(121a) Upgrading a CDU Main Fractionator with Advanced Mass Transfer Components

Maximizing capacity while improving efficiency and reliability of major equipment, such as distillation columns, is a very challenging target.

This is what most of the European Refineries are looking for due to the low refinery margins they are facing with, and the high competitiveness of the big Refineries of the Middle East and India 

This paper will describe in details the revamp of a Crude Distillation Main Fractionator of a major Refinery in West Europe, where the use of advanced mass transfer components i.e. High Performance Trays, High Performance Grids, and tailor made tower internals allowed to achieve challenging targets and operation reliability with minimum investment cost.