(184d) Upgrading a Lube Vacuum Tower

One of the major goals of refineries worldwide is to improve the fuels quality to meet the environmental requirements. This includes Diesel, Jet fuel, Gasoline, and Lube Oil cuts. This critical step requires not only new or upgraded conversion plants, but also advanced Vacuum Distillation Units. The severity of such processes has been substantially increased over the last 2 decades. Consequently, the equipment used now perform the very challenging duty of providing the highest performance without compromising the reliability and the run length of the plant. To successfully maximize plant performance, a thorough knowledge of the process and its characteristics is a must. Also, it is crucial to fully comprehend the fundamentals of the equipment being used, their mechanisms of operation, limitations and capabilities. This includes, among others, reactors, furnaces, exchangers, pumps, and mass transfer devices for distillation columns.

This paper is focused on the revamp of a Lube Vacuum Distillation Unit whose targets were achieved by optimizing the operating conditions, upgrading the pre-heat train and fired heaters, and retrofitting the vacuum tower with advanced mass transfer internals.

A description of the process operating conditions and of the plant modifications will be given in detail, as well as the benefits of the revamp, and the most effective techniques to implement the job within the time frame of the refinery turnaround.