Lube vacuum column revamp

Primary goals of a lube vacuum column revamp were to increase lube product
fractionation and minimise HVGO product contaminants

Kevin Basham Marathon Petroleum Company LLC

Edward Hartman Process Consulting Services Inc

T
he lube column at Marathon Petroleum lube-quality material. The vacuum column
Company’s (MPC) Cattlesburg, Kentucky, produced light vacuum gas oil (LVGO), side
USA, refinery was revamped in 2006 (Figure stream (SS) #1, side stream (SS) #2, HVGO, cylin-
1) to improve lube product fractionation, reduce der stock and asphalt products. It was necessary
the heavy vacuum gas oil (HVGO) product’s to yield cylinder stock to meet the asphalt specifi-
micro-carbon residue (MCR) and metals, and cations on the bottom product. LVGO and HVGO
improve the vacuum bottoms specifications for were routed to cat feed hydrotreating. SS#1 and
the production of asphalt. Prior to the revamp, SS#2 were lube-quality base stocks targeted for
the HVGO product was black and cylinder stock further processing.
yield was excessive. Cylinder stock was fed to The vacuum unit is a wet design with coil and
another vacuum unit so that the lube column residue stripping steam, plus a precondenser prior
bottom product could meet the asphalt
product specifications, as well as
recover a portion of the HVGO boiling Off-gas
range material in the cylinder stock.
However, reprocessing this stream
Crude off-gas
consumed some of the other unit’s Ejector off-gas
capacity and increased its heater firing.
All the project’s justification benefits Ejector
system
were met following startup. Moreover,
Oil
a lower column operating pressure and
improved stripping efficiency led to a Sour water
4.0 Mbpd higher crude charge rate due
LVGO
to the lower heater’s cracked gas
production freeing up some compres- Atmospheric Lube vacuum
sor capacity to process more crude. crude
HGO SS #1
product
Process flow scheme SS #2
The previously mentioned Figure 1 HVGO
Cylinder stock
shows the simplified process flow
Preflash
scheme for the atmospheric and crude
vacuum column prior to the revamp.
Steam
Off-gas from the atmospheric crude Stripping
steam
and lube vacuum columns was handled
with a common compressor. Vacuum bottoms
Fuel
Atmospheric column heavy gas oil gas
(HGO) product was routed to the
vacuum column to recover some of the Figure 1 Lube vacuum unit

