Chemistry and Technology of Fuels and Oils, Vol. 40, No.

2, 2004

EXPERIENCE IN DESIGNING VISBREAKING UNITS

T. A. Sotnikova and N. A. Sosnova UDC 665.642

In the current stage of development of the oil refining industry, thermal processes have somewhat lost
their initial function – increasing the yield of light petroleum products – and are basically implemented in two
versions “ visbreaking and coking.
The decision to use visbreaking in the refinery is usually made as a function of the following problems:
• decreasing the viscosity of residual streams to reduce consumption of high-quality distillates added
to boiler fuel to bring its viscosity to the finished product specifications;
• processing heavy residues into distillates, visbreaking gasoil in particular, cracking feedstock.
Vacuum residues “ heavy and high-viscosity vacuum resids with a high resin and asphaltene
content – became the basic feedstock for production of boiler fuels with exhaustive oil refining. As a result,
the role of visbreaking increased significantly – it is almost the only process used in industry that allows
efficiently and inexpensively reducing the viscosity and solid point of these residues.
The interest in this process is due to the fact that it is comparatively simple and does not require
special expensive equipment. When it is included in oil refining, takeoff of vacuum gasoil and consequently
feedstock resources for catalytic cracking increases significantly.
Visbreaking is an efficient and flexible liquid-phase process for thermal processing of residual
feedstock – atmospheric resids and vacuum resids – in mild conditions. The basic adjustable process parameters
are the temperature, pressure, and feedstock residence time in the reaction zone.

,,

 
,,,



,9

, 9

 
 9,

9,,

Fig. 1. Diagram of the visbreaking unit: 1) furnace; 2) soaking chamber;

3) fractionation tower; 4) air cooling unit; 5) reflux tank; 6) stripping tower; 7) heat
exchanger; I) mineralized water; II) acid gas to compression block; III) naphtha to
stabilization block; IV) steam; V) visbreaking gasoil; VI) cracking residue;
VII) feedstock.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________
VNIPIneft’ Open Joint-Stock Company. Translated from Khimiya i Tekhnologiya Topliv i Masel,
No. 2, pp. 38 – 39, March – April, 2004.

0009-3092/04/4002–0103Ó2004Plenum Publishing Corporation 103

 Fig. 2. Visbreaking unit at Nizhnekamsk Oil Refinery.

Two types of units are used in industry: coil and reaction chamber. In the first, the process takes place
at high temperature, 480-490°C and with brief – approximately 2 min – residence of the feedstock in the
reaction zone, while in the second, it takes place at a lower temperature, 450-460°C, with a longer feedstock
residence time in the reaction zone, 15-30 min.
Shell is the licensor of the process in a visbreaking unit with a reaction chamber. To attain the same
level of feedstock conversion in this unit in comparison to the coil unit, lower consumption of fuel for the
furnace is required so that the runs are longer due to less coking.
The product quality and yields in both types of units are on the whole the same in equally severe
conditions and are not a function of the configuration of the unit. Selection of the process conditions is a
function of the feedstock quality.
The first experience at VNIPIneft’ in designing the process dates back to 1990-1992. A decision was
made to construct a visbreaking unit with an output of 1 million tons/year to manufacture commercial boiler
fuel and by-products – naphtha and kerosene – gasoline cuts – from vacuum resid based on the
Yaroslavnefteorgsintez Industrial Association’s plan for technical retooling.
The Institute on Process Regulations at the Yaroslavl’ branch of ASRI PI developed the technical and
economic rationale and a working design for a visbreaking unit with a reaction chamber and a feedstock
production block for technical carbon.
In 1997, the Institute began working on designing visbreaking units for Nizhnekamsk Oil Refinery,
Kirishinefteorgsintez Industrial Association, and LUKOIL–Permnefteorgsintez Ltd. based on basic designs
from ABB Lummus Global B.V. using Shell technology.

104
 According to this technology, the cracking process begins after heating vacuum resid in the furnace
to 450-460°C and continues in the reaction chamber for 15-30 min at pressure of 0.87-1 MPa. Demineralized
water is fed in as the turbulizer in the furnace coil.
The unit consists of the following basic parts: feedstock intake and heating; visbreaking furnace and
reaction chamber; gasoil fractional and stripping towers; exhaust gas compression and repeated contact; naphtha
stabilization; coke burning.
As a function of customer requirements, it can additionally include auxiliary units: acid gas amine
treatment; amine solution regeneration; boiler fuel mixing and preparation. A diagram of the unit is shown
in Fig. 1.
In 2000, VNIPIneft’ Co. drew up a working design of a visbreaking unit with output
of 1.8 million tons/year in feedstock for Nizhnekamsk Oil Refinery. Vacuum residue obtained from Tatarstan
crudes is the feedstock for the unit.
Since a commercial product – furnace atmospheric resid 100 – cannot be obtained in refining vacuum
resid manufactured from mixed Devonian and Carboniferous crudes in the ratio of 50:50, a unit for mixing
cracking residue and visbreaking gasoil with lighter cuts form the EDU”AVT unit, asphalt and hydrotreating of
kerosene and diesel fuel was also designed. The feedstock mixing, heating, and visbreaking product cooling
units are located outside of the boundaries of the visbreaking unit – at the site of the EDU”AVT-7 unit.
The visbreaking unit (Fig. 2) was started up in 2003. The results of its fixed run conducted on
October 13-17, 2003 were recognized as satisfactory on the whole. In the rated load and process conditions,
the quality indexes of the products obtained satisfied the requirements.
In 2001, VNIPIneft’ Co. began a working design for a visbreaking section in a combination unit for
exhaustive refining of atmospheric resid – a hydrocracking complex for Kirishinefteorgsintez Industrial
Association, Ltd. The output is 1,922,000 tons/year in feedstock.
The feedstock, vacuum resid, enters the visbreaking section from the vacuum section in rigid coupling
at a temperature of 260°C, which allows reducing the size of the feedstock heating block. The visbreaking
resid goes in rigid coupling to the mixing unit of the vacuum section for production of boiler fuel.
The work was done in two stages: design and working plans and specifications. The first stage was
completed in December 2001 and the second stage is set to be completed in 2005.
In mid-2002, VNIPIneft’ Co. began to implement the working design with respect to revamping
of the TK-2 thermal cracking unit for the heavy crude residue visbreaking process with output
of 948.72 thousand tons/year for LUKOIL – Permnefteorgsintez Ltd.
The unit is designed for refining vacuum resid obtained from a mixture of two crudes: West Siberian
and local Perm’ (25 wt. %). The oil equipment on the TK-2 unit is partially used in the visbreaking process.
The design work is slated for completion in 2004.
Including visbreaking in the layout of refineries is especially crucial in exhaustive refining of heavy
and high-viscosity crude residues with a high resin and asphaltene content since it significantly increases takeoff
of vacuum gasoil – catalytic cracking feedstock.

105