Distillation is bubbling High capacity Utilization is spurring efforts to optimize column performance By Sedn Ottewell, editor at argeHopes that fallout from the subprime lending fiasco would mainly impact the U.S. and Western European economies seem largely misplaced now as its malaise spreads ever wider around the globe. The ongoing tribulations of the world economy are making even the modest growth pre dictions made late last year by the American Chemistry Council (ACC), Aelingron, Va., (www.ChemicalProcessing. ACC did warn, though, that ongoing financial problems and an oil price shock could take atoll convarticles2008/006,html) seem quite optimistic Other problems are emerging, to0. Even be fore subprime problems surfaced, China was always going to be the economic diving force for global develop- ment over the next few years Now however, that country is decades. Food costs have climbed 18% as a result of snow-related suppl problems. Inflation by more than 14% compared to the previous month. On the other hand, however, a low dollar is good for US. exports, particularly if overseas growth remains robust. If this is the case last year's $154 billion export figure could rise t0 $169 billion this year and $180 billion in 2009, says ACC Latest data from ACC (p. 13) show shipments of chem icals rising and capacity utilization hovering just below 80%. So, continuing strong demand for exports should edge U.S. capacity utilization to $0% in 2008. It's not just the mainstream chemical producers that are enjoying high capacity utilization. In August, the American API), Washington, D.C., reported 90.8 refinery utilization rates, the highest level since September 2006. Production of gasoline hi 9,325 million bbV/d, another highest in three years. APIs annual statistical report published in new record. By November, refinery activity was late January noced that overall capacity utilization averaged 88.1% forall of 2007, up slightly from a year before Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency (IAE), Vi ‘enna, Austria, predicts that global refinery crude runs will average 74.3 million bbW/d for the first quarter of 2008, a se of 1 million bbl/d While it rem age the subprime fiasco can do to the world economy — ns to be seen how much further dam. there are rumors of 1 bee ing postponed by many years — high capacity utilization set optimization. And, because at many plants, distill plays a crucial role, demand for mass transfer products and services is booming. Operating companies are looking to gain improvements through everything from better pack ings and trays to improved control systems and simulators “The biggest trend at the moment isthe n projects. There's huge uptake after the hull inthe late 1990," says Gary Sturtevant, industry segment leader in UOP’s Refin- ing Business Unit, Des Plaines, Il. UOP also is building up healthy stream of business for its new Ecofin- ing technology. This converts raw materials, such as vegetable oils into biodiesel, “The challenge here is that we are ‘not dealing with traditional Ihydrocarbon feedstocks, so ssive number of ‘we are having to do a lot ‘of development workDe] Figure 1 Column internals tat fle etter perfomance sah as his MD ray remain inhigh demand. Source: UP icalProcessing.comvarticles2007/177-html, www.Chemical Processing.com/industrynews/2008/002.html, and www. ChemicalProcessing.com/industrynews/2007/026.html,) Improvements in internals UOP is seeing continuing strong demand for its high per- formance distillation trays, notes Sturtevant, particularly for its high capacity MD ones (Figure 1). ‘They typically are used for large liquid loads, especially ‘when the volumetric ratio between vapor and liquid rates is Jow — common conditions in medium- to high-pressure ser- vices. Because MD trays can be used at close spacings, they can reduce both the height and diameter of a new column compared to one fitted with conventional multipass trays, says the company, thus significantly cuting vessel shell costs. ‘The closer spacing means that retrofitted towers can contain far more trays, increasing product purity and recovery while reducing reflux ratio and therefore energy consumption, “The point here is that we are able to get more out of existing columns and make new columns smaller to achieve the same throughput,” Sturtevant says. Irs a similar story with Koch-Glitsch, Wichita, Kan., another major player in mass transfer. Like UOP, the com- pany has a long tradition of manufacturing trays and in pioneering specialty high eapacity designs. For instance, Superirac trays, which are the culmination of 10 years of development work, are designed to produce the ‘maximum capacity and maximum vaporfliquid contact eff- ciency achievable with crossflow distillation trays. They trays have provided the highest combined capacity and efficiency of any crossflow tray tested so far at Fractionation Research Inc. (FRD, Bartlesville, Okla., boasts Koch-Giitsch. (For insights fromFRIabout installingcoluma intemal, sce www.Chemical Provessing.convarticle/2007/030.hm.) 22 ¢ March 2008 ‘When designing Superfrac trays, the company targeted three major areas to give them enhanced performance over conventional trays. First, a variety of valve styles and tech- nologies are available to enhance the vaporfiquid contacting that takes place on a tray deck. Second, the downcomer is precisely sized and shaped to maximize the active area avail- able for vapor/lquid contact. Finally, inlet area improvements provide more capacity and better froth initiation/bubbling ac- tivity on the tray — increasing vapor contact efficiency. ‘Together, these enhancements eliminate the vapor and liquid maldistribution and stagnant zones that can occur ‘on conventional trays, claims the company. They promote ‘uniform flow distribution at the tray inlet and the perim- eter areas, a great benefit to the tray’s hydraulic perfor- ‘mance and contact efficiency. Sulzer Chemtech, Winterthur, Switzerland, another major player in the mass transfer field, offers a variety of trays in- cluding high performance chordal downcomer, multi-down- ‘comer and ultra-system-limit trays. In addition it’ the autho- tized supplier of Shell's high-end trays and other equipment. Many distillation columns rely on structured or random packings. And, here too, developments are pushing up per- formance. For instance, Koch-Glitch has just introduced the Intalox Ultra random packings (Figure 2). These boast industry-leading trength-to-weight ratios, efficiencies and ca- ‘cities, according tothe company. This translates to reduced column diameter oF height in new columns. On a revamp, the new packings offer a range of benefits, including more capacity at current purity, less energy consumption per unit (of product, higher purity at current product rates, and lower pressure drop. In carly February, Sulzer Chemtech signed an agree- ‘ment with Kuehni, Allschwil, Switzerland, to work togeth- er on packed liquidfliquid extraction columns. Sulzer is providing the structured packing know-how and Kuehni the stired exraction column knowledge so that customers can develop optimized designs for their extractors. Besides hardware, most major vendors of mass transfer hardware offer serviees to optimize the operation of eol- ‘umns; demand for such help is strong, Better and safer operation Optimizing distillation assets involves more than the mass transfer hardware. Enhanced column control can play an essential role, Major automation vendors such as Emerson, Yokogawa and Invensys are developing new technologies and alliances designed to improve distillation efficiency. For instance, in early January Emerson Process Man- agement, Austin, Texas, announced the acquisition of The Automation Group (TAG), Houston. The deal will help Emerson expand its technical and management services| for the design, engineering and implementation of automa- tion systems, especially for disillation-based processes. Yokogawa, Tokyo, which will supply an integrated swe chomealpraceing comproduction control system to the new Shell Eastern Petro- chemicals complex in Singapore, was awarded the contact because we have the ability to improve the operability and safety of large-scale plants by integrating their pro- duction control and safety instrumented systems,” notes Teruyoshi Minaki, Yokogawa’s executive vice president. Safety of distillation operations is receiving increas ing, emphasis in response to major incidents in the last couple of years, ‘Safety is now the number one consideration, so much so that it has become easier to get budget to improve safety than to improve efficiency,” says Harpreet Gulati, 1a product director for SimSci-Esscor, South Lake Forest, Calif., a unit of Invensys Process Systems (IPS), London. SimSci-Esscor’s heritage is in distillation simulation, with its PROMI well established in thar area. “And, importantly, we partner with various third-party companies to provide enhanced product capabilities using it,” he adds, Among IPS's partners is Koch-Glitsch, which en hances PRO/II with a number of its own modules. For example, Ratefrac performs rigorous rate-based distil lation modelling while Batchfrac handles design and analysis of batch reactors and distillation columns, Check Valves Satta to le ce Ly This partnership also extends to Koch-Giitsch’s own KG-Tower tray and packing hydraulics software. Here, PROMI has the option of converting tower hydraulic in cae a, Peer | \ \ Rue ero ene tee ue pert nt ORC es from 1/8 psi to. 100'psi settings. y aR cae hoa estat ee) www.checkall.com Lee eeerect)formation it calculates to a file that can be read directly by KG-Tower, eliminating the need for manual transfer of data. PROM also supports hydraulic sizing and rating for a wide array of structured packings from Koch-Gilisch. Is a similar story with Sulzer Chemtech, as PROM supports hydraulic sizing and rating for a wide range of structured packings from that company. “Arour latest user meeting, both companies were showing their own in-house design packages for equipment such as high efficiency packings. So they start with PROMI, which ean design the overall column and take acount of factors such as fluid types, lows and viscosities. Then they ean use their own, packages to find, for example, how many meters of packing are required in a particular column,” notes Gulati Other Si sscor partnerships involve software supplied by organizations as diverse as FRI, Det Norske Veritas, Innotee and the Institut Frangais du Pétrole. ‘The number two consideration for the distillation pro- cess is now energy management in an around columns, according to Gulati. “We're talking here about real-time heat and material balances,” he says. Years ago, if there was a problem in the column, opera- tions or technical suppor staff assigned to that particular unit ‘would have to start by taking readings, caleulating heat and ‘mass balances, plugging this information into some sort of ‘model and then deciding on a way forward, he says. “Is all ‘online today, so every few minutes the data can be reconciled. So we can calculate the overall yield, for example, or how much energy is being used. It can also be used for predictive analysis. Foe example, whee increase ia eflcicncy would I get if I clean the re-boiler now?” IPS is taking what Gulati describes asa holistic approach to distillation optimization. “By combining maintenance, vi- sualisation data and desiga/modeling together, we ean imme- diately idencify any potential problems and alert maintenance staff. In this way, the cost of problems can be quantified and they get sorted quickly.” ‘Overall, while business is good for those companies in- volved in distillation, a major constraint is emerging: a lack of skilled labor. “Companies like ours — contractors — are very short of people todo project development,” says UOP's Sturtevant. “Lots of taining simulator operators will be retiring, in the next ten years, so we need to train the next generation. But there i areal ‘problem finding people todo this training now. The engineering ‘companies are getting most ofthe talent,” notes Gulati. OP rcs gem Cui) BY Turnaround © Pilot Plant Rental Cooling. 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