Assignment Statement

Figure 1 shows “Process Flow Diagram” of an oil refinery. Tabulate all the units and identify whether a
unit operation or a unit process is taking place in respective unit? Conduct literature search and describe
briefly all the unit operations and unit processes involved. Cite the relevant reference for each
description. Use the format given below for your solution. Note: Wikipedia is not allowed as reference.
S. No. Name of Unit Name of Unit Operation or Unit
Process Taking Place
1 Desalter Unit Operation
2 Atmospheric Distillation Unit Operation
3 Amine Treating Unit Process
4 Gas Processing Unit Process
5 Merox Unit Unit Process
6 Claus Sulfur Plant Unit Process
7 Delayed Coker Unit Process
8 Isomerization Unit Process
9 Catalytic Reformer Unit Operation
10 Hydrocracker Unit Process
11 Alkylation Unit Process
12 FCC Feed Hydrotreater Unit Process
13 Fluid Catalytic Cracker Unit Process
14 Vacuum Distillation Unit Operation
15 Asphait Blowing Unit Process
16 Steam Refining Unit Process
17 Sour Water Steam Stripper Unit Process
18 Gasoline blending Pool Unit Process
19 Naptha HydroThreater Unit Operation

Unit Operations are Following:

1. Desalter Unit:
In a refinery, crude oil containing high levels of salt will go through a desalter before being fed to
the atmospheric distillation tower.[1]
2. Atmospheric Distillation:
Atmospheric distillation is the first and most fundamental step in the the refining process. The
primary purpose of the atmospheric distillation tower is to separate crude oil into its
components (or distillation cuts, distillation fractions) for further processing by other processing
units. [1]
3. Vacuum Distillation:
Vacuum distillation is the process of lowering the pressure in the column above the solvent to
less than the vapor pressure of the mixture, creating a vacuum, and causing the elements with
lower vapor pressures to evaporate off. [2]

4. Catalytic Reformer:
Catalytic reformers convert low-octane heavy naphtha feedstocks from other refinery areas into
the more desirable reformates for use in high octane gasoline blending.[3]

5. Naptha Hydrothreater:
 naphtha hydrotreating unit is to remove sulphur and nitrogen compounds. The naphtha
hydrotreating unit uses a cobalt-molybdenum catalyst to remove sulfur by converting it to
hydrogen sulfide that is removed along with unreacted hydrogen. [4]

Unit Process are Following:

6. Amine Treating:
Amine treating plants remove CO2 (carbon dioxide) and H2S (hydrogen sulfide) from natural gas.
The process is known as gas sweetening or acid gas removal, using various alkanolamines,
commonly referred to as amines.[5]
7. Gas Processing:

The gas streams produced in refinery units such as catalytic crackers, cokers, hydrocrackers, and
reformers are sent to the Gas Processing Unit in order to:

1. recover C3-C6 hydrocarbons for LPG production (C3 and C4) and feedstocks (C5 and C6)
for isomerization (light naphtha) and reformer (heavy naphtha) units;
2. separate H2S in a sour gas stream that also contains C1 and C2 gases.[6]

8.Merox Unit:

The merox unit is a proprietary UOP technology that selectively sweetens petroleum products by
oxidizing the foul-smelling mercaptans into the sweeter disulfides which remain in the product,
leaving the total sulfur content the same. The process is sometimes known as a sweetening process
and is much cheaper to install than a hydrotreater, which actually lowers the sulfur content.[1]

9.Claus Sulfer Plant:

Claus plants cool the process gases, leaving the combustion section by generating steam in a fire-
tube waste heat boiler.[7]

10.Delayed Coker:

A Delayed Coker Unit is a type of coker that utilizes multiple pairs of drums working in tandem,
sometimes as many as eight at a time, to recover specific elements from feedstock residues, tar
pitch, and residual oils. [8]

11. Isomerization Unit:

 The isomerization unit converts linear molecules to higher-octane branched molecules for blending
into gasoline or feed to alkylation units.[9]

12. Hydrocracker:

hydrocracking unit, or hydrocracker, takes gas oil, which is heavier and has a higher boiling range
than distillate fuel oil, and cracks the heavy molecules into distillate and gasoline in the presence of
hydrogen and a catalyst. The hydrocracker upgrades low-quality heavy gas oils from the
atmospheric or vacuum distillation tower, the fluid catalytic cracker, and the coking units into high-
quality, clean-burning jet fuel, diesel, and gasoline. [10]

13. Alkylation:

In refining, the alkylation unit produces a high-quality gasoline blendstock by combining two LPG-
range molecules to form one gasoline-range molecule. This involves reacting isobutane with some
type of light olefin, typically either propylene or butylene coming from the FCC. [1]

14. FCC Feed Hydrotreater:

The purpose of a hydrotreater unit is primarily to remove sulfur and other contaminants from
intermediate streams before blending into a finished refined product or before being fed into
another refinery process unit.[1]

15. Fluid Catalytic Cracker:

In the FCC process oil is cracked in the presence of a finely divided catalyst, which is maintained in an
aerated or fluidized state by the oil vapors.[7]

16. Asphait Blowing:

Air is blown through the bitumen by means of an air distributor located at the bottom of the column.
The air is not only the reactant but also serves to agitate and mix the bitumen, thereby increasing the
surface area and rate of reaction. Oxygen is consumed by the bitumen as the air ascends through the
material.[11]

17. Steam refining:

A petroleum refinery distillation process, in which the only heat used comes from steam in open and
closed coils near the bottom of the still; used to produce gasoline and naphthas where odor and color
are of prime importance; where open steam is used, it is known as steam distillation.

18. Sour Water Stripping:

Sour water stripping is used to remove ammonia (NH3) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) from sour water
streams coming from many unit operations to condition it for discharge or reuse within the refinery. In a
complex refinery, most of the sour water comes from distillation, fluid catalytic cracking, catalytic
reforming, coker and acid gas removal units, with many other operations contributing to the balance.
The different streams are collected in a surge tank for centralized processing via a heat exchanger and a
single stripper column, or two in series.[12]

19. Gasoline blending Pool:

Gasoline blending is a refinery operation that blends different component streams into various grades
of gasoline. Typical grades include 83 octane (blended later with an oxygenated fuel such as ethanol),
regular 87 octane and premium 92 octane.[13]

List of References
1. (https://www.mckinseyenergyinsights.com/resources/refinery-reference-desk/desalter/)
2. (https://www.epicmodularprocess.com/blog/when-vacuum-distillation-is-useful).
3. .( https://www.control-associates.com/industries/downstream-hydrocarbons/refining/catalytic-
reformer-unit/).
4. (https://www.enggcyclopedia.com/2012/02/naphtha-hydrotreating-unit/)
5. .( https://transtextreating.com/equipments/amine-plants/).

6. (https://www.e-education.psu.edu/fsc432/content/gas-processing-unit).
7. . (https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/claus-plant).
8. . (https://inspectioneering.com/tag/dcu).
9. .( https://www.prelectronics.com/industries/oil-gas/application-examples-oil-refinery-
plant/isomerization-unit-flow-measurement/).
10. (https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=9650).
11. .( http://www.e-asfalto.com/ingles/oxidador/index.htm).
12. .( https://www.pall.com/en/oil-gas/refining/sour-water-stripping.html).
13. https://www.emerson.com/documents/automation/training-refining-process-solution-guide-
blending-micro-motion-en-65876.pdf).