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000110 Revamps 2007 1


Ejector
LVGO
CW
product
SS #1
HGO
SS #2
HVGO
Feed Cylinder stock
Stripping
steam
Vacuum bottoms
Figure 2 Lube column before revamp
to the first-stage ejector. The top column operat-
ing pressure on a wet column is set by the ejector
system load, which changes with the seasonal
cooling water temperature. During winter, the
first-stage ejector load is lower due to the reduced
cooling water temperature; hence, the column’s
top pressure is as low as 35 mmHg. This pressure
increases to 55 mmHg in the summer when the
cooling water temperature is higher. The vacuum
column internals consisted of three packed beds
and 12 trays to remove heat and fractionate the
feed into five side-cut products (Figure 2). The
tray pressure drop was approximately 3.5 mmHg
per tray, with the packing contributing only a
small amount, which resulted in a flash zone pres-
sure of 95–105 mmHg, depending on the ambient
temperature. The HVGO product was black from
entrained vacuum residue. Furthermore, the
trays were prone to damage and leaks, resulting
in poor fractionation, excessive cylinder stock
yield and difficulty in meeting asphalt
specifications.
Typical unit charge was a blend of Middle
Eastern crudes and was limited by off-gas
compressor capacity. During the summer, the
2 Revamps 2007
atmospheric column’s overhead receiver tempera-
ture increased, producing more off-gas. At the
same time, the vacuum ejector’s off-gas rate was
higher because the heater’s outlet temperature
was at maximum. The crude rate had to be
reduced once the off-gas compressor reached its
maximum capacity.
In 2005, a study was completed to determine the
cost/benefit of revamping the unit. Major economic
incentives were improving the lube products frac-
tionation, minimising the HVGO product MCR and
metals contaminants, producing on-specification
asphalt and improving internals reliability.
Lube products fractionation
Fractionation between lube products depends on
reflux and the number of theoretical stages.
Increasing either one improves fractionation.
This requires high-efficiency mass-transfer inter-
nals and minimum column flash zone pressure.
Prior to the revamp, the column pressure drop
was high, stripping efficiency was low, and frac-
tionation between lube cuts and HVGO was
poor. Before the mid-1980s, most lube vacuum
columns were designed with bubblecap trays and
occasionally valve trays. Yet, trays have the
disadvantages of high pressure drop and inher-
ently poor efficiency in lube column service. In
1984, the first large-diameter lube vacuum
column was revamped from bubblecap trays to
structured packing, with several others modified
since then. Some were successful, while others
were not due to poor-quality liquid distributors.
Trays have inherently low efficiency in lube
columns because the liquid rate is low and the
tray weir length is large (because of large diame-
ters). Conversely, structured packing’s inherent
efficiency is good at a low liquid rate, assuming a
high-quality liquid distributor is used. A struc-
tured packing bed’s efficiency is largely controlled
by the liquid distributor’s performance. Since
column diameters are large and liquid rates are
generally low (~1 gpm/ft2 of column area),
distributing the liquid uniformly is a challenge.
MPC’s lube vacuum column flash zone pres-
sure was high because it had 12 trays above the
flash zone. Trays produce a high pressure drop
per theoretical stage because each tray generates
about 3.5 mmHg pressure drop and three trays
are needed to achieve a theoretical stage. Thus,
each theoretical stage creates approximately 10
mmHg pressure drop. Conversely, structured
www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000110
packing produces only 1.5 mmHg per theoretical
stage.
Minimising HVGO product contaminants
HVGO product contaminants consist of volatile
MCR and metals in the product boiling range as
well as entrained vacuum residue containing
high amounts of MCR and metals. There will
always be some volatile contaminants present,
irrespective of the column design, but the
amount of volatile contaminants depends on the
efficiency of the wash zone and residue stripping.
Surprisingly, many vacuum columns produce
black HVGO product because of poorly designed
column flash zone, wash zone and stripping
section internals. In this case study, because the
unit processed low metal crudes and operated at
low cutpoints, eliminating entrainment would
reduce the HVGO product’s metals and MCR to
low levels.
Vacuum residue entrainment in the flash zone
depends on transfer line critical-flow expansions,
the flash zone vapour horn and wash section
internals. Poorly designed transfer lines with
high pressure drop critical-flow expansions at
the column inlet nozzle generate fine mists that
are difficult to remove. Improperly designed
flash zone vapour horns do not separate the feed
stream vapour and liquid or properly distribute
the vapour to the wash section. Poor vapour
distribution results in high localised vapour
velocity in parts of the wash section, causing the
HVGO product to be black from entrainment.
Yet, entrainment can be nearly eliminated
through prudent column internal designs, as
long as the column wash section capacity factor
does not exceed 0.4–0.45 ft/sec.
Residue stripping
The efficiency of the vacuum column stripping
section influences the HVGO yield, asphalt qual-
ity and HVGO product’s metals. Yet, it is often
overlooked as an important design variable.
Maximising stripping efficiency will raise the
HVGO product’s TBP cutpoint by 20–60°F,
reduce metals in the HVGO product by 50% or
more and allow for the production of higher-
valued asphalt grades from the same crude.
Greater efficiency also reduces the vacuum
heater outlet temperature by up to 30°F in some
instances. Moreover, residue stripping vapour-
ises a lower boiling range hydrocarbon than the
www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000110
heater produces for the same amount of vapouri-
sation. Therefore, it reduces the HVGO product’s
MCR and nickel and vanadium content.
Residue stripping uses steam to reduce the oil
partial pressure on the trays. Even a well-designed
tray has only 25% efficiency, with a typical tray
achieving just 5–10% efficiency. Since the strip-
ping trays vapourise lower boiling range material
than the heater, the metals content is lower than
the same volume of material produced in the
heater. In addition, improved efficiency vapour-
ises more flash zone liquid, allowing the heater
outlet temperature to be reduced. Since this unit
produces asphalt, it is the asphalt specifications
that determine the HVGO product’s cutpoint
rather than a specific target. Another benefit is
that the asphalt product viscosity is easier to
meet because the light material that must be
removed to meet the viscosity specifications is
stripped out. Before the revamp, the stripping
section was designed with four baffle trays, so it
had very little efficiency, which resulted in a low
strip-out and made it difficult to meet the asphalt
specifications (Figure 3).
Revamp process flow scheme
The revamp flow scheme is shown in Figure 4. All
the trays above the flash zone were replaced with
packing, and other minor modifications were
made to the existing packed beds, plus a much
more efficient stripping section was installed. New
packed column internals reduced the flash zone
pressure by about 30 mmHg. A lower flash zone
pressure allowed for a lower heater outlet temper-
ature, which reduced cracked gas production
Higher heater
outlet
temperature
Very low
strip-out
S-1
Shed S-3
S-2
trays S-4
Stripping
steam
Vacuum bottoms
Figure 3 Residue stripping section before revamp
Revamps 2007 3
 The crude/vacuum unit capacity is
Off-gas constrained by the off-gas compres-
sor’s capacity. By reducing the amount
of ejector off-gas, more atmospheric
Crude off-gas
Ejector off-gas
column overhead receiver off-gas can
be handled, allowing for an increased
Ejector crude charge rate (Figure 6).
system Column design
Oil Prior to the revamp, the column
Sour water was designed with a combination of
grid, random packing, valve and
Atmospheric LVGO bubble cap trays, and baffle trays. The
crude
Lube vacuum
new internals would:
• Reduce the column pressure drop
HGO SS #1 • Provide the required fractionation
product
SS #2
for lube oil production
• Improve HVGO quality by eliminating
HVGO
vacuum residue entrainment
Preflash Cylinder stock • Maximise stripping section efficiency
crude
• Provide adequate wash oil to keep
Steam
Stripping the wash bed wetted and prevent
steam coking while minimising cylinder
Vacuum bottoms stock yield
Fuel • Improve internals reliability.
gas
The existing 12 valve and bubblecap
trays were replaced with structured
Figure 4 Revamp process flow scheme packing beds and associated internals.
A new vapour horn was installed to
(Figure 5). Improved stripping efficiency further minimise entrainment and improve vapour distri-
reduced the heater outlet temperature, lowering bution to the wash section. The four existing
cracked gas production again. baffle trays used for stripping were replaced with
five sieve trays.
The fractionation section used structured pack-
Lower
Increased heater ing and high-quality narrow trough liquid
vacuum cracked
distillate gas
distributors to maximise efficiency within the
available height. The wash section was installed
Before revamp After revamp
in an internal shroud to allow for maximum lube
product fractionation. Existing tray support rings
730 710
were reused to reduce the installation time. The
Flash zone
105
conditions
75 new internals have improved mechanical design
to maintain integrity during normal operating
Feed
conditions and upsets (Figure 7).
Stripping section efficiency was dramatically
improved by changing from baffle to sieve trays,
increasing the number of trays from four to five,
Stripping designing each tray with an optimised hole area
steam
for higher tray efficiency and installing a new
collector to feed the top tray (Figure 8).
Temperature, °F
Pressure, mmHg Vacuum bottoms
Side-strippers
The side-stripper’s tray design was modified to
Figure 5 Flash zone temperatures and pressures increase tray efficiency, allowing for more strip-

