ºC ~357ºC
furnace inefficient design from a heat
and unit
integration point of view. Heat
exchanger area is needed to first
Figure 1 Drawing the CDU/VDU heat integration boundary cool down the hot atmospheric
residue in the crude side, and
• Determination of base case shifting reflux duties and oper- additional area is needed to
minimum approach tempera- ation variables. heat it in the vacuum side.
ture and potential savings Heat integration studies Furthermore, the heat that
• Determination of possible performed on different refining could be recovered would be
retrofit paths to achieve poten- units will now be discussed, higher in the integrated case,
tial savings taking into account similarities the HVGO pumparound (at
• Making the necessary equip- and differences in the high flow) and vacuum residue
ment additions to the unit approaches and their effects. (at high temperature) being able
model and simulating the new to give more duty to the crude
retrofit paths Crude and vacuum distillation side and the atmospheric resi-
• Repeating the first five steps processes due going much hotter to the
for another base case simula- The first important step for a vacuum furnace directly from
tion model, preferably a case at heat integration study of a the atmospheric column.
the opposite end of the opera- crude distillation unit is draw- Even if integration of the
tion envelope ing the boundary: is the unit CDU and VDU is not desired
• Rating the equipment to integrated with the vacuum for a specific reason, atmos-
supply the needs of both oper- unit and, if not, should it be? pheric residue preheating
ation cases Integrating a crude unit with should be included in the heat
• Determination of investment the downstream vacuum unit integration study when draw-
costs and benefits of all the is, most of the time, more prof- ing boundaries. Including only
different saving opportunities itable. Even if they are not the crude unit will prevent
(options) integrated, the overall bound- one from seeing the potential
• Selecting the most appropri- ary should be drawn to include modifications, retrofits and
ate case the vacuum side — the atmos- benefits, which result in hotter
• Extracting the process data pheric residue (vacuum charge) atmospheric residue going to
necessary for new equipment preheating train. the vacuum unit.
design. Figure 2 is the composite
Savings may be further Drawing the boundary curve for the CDU unit in
increased during the latter In an integrated CDU/VDU Figure 1, which is not inte-
simulation stages by changing/ configuration, vacuum unit hot grated with the VDU. The

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hot-side pinch point is 129°C
and the atmospheric residue 600
outlet from crude preheating is
at 127°C. Therefore, the atmos- 500

Temperature, ºC
pheric residue temperature is
400
at the closest point to the heat-
ing curve of the cold streams.
300
The minimum temperature
difference (DTmin) between the 200 Pinch = 129ºC
curves is 30°C. Although there
is 44 Gcal/h of waste heat, the 100 dTmin = 30ºC
saving potential is limited to 7 Pinch = 99ºC
Gcal/h even when you target a 0
minimum temperature differ- 0 50 100 150 200 250
ence of 10°C, which is very Enthalpy, Gcal/h
hard to achieve. The reason for
this is that if you bring only Figure 2 Drawing the boundary and composite curves
the CDU into the picture, it is
not possible to gain substan- targeted. The real potential, in before going into the atmos-
tially from the waste heat and fact, is much higher than this, pheric furnace. The reboiler
keep the atmospheric residue considering that there is no and naphtha splitter reboiler
temperature close to 129°C at constraint on the atmospheric duties are supplied by HVGO
the same time. residue temperature, and even and diesel pumparounds.
However, when atmospheric more when the units are to be The DTmin of the light crude
residue preheating in the VDU integrated. base case is ~70°C, with nearly
is brought into the picture, In the example below, a heat 62 Gcal/h of furnace process
there is no need to keep the integration study performed on duty and 42 Gcal/h of wasted
atmospheric residue tempera- another CDU/VDU unit is “hot stream” energy.
ture close to the cold curve, explained in detail. The config- The main waste heat streams
because it is a cold stream that uration, number of in this configuration are as
is heated by VDU hot streams. pumparound streams, reboiler follows:
Sending atmospheric residue hot streams and so on may • HVGO PA air cooler duty
hotter to the VDU is desirable, differ in different process (after crude heating)
therefore a potential is gener- layouts. • LVGO PA air cooler duty
ated even when the two units • Atmospheric column over-
are not integrated. If the units Case 1: CDU/VDU unit head duty after the top
are to be integrated, the poten- In the integrated unit discussed condenser
tial is much higher. below, the preheat train • Run-down air cooler duties
Atmospheric residue will then consists of three different (after crude and desalter water
be going to the VDU furnace sections. Before the desalter, heating), especially heavy
directly in its hottest form, and the heat required is provided diesel run-down.
the VDU hot streams will be by the atmospheric column Basic design considerations
used in crude heating (see overhead and some portion of for the project are:
Figure 1). the diesel pumparound duty. • Increasing the HVGO pump-
When atmospheric residue After the desalter, crude is around duty in the vacuum
preheating is added within the separated into three streams to column automatically decreases
boundaries, DTmin automati- be heated by product the air-cooled LVGO pumpa-
cally increases to 46°C, creating run-downs, the diesel pumpa- round duty. Even in the low
a potential of 15 Gcal/h for round and the HVGO HVGO pumparound base case,
DTmin = 10, already doubled pumparound. Afterwards, the a substantial amount of duty is
even though the same atmos- combination crude is further lost through air coolers. The
pheric residue temperature is heated by vacuum residue desired HVGO temperature to

