Article
pubs.acs.org/EF
Design of a Petroleum Preflash Column
William L. Luyben*
Department of Chemical Engineering, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18015, United States
ABSTRACT: Crude oil contains saturated hydrocarbon chemical components with boiling points that range from very low
(methane) to very high. A small preflash column is frequently used upstream of the main pipestill to remove light ends and some
of the naphtha to reduce the load on the pipestill furnace and column. The major design optimization variables in the preflash
column include pressure, reflux-drum temperature, and furnace coil outlet temperature. This paper explores the design of a
typical preflash column.
1. INTRODUCTION
The first unit operation in a petroleum refinery is a pipestill
(crude distillation unit) that separates the crude oil into various
streams on the basis of boiling points. The amount of crude oil
consumed worldwide1 is astronomical (84 × 106 barrels/day in
2009). Oil consumption in the United States is 18 × 106
barrels/day. There are 148 U.S. refineries. The largest of these
is the ExxonMobil refinery in Baytown, TX, that handles 560
000 barrels/day.
Typical crude distillation units contain three columns: a
preflash column, an atmospheric pipestill, and a vacuum
pipestill. Each of these columns has an upstream furnace to
partially vaporize the feed. Each has an overhead condenser and
reflux drum. There are no reboilers. The major source of vapor
going up the column is the vapor in the partially vaporizer
effluent stream from the furnace. A small amount of stripping
steam is added at the base of the column to remove very light
components and prevent them from going downstream to the
atmospheric pipestill. The atmospheric and vacuum pipestills
also have sidestream strippers, from which various products are
produced, and pumparounds, which remove high-temperature
heat at intermediate locations in the column.
Two product streams leave the reflux drum of the preflash
column. A vapor stream contains most of the very volatile
components (methane, ethane, propane, and butane) that are
dissolved in the crude oil. A liquid light-naphtha stream (100 °F
ASTM D86 Engler 5% point and 375 °F 95% point) is sent on
for further separation and processing. Typical product streams
leaving the atmospheric pipestill are heavy naphtha, kerosene,
diesel, and atmospheric gas oil. Additional gas oil is removed in
the vacuum pipestill.
The Aspen PetroFrac model is used to simulate all of the
columns. Crude assay data are used to generate a petroleum
pseudo-component using the BK10 method. All boiling-point
data are reported as Engler ASTM D86 temperatures.
The design of the preflash column involves finding the
economic optimum combination of design optimization
variables: pressure, reflux-drum temperature, and furnace outlet
temperature. We explore the preflash design problem in this
paper.
It should be emphasized that the only effect on the
downstream atmospheric pipestill of modifying the design of
the preflash tower is to change the flow rate and low-boiling
© 2011 American Chemical Society
portion of the heavy naphtha stream. There are essentially no
effects on the other products from the pipestill (flow rates or
boiling points).
2. BASE CASE
2.1. Preflash Column. Figure 1A shows the flowsheet of the
preflash column presented as an example in the Aspen Technology
manual2 Getting Started Modeling Petroleum Processes. This same
example has been used for dynamic simulations and control studies.3
Crude oil feed to the unit is 100 000 barrels/day. After the crude oil
feed is desalted and preheated with hot product streams and
pumparounds, it enters the preflash furnace at 200 °F and 44.7 psia.
The oil is partially vaporized and heated to 450 °F before entering the
base of the 11-stage preflash column. Stripping steam is also added in
the base. The furnace duty is 203.1 MM Btu/h.
Overhead vapor is partially condensed at 170 °F and 39.7 psia in a
condenser that removes 65.9 MM Btu/h. The reflux drum acts as a
decanter with 201 lb-mol/h of water removed from the water boot,
1860 lb-mol/h of light naphtha removed as the liquid product, and
575.2 lb-mol/h of vapor leaving from the top of the reflux drum. In the
Aspen Plus steady-state simulation, the flow rate of the light-naphtha
stream (“naphtha”) is adjusted by a design spec function to give an
ASTM D86 Engler 95% point of 375 °F. Note that the ASTM D86
Engler 5% point of the light naphtha is 102 °F under the operating
conditions used in the base case: 170 °F reflux drum, 39.7 psia, and
450 °F furnace coil outlet temperature (COT). The reflux flow rate is
854.7 lb-mol/h.