4 Revamps 2007 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000110

 Off-gas to
treating
Ejector

Off-gas
compressor

CW LVGO
product
Crude off-gas
(higher rate)

Vacuum off-gas
(reduced rate)
HGO

Figure 6 Off-gas compressor

SS #1

Reduced SS #2
heater outlet
temperature Higher
strip-out HVGO
Wash oil
Feed
S-1 Cylinder stock
S-2
S-3
S-4
Stripping
S-5
steam
Stripping
steam
Vacuum bottoms

Vacuum bottoms

Figure 8 Stripping section after revamp Figure 7 Lube column after revamp

out of the product distillation front-end.
The changes were low cost, with the tray
active panels replaced with an optimised open
area and a combination of light and heavy
valves.
Revamp results
The primary goals were to improve lube product
fractionation, minimise HVGO product contami-
nants, meet vacuum bottoms properties for
asphalt production and improve internals
mechanical reliability. All objectives were met.
The HVGO product MCR and metals have been
reduced. The wax colour from SS #2 is now clear
because colour bodies from residue entrainment
have been eliminated. In addition, the crude
charge rate has been increased by 4.0 Mbpd as a
result of reducing the vacuum heater’s cracked
gas production.
The authors would like to thank all who participated in the
successful completion of this revamp.
Kevin Basham is a technical services co-ordinator at the Marathon
Petroleum Company LLC Cattlesburg, Kentucky, USA, refinery. He
has 15 years’ experience in the optimisation and troubleshooting
of crude distillation units.
Edward Hartman is a process engineer with Process Consulting
Services Inc in Houston, Texas, USA. His primary responsibilities
include process design packages (PDPs) and equipment design
for refinery units.
Email: ehartman@revamps.com
Links
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