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000891 PTQ Q4 2013 3

 space could not be found in
the actual unit conditions. This
Kero. LAD HAD
option is laid aside for the
To
Crude furnace time being as a possibility.
Desalter The simplified crude preheat
OVHD HADPA2 HADPA1 VR train before and after the
project is shown in Figure 3.
HVGOPA
The key to this study is that
all of the new heat exchangers
are considered to be plate-type
heat exchangers. All weld-
Kero. LAD HAD1 To ed-type plate heat exchangers,
Crude furnace
Desalter because of their area and space
OVHD HADPA2 LVGOPA HADPA1 HVGOPA1 efficiency (high heat transfer
HAD2 VR1 coefficient), are well suited to
tighter applications. If shell
HVGOPA2 VR2 and tubes were to be selected
for this project, a huge number
Figure 3 CDU/VDU example crude preheat train before and after the project of shells in series and the space
they occupy would have been
the hydrocracker is 150°C. the LVGO and heavy diesel required. This would have
Therefore, a HVGO pumpa- heat exchangers increased the investment cost,
round temperature of 150°C is • The new cold vacuum resi- pressure drop and space
targeted. In order to make up due exchanger drops the requirements. With this project,
room in the crude network for temperature to its initial value over 15 Gcal/h of furnace duty
the existing air-cooled duty before going to steam will be saved even without the
and this additional duty in the production additional overhead exchanger.
HVGO pumparound, some • The overhead vapour duty Overall payback time of the
duty has to be shifted towards after the first condenser (crude project is almost half a year.
the hotter side of the train. oil heater) is very high, and
Therefore, a new hot HVGO this is lost through air and Preflash drum option
pumparound exchanger is water coolers. However, it The feasibility of adding a
added before the existing hot needs a higher-grade material preflash drum depends on the
VR exchanger, and the new heat exchanger to recover column operation, pumpa-
cold HVGO pumparound heat because of its corrosive nature rounds and how they are
exchanger is added to the cold • Putting an additional high- located in the structure of the
side to recover the additional grade material overhead heat exchanger network and the
duties exchanger and recovering the tray where preflash vapour is
• The remaining LVGO pump- energy across the dew point introduced. Adding a preflash
around duty is partially was considered. This would drum changes the pinch struc-
recovered before the HADPA enable more heat recovery by ture, the potential energy
exchangers in the second shifting the diesel pumpa- savings and the additional area
branch round duty towards the hotter of new heat exchanger needed.
• A portion of the heavy diesel side of the train, making room It is a case-specific study, and it
duty is recovered in the second for the overhead duty before should not be decided whether
branch, following the new the desalter. Diesel pumpa- an option with the preflash
LVGO heat exchanger round duty would be shifted drum will be feasible or not
• Additional surface area is by closing the bypass and without making a detailed
added to the HADPA heat putting additional area on the study. However, the existing
exchanger. The reason for this existing HADPA exchanger. unit column and heat exchanger
is that the crude temperature is However, because of the tight network structure will give a
much higher now because of equipment layout, enough hint.

4 PTQ Q4 2013 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000891

 It is certain that preflash Simulations are made such this is the overhead stream.
vapour will bypass the furnace that there is no loss of valuable Therefore, the driving force
and the liquid load will products to less valuable ones. effect would make additional
decrease. Furthermore, the Some examples regarding the savings if overhead duty were
preflash drum bottom tempera- preflash studies made are to be used. This effect also
ture will be much lower than given below. decreases the investment cost
the inlet. This will create a of exchangers and decreases
driving force in temperatures Preflash example 1 the vacuum residue tempera-
and make an opportunity for In the CDU/VDU study given ture going to steam production
this stream to be heated more as the example project, a (by shifting some portion of
efficiently, which may result in preflash study was made. A the vacuum residue steam duty
duty shifts and savings. brief summary of the preflash to crude oil heating furnace
However, the main point to option for this particular unit duty). The additional saving
be considered in a preflash follows. would be in the range of
drum study is the cooling effect When the preflash vapour is 2 Gcal/hour in the light crude
of preflash vapour on the tray given to the flash zone, duty case and close to zero in the
to which it is introduced. If this gained in the atmospheric heavy crude case. Based on
vapour is given directly to the furnace is lost in the vacuum these results, the preflash drum
flash zone, the column bottom furnace. option for this study was laid
temperature will be lower and When the preflash vapour is aside because of its low overall
the direct benefit will be small. given to the upper trays at a benefits and unit space
In fact, the only real potential in suitable temperature, column constraints.
this case is the temperature pumparound duty decreases.
drop in the preflash bottoms There is only one pumparound Preflash example 2
and the ability to heat this in this particular unit (HADPA) Another example is the initially
stream more effectively. If and all of the duty is used in non-integrated CDU/VDU unit
preflash vapour is given to the crude oil preheat. The potential illustrated in Figures 1 and 2.
upper trays based on its duty gained by preflash The effects of the preflash
temperature, the pumparound vapours bypassing the furnace drum and also the importance
duty on the column will is lost in crude oil preheating. of drawing the overall bound-
decrease. Therefore, the ques- The column atmospheric resi- ary correctly will be discussed
tion is where is this due temperature increases and in this example. When a typical
pumparound duty used? the vacuum furnace load non-integrated CDU such as in
• If pumparound duty is used decreases. However, overall Figure 1 is considered, atmos-
directly in the preheat, poten- saving in this aspect is close to pheric residue is used in
tial duty gained by bypassing zero. preheating crude oil, and
the furnace is lost as reflux There is a 20°C temperature colder atmospheric residue is
duty in the preheat train, drop in the preflash drum heated again with vacuum-side
cancelling out the energy bottom. This driving force hot streams.
benefit effect creates room for addi- If there is an air-cooled
• If pumparound duty is air tional savings potential in the pumparound, introducing
cooled, the preflash vapour cold side of the train and preflash vapour in the upper
will decrease this duty. Energy- decreases the heat exchanger trays creates a benefit, as
wise, there will be no loss and investment to be made. In this discussed in the previous
the furnace duty will be specific layout, the cold example.
decreased preflash bottom temperature If all pumparound duties are
• The saving related to the makes HADPA duty shift to used in preheating, one does
driving force effect with the the hotter side of the preheat not expect large amounts of
preflash option depends on the train, creating room for an savings. However, if you draw
waste heat available in the heat additional savings opportunity the boundary on the CDU only,
integration study and the before the desalter. The only the results will be different.
configuration. air-cooled stream available for The pumparound duties (there

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000891 PTQ Q4 2013 5

 To
column

Kero. LAD HAD1

Desalter To
Crude
furnace
OVHD HADPA2 LVGOPA HADPA1 HADPA HVGOPA1 VR1
HAD2 Flash drum (new)

HVGOPA2 VR2

Figure 4 Preflash drum option for the project

may be more than one pumpa- actually there. There will be streams: HVGO for the hydroc-
round) will be lower with the some shifts from steam produc- racker (diesel for HDS),
upper tray preflash option. This tion duty to furnace duty, but hydrogen and stripper-fraction-
would automatically mean that this is not an energy-saving ator feeds.
crude inlet temperatures to the potential in the CDU/VDU. It is In hydrocracker and HDS
existing atmospheric residue a matter of the value of steam heat integration studies
exchangers would decrease, in that particular refinery. If the performed, similar principles
creating a driving force effect. unit is integrated, project saving were followed (except for the
This would also automatically potentials are much bigger. fact that there is no fractionator
mean that more duty can be However, the effect of a in a HDS), therefore this section
recovered from atmospheric preflash drum will be similar. will be discussed with regard to
residue, making up for the lost the hydrocracker example.
duty in pumparounds, and the Hydrocracker and
atmospheric residue tempera- hydrodesulphurisation (HDS) Example: hydrocracker
ture leaving the CDU will be units In the unit studied, HVGO,
lower. This is an energy saving A typical hydrocracker or a hydrogen and stripper feed is
if you are only considering the HDS preheat train can be heated with reactor effluent.
CDU. However, the atmos- divided into two sections: the Before going into this
pheric residue is sent directly to reactor effluent side with high high-pressure network, the
the vacuum unit, and this pressure and temperature; and stripper charge is heated with
potential saving is lost in the the stripper–fractionation side diesel and fractionator bottom
vacuum furnace. Therefore, if with run-downs, pumpa- product. Debutaniser and
you draw the boundary on the rounds, reboilers and so on. naphtha splitter reboiler duties
CDU only, you will be evaluat- The main cold streams in this are supplied by the diesel
ing a potential that is not layout are the reactor input pumparound in the fractiona-
tor. Kerosene pumparound,
kerosene run-down, stripper
and fractionator overhead
To streams, and the reactor efflu-
Effluent air-cooler
ent stream going to the air
cooler are the main sources of
EFF1 EFF2 EFF3 EFF4 EFF5 EFF6 EFF7
waste energy. There are two
Fractionator
bottom
furnaces: one reactor charge
product furnace and the other fractiona-
Diesel tor charge (stripper bottom)
product
furnace. A simplified existing
heat exchanger layout is shown
To reactor furnace To stripper HVGO feed Stripper feed Hydrogen in Figure 5.
In the base case, the furnaces
Figure 5 Hydrocracker project existing simplified network have a process duty of 26.4

6 PTQ Q4 2013 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000891

Gcal/h. Waste heat through air
or water coolers is in total 60.3 600
Gcal/h. Nearly 24 Gcal/h is dT = 75.38ºC
Qh = 26.4
wasted through the effluent air 500
Qc = 60.3
cooler (operating from 190°C to

Temperature, ºC
62°C). The minimum tempera- 400
ture difference is 75°C between
300
the curves. The hot pinch is
230°C and the cold pinch is
200
154.5°C (see Figure 6).
The link between the high-
100
pressure and low-pressure heat
exchanger trains is the stripper 0
charge. Stripper feed is heated 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
from ~60°C to ~110°C with Enthalpy, Gcal/h
fractionator streams before
going to the high-pressure Figure 6 Hydrocracker project base case curves
effluent exchangers, where it is
heated to 255°C. Therefore, if effluent air cooler temperature reactor effluent network.
the stripper charge stream is means that temperatures are Including this stream on the
further heated with additional shifted towards cold stream effluent side by means of the
heat exchangers on the strip- heating. Therefore, corrosion optional exchanger shown in
per-fractionator side (the mechanisms will be shifted Figure 7 increases the amount
low-pressure side), there will towards the existing or new of savings made per amount of
be available duty potential in heat exchangers. additional investment.
the effluent side to heat reactor On the low-pressure side, Furthermore, the saving is
feed streams or the fractionator diesel pumparound has a high directly from the furnace.
feed stream. In this way, a flow rate and temperature to However, introducing the frac-
portion of the wasted column be able to heat up the fraction- tionator feed to the
overhead energy (together with ator charge with a plate-type high-pressure network may not
other fractionation side heat) heat exchanger. In order to be desirable because of relief
will be recovered as furnace achieve this, reboiler duties load and safety concerns.
duty. Once again, for the have to be shifted as much as In the HDS unit example
low-pressure side, welded-type possible towards the lower- without a fractionator, no
plate heat exchangers are grade heat sources. Air-cooled pumparound duty may be
selected. kerosene pumparound, diesel available. However, heating the
This approach can be applied run-down and kerosene stripper feed more effectively
either to keep the reactor efflu- run-down are suitable to take a with stripper overhead and
ent temperature as it is portion of this duty. Therefore, diesel product before it enters
(~190°C; after wash water lower-grade heat sources are the high-pressure preheat train
injection it is ~160°C) or used for lower-grade heat, free- creates the opportunity to
maximise the benefits by ing up higher-grade heat to be further heat up the reactor
decreasing (gaining from) the used elsewhere – in this case, furnace feed streams. Therefore,
reactor effluent air cooler duty for heating the fractionator the principle is similar.
as well. The choice is a matter charge. The temperatures are
of the additional heat exchange tight, so plate-type heat Alternative options
area required in the high-pres- exchangers are suitable for this Introducing a preflash drum
sure network to shift this duty purpose. Similar to the crude preflash
to feed streams and the furnace An alternative approach is to study, introducing a preflash
duty benefits achieved from it. further raise the fractionator drum to the fractionator feed
However, it is also a matter of feed temperature by introduc- creates a 20°C temperature
corrosion. A lower reactor ing it to the high-pressure difference driving force. This

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000891 PTQ Q4 2013 7

 To reactor To fractionator
furnace furnace

Effluent To air cooler

EFF1 EFF2 Optional EFF3 EFF4 EFF5 EFF6 EFF7

Fractionator
bottom
product

To stripper HVGO feed Diesel product

from deb. reb.
HADPA

Debut reboiler duty shifted to

HAD rundown.
Fractionator
overhead
Portion of naphtha splitter
reboiler duty shifted to kero
pumparound.

Fractionator feed Stripper feed Hydrogen

(Preflash bottom)

Figure 7 Hydrocracker project simplified network after possible modifications

stream can be heated with the design considerations Introducing a hot separator
heavy diesel (heavy diesel discussed, a simplified heat The stripper feed can be
pumparound) or reactor efflu- exchanger configuration looks described as the cold reactor
ent, or both. This driving force like the one shown in Figure 7 effluent stream after the air
creates an additional ener- (new positions are shown in cooler and pressure separators.
gy-saving opportunity and red). Therefore, in a way, it is being
decreases the amount of addi- The total furnace process cooled with an air cooler and
tional area needed. However, duty saved with this configura- heated again with reactor efflu-
the main saving comes because tion, even without affecting the ent. From an energy point of
the kero pumparound is air reactor effluent cooler and view, instead of cooling it to
cooled. Preflash vapour duty without adding additional area 60°C, it can be kept at the
directly decreases from the air to the existing exchangers, is 9 desired temperature, say
cooler if vapours are intro- Gcal/h, which is actually 255°C, with a new separator
duced to the upper trays higher when furnace efficiency configuration including a hot
according to the temperature is considered. Together with separator. In this way, the
profile. Therefore, fractionator kero run-down steam produc- effluent air cooler duty will be
furnace duty is decreased tion and considering firing lower and duty will be trans-
directly. Together with the efficiencies, the total saving is ferred to the other cold
shifting of reboiler duties to nearer 13 Gcal/h. streams, decreasing furnace
lower-grade heat sources and By adding the new heat loads. However, low-pressure
using diesel pumparound duty exchangers shown and adding side hot streams heating the
to heat up the preflash bottoms new shells to the existing heat stripper charge will be freed
(fractionator feed) with a new exchangers, savings can rise to up, and they have to be used
heat exchanger, furnace and 18 Gcal/h, taking into account in steam production in order
air-cooled pumparound or increased investment costs. not to waste them and gain
overhead reflux duties are Payback times of all the differ- some energy overall. Whether
decreased substantially. ent scenarios are around, or this steam is needed or not is a
Taking into account all of less than, one year. critical issue when evaluating

8 PTQ Q4 2013 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000891

this option. If steam is not a Conclusion entrainment concerns; there-
good alternative in the refin- Heat integration options and fore, special consideration
ery’s utility balance, hot studies should be considered should be given to the preflash
separator designs do not bring as case-specific evaluations. drum design, such as high
any energy benefit at all when There is no rule of thumb retention time, high L/D ratio
compared to other heat recov- whether an option is the best and usage of demister pads.
ery scenarios. for a specific unit or a specific Even a preflash tower may be
Furthermore, introducing a refinery. Unit layout, integra- considered to eliminate risks,
hot separator means more solu- tion with other downstream although this would, of course,
ble hydrogen through stripper units, overall refinery utility increase the investment cost
charge and loss of hydrogen to balance and unit-specific prob- • Overall refinery steam
fuel gas. It also means loss of lems (such as the hydrocracker balance is sometimes very criti-
C3-C4 (LPG product). Four effluent air cooler example) all cal in heat integration studies.
separator designs can be affect the selection process: The freedom to produce steam
selected to lower the amount of • Drawing the overall bound- may bring additional benefits
product lost, but cannot ary is very important, to overall fuel consumption in
prevent it. Therefore, even especially in CDU/VDU stud- the refinery, or it may not be
though steam production is ies. Integration will most of the needed at all.
acceptable with the low-pres- time bring additional benefits In a heat integration study,
sure fractionation streams and in energy savings and area effi- options should be evaluated
more energy is recovered over- ciency. Drawing the boundary with detailed simulation and
all, hydrogen and LPG losses, incorrectly may even make a heat integration analysis.
together with major changes in feasible option infeasible, or Evaluations should be consid-
the high-pressure section of the vice versa (for instance, the ered in a case-specific manner
unit (adding two separator CDU/VDU preflash drum with creative thinking and
drums), make this alternative example) taking general guidelines into
much less attractive among the • Using all welded-type plate account. Most of the time, heat
other heat recovery scenarios. exchangers creates the oppor- integration projects will bring
tunity to recover heat large amounts of savings
Targeting the reactor effluent efficiently and cost effectively involving millions of dollars
air cooler from sources that would other- per year, with usually less than
The effluent air cooler is the wise prove very costly and one-to–one-and-a- half-year
biggest source of waste heat in involve high pressure drops if payback periods.
a hydrocracker. Introducing shell and tubes were to be
Alişan Doğan is a Process and Equipment
this source of heat to the recov- used. Plate-type heat exchanger
Development Superintendent in Head
ery options will increase the usage is limited in pressure (to
Office Technical Services Management
potential overall savings and 40 bar) with Turkish Petroleum Refineries
decrease the overall investment • Using a flash drum before a Corporation (Tüpras), specialising in
cost. However, the corrosive fractionator creates a driving heat recovery and heat integration and
nature of this stream and the force effect that may enable process simulation. He holds a BS in
modifications that need to be some additional energy recov- chemical engineering from Middle East
done in the fractionation ery or heat duty shift from Technical University, Ankara, Turkey.
section of the heat exchanger steam production to cold feed
network require a detailed streams (furnace duty). LINKS
analysis and a change of However, the main point in
approach. Considering its posi- making a preflash drum a More articles from the following
tive effects on unit shutdown feasible option is whether there categories:
periods as well, this option is wasted, air-cooled pumpa- Energy Efficiency/Energy
may be a very good selection, round duty near the tray flash Management
in combination with the key vapour. Giving preflash vapour Heat Transfer
points taken from the other to higher trays may not be Crude Vacuum Units
options. desired because of liquid Hydroprocessing

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