The vapor stream from the top of the reflux drum (“lights”) is 575.3
lb-mol/h, with composition of 6.9 mol % methane (C1), 8.6 mol %
ethane (C2), 14.4 mol % propane (C3), 9.2 mol % isobutane (iC4),
plus other heavier components. The methane and ethane can be used
for fuel. The propane and heavier components are valuable and need
to be recovered.
There are several ways to recover these components. We assume in
this work that the gas is compressed up to a pressure where 95% of the
propane in the lights can be recovered in a liquid stream after
condensation at a temperature (120 °F) that permits the use of
cooling water. The total condensation of the gas would require high
pressure or low temperature because of the light methane and ethane
present. An Aspen Plus flowsheet design spec is used to achieve the
95% propane recovery in the liquid stream, leaving the partial
condenser downstream of the compressor by varying the vapor/feed
fraction specification. Thus, the condenser has two specifications:
Received: November 12, 2011
Revised: November 30, 2011
Published: December 5, 2011
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Energy & Fuels
Figure 1. (A) Preflash column, base case. (B) Deethanizer column, base case.
vapor/feed fraction and 120 °F temperature. These two specifications
and the composition of the lights stream fix the pressure in the partial
condenser downstream of the compressor. This pressure is then used
as the compressor discharge pressure to calculate the power
requirement to compress the lights stream. Changes in design
parameters change the compressor discharge pressure and the flow
rate and composition of the lights stream, which determine
compressor work. The compressor discharge pressure is 282 psia,
and the power requirement is 497 hp. The partial condenser heat duty
is 7.42 MM Btu/h.
Gas and liquid streams leave the separator downstream from the
partial condenser. The small gas steam (33.99 lb-mol/h) can be used
for refinery fuel. It represents a small loss of propane and a little
isobutane. The liquid stream (541.2 lb-mol/h) contains 3.8 mol %
methane and 7.7 mol % ethane; therefore, it is sent to a distillation
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column to remove these components. The design of this distillation
column is discussed in section 2.3.
2.2. Atmospheric Pipestill. The bottoms from the preflash
column are fed at 443 °F into the atmospheric pipestill furnace, which
consumes 200.5 MM Btu/h to provide a 3% “overflash” (fraction of
the vapor leaving the furnace that is returned as liquid to the section of
the pipestill below the gas oil drawoff to prevent entrainment of crude
oil into the gas oil). The COT of the atmospheric furnace to achieve
the specified overflash is 683 °F.
The atmospheric pipestill operates with a 15.7 psia reflux-drum
pressure. The overhead vapor from the column goes to a total
condenser that produces a liquid organic phase and an aqueous phase.
The latter is withdrawn from a “boot” at the bottom of the reflux
drum. The organic liquid phase is split between a reflux stream, which
is pumped to the top of the column, and a product stream, which is a
liquid heavy-naphtha stream (“HNAPH”) with an ASTM D86 Engler
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Figure 2. Effect of the reflux-drum temperature at 39.7 psia and 450 °F COT.
95% point of 375 °F. This specification is maintained by an Aspen Plus
flowsheet design spec that varies the flow rate of the heavy naphtha.
Under the base-case conditions, the heavy-naphtha flow rate is 649.4
lb-mol/h. The initial boiling point is 115 °F, and the 5% point is 195
°F. The temperature (178 °F) in the total condenser in the pipestill is
established by the specified pressure and the composition of the heavy
naphtha.
Note that the conditions of the heavy-naphtha product are shown in
the upper left corner of Figure 1A. The “IBP” is the initial boiling point
temperature (the temperature at which the first bubble of vapor is
formed).
2.3. Deethanizer Column. The liquid stream from the separator
downstream of the compressor and partial condenser is pumped into a
distillation column to remove the methane and ethane. Because the
critical pressures of ethane and propane are 708 and 617 psia,
respectively, the operating pressure of the column was set at 400 psia
to avoid hydraulic problems. The separation in this “deethanizer” is
between ethane and propane. The impurity of ethane in the bottoms
should be small, so that the propane can be produced in a downstream
“depropanizer” at high purity. The loss of propane in the distillate
should be kept small because the value of propane as a refinery fuel gas
is less than its value as a commercial product.
The flowsheet of the deethanizer is shown in Figure 1B. The
distillate product is removed as a vapor. The design specification for
the distillate is 5 mol % propane impurity. A modest reflux ratio of 2
and a 20-stage column feeding on stage 10 are selected as reasonable
design parameters for this fairly easy separation.
