(122b) Crude Unit Heat Integrationa Case Study

A Case Study

Andrew W. Sloley

At a minimum, crude oil will remain the source of transportation energy through 2050, and perhaps beyond. Crude oil distillation is the first step in converting crude into streams for further processing into transportation fuels.

Crude oil distillation is energy intensive – all the desired products are distillates that must be vaporized. Modern units use complex heat integration to recover the energy from condensing the product and reflux and using it to heat the feed. Extensive academic and industry work has gone into optimizing the heat integration for maximum energy efficiency and minimum investment. However, finding the optimum configurations remains complex and time consuming.

This is even more true for revamping units. Revamps add additional constraints to the energy analysis. This may make what appear to be obvious energy integration steps impractical. A case study for a recent revamp is presented that balances multiple factors to find a profitable and more efficient heat integration configuration.