With the vapor distillate composition of 31.3 mol % methane, 63.7
mol % ethane, and 5 mol % propane and a column pressure of 400
psia, the reflux-drum temperature is 53 °F. Therefore, refrigeration is
required. The condenser heat duty is fairly small at 0.911 MM Btu/h.
The bottoms stream at 461.2 lb-mol/h has an ethane impurity
composition of only 52 ppm. This deethanizer bottoms stream along
with the light-naphtha stream from the preflash column are then fed to
a downstream refinery light-end process for the recovery of all of the
valuable light hydrocarbons (propane, isobutane, etc).
The base temperature in the deethanizer is 314 °F at the high
pressure in the column; therefore, medium-pressure steam at 160 psia
and 363 °F is required. The reboiler duty is 4.89 MM Btu/h. The
column diameter is 3.81 ft.
As we show in the next section, the flow rates, compositions, and
boiling point temperatures of the light naphtha from the preflash
column, the heavy naphtha from the pipestill, and the liquid stream fed
to the deethanizer vary with the conditions in the preflash column.
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3. EFFECT OF DESIGN OPTIMIZATION VARIABLES
The three main design optimization variables in the preflash
column are pressure, reflux-drum temperature, and furnace
COT. In theory, the number of stages is also a design
optimization variable, but there are only 10 trays in this small
column, which is about the minimum practical number.
Increasing the number of stages was found to have little effect
on the separation between the light naphtha in the preflash
column and the heavy naphtha in the atmospheric pipestill (gap
or overlap between the 95% boiling point of the light naphtha
and 5% boiling point of the heavy naphtha).
An iterative evolutionary procedure is used to find the
optimum economic design. First, the effect of one design
optimization variable is explored, with the other variables fixed
at initial guesses. Using the optimum value of this variable, a
second variable is explored. This procedure is repeated with all
variables iterated until the global optimum is found.
3.1. Effect of the Reflux-Drum Temperature. With the
pressure set at 39.7 psia and COT held at 450 °F, the
temperature of the reflux drum is varied over a wide range from
130 to 180 °F. The base-case temperature is 170 °F, which
permits the use of air coolers. Below about 150 °F, the use of
cooling water is required.
Figure 2 gives results. As expected, decreasing the reflux-
drum temperature reduces the flow rates of the vapor streams
(lights from the reflux drum and gas from the separator). The
flow rate of the light naphtha increases quite significantly
because the lower temperature in the preflash reflux drum
condenses more of the vapor stream into the liquid phase. With
the 95% point fixed, more of the total naphtha (light plus
heavy) is withdrawn in the preflash column. Slightly less
naphtha goes out the bottom of this column; thus, there is a
small reduction of the flow rate of the heavy naphtha
(“HNaph”) removed in the atmospheric pipestill as the preflash
reflux-drum temperature is decreased.
The composition of the gas streams contain more light
components at lower temperatures; therefore, the compressor
discharge pressure increases. However, the throughput through
the compressor is smaller. The net effect is a reduction in
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Figure 3. Effect of the pressure at 130 °F reflux drum and 450 °F COT.
compressor work as the temperature is reduced (third left
graph in Figure 2).
Because the light naphtha stream contains more light
components at lower temperatures, its 5% boiling point
decreases as the temperature decreases. At the base-case 170
°F, the 5% point is 102 °F. At 130 °F, the 5% point is 59 °F.
The 95% point is held constant for all cases at 375 °F. There is
also an increase in the water phase withdrawn from the reflux
drum because the lower temperature reduces the solubility of
water in the organic phase.
The energy consumptions in the preflash and atmospheric
pipestill furnaces are essentially unaffected by the reflux-drum
temperature, despite the fact that the flow rates of light naphtha
and heavy naphtha are changing.
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Because compressor power is lower at lower temperatures,
we select 130 °F as a reasonable reflux-drum temperature. A
water-cooled condenser will be required in this design, but
cooling-tower water is relatively inexpensive. Air coolers
conserve water but are expensive in terms of both capital
investment and operating costs (fan motor power).
3.2. Effect of the Reflux-Drum Pressure. With the
reflux-drum temperature at 130 °F and COT held at 450 °F,
the pressure in the reflux drum is varied. The total pressure
drop over the column is assumed to be fixed at 5 psi; therefore,
the pressures in the column base and the furnace change.
Figure 3 gives results over a range of pressures. A higher
pressure reduces the flow rates of lights and gas. Raising the
reflux-drum pressure increases the compressor suction pressure,
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Figure 4. Effect of the COT at 130 °F reflux drum and 42 psia.
which tends to reduce compressor work. However, the
compressor discharge pressure increases rapidly because the
gas streams are richer in the very light components (methane
and ethane). The net effect on compressor load of a smaller
throughput, a higher suction pressure, and a higher discharge
pressure is a reduction in work (HP) as the column pressure is
increased.
The higher pressure at the preflash furnace reduces the
fraction of the feed that is vaporized at the fixed 450 °F COT.
The flow rate of light naphtha decreases and the flow rate of
heavy naphtha increases as the pressure is raised. The changes
in the heavy naphtha flow rate are much larger for variations in
the pressure than for variations in the reflux-drum temperature
(compare Figures 2 and 3).
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Furnace duties in the two furnaces also vary with the preflash
pressure. The preflash furnace duty decreases (less vapor-
ization, leading to less light naphtha) and the pipestill furnace
duty increases (more vaporization, leading to more heavy
naphtha) as the preflash pressure is increased. The total furnace
energy decreases with increasing pressure; therefore, we might
conclude that high-pressure operation is best. However, the
high compressor discharge pressure can cause problems.
The component that we want to recover from the lights
stream is propane, and the critical pressure of propane is 617
psia. To avoid phase separation problems, we want to keep the
compressor discharge pressure well below 600 psia. Therefore,
a preflash pressure of 42 psia is selected, which gives a
compressor discharge pressure of 573 psia.
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Figure 5. (A) Preflash column, modified design. (B) Deethanizer column, modified design.
3.3. Effect of the COT. The final design optimization
variable studied is the furnace COT. The pressure is set at 42
psia, and the reflux-drum temperature is set at 130 °F.
Overflash in the atmospheric pipestill furnace is fixed at 3%.
Figure 4 gives results for COT ranging from 360 to 460 °F.
As expected, increasing the COT increases the light-naphtha
flow rate and preflash furnace duty. The effect on heavy
naphtha and the pipestill furnace duty is the reverse. Total
furnace energy consumption reaches a minimum at 380 °F
preflash furnace COT.
A preflash furnace COT of 400 °F is selected because the
increase in the total energy in going from 380 to 400 °F is quite
small, while there is a reasonably large reduction in compressor
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work (from 276 to 257 hp). Note that the compressor
discharge pressure has decreased to 476 psia.
4. MODIFIED FLOWSHEET
Figure 5 gives the modified flowsheet with the optimum design
optimization variables. The preflash reflux-drum temperature is
130 °F, and the pressure is 42 psia. The furnace COT is 400 °F.
A comparison to the original flowsheet shown in Figure 1
shows the following improvements: (1) Total furnace energy is
reduced from 403.6 to 397.7 MM Btu/h. (2) Compressor work
is reduced from 497 to 257 hp. (3) Gas stream sent to fuel is
reduced from 33.99 to 31.27 lb-mol/h. (4) Propane losses in
the gas stream are reduced from (33.99 lb-mol/h)(0.122) =
4.15 lb-mol/h propane to (31.27 lb-mol/h)(0.084) = 2.63 lb-
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Energy & Fuels Article

mol/h propane. (5) Preflash condenser heat removal is reduced

from 65.9 to 49.3 MM Btu/h. (6) Compressor aftercooler heat
removal is reduced from 7.42 to 2.45 MM Btu/h. (7)
Deethanizer condenser refrigeration duty is reduced from
0.911 to 0.764 MM Btu/h. (8) Deethanizer reboiler duty is
reduced from 4.89 to 2.13 MM Btu/h. (9) Propane losses in
the deethanizer distillate stream are reduced from (65.75 lb-
mol/h)(0.05) = 3.29 lb-mol/h propane to (55.68 lb-mol/h)
(0.05) = 2.78 lb-mol/h propane. (10) Water removed from the
preflash reflux drum (decanter) is increased from 210 to 268 lb-
mol/h, which means that the water content in the light naphtha
is lower. (11) Atmospheric pipestill furnace COT is reduced
from 683 to 675 °F, which will reduce coking in the tubes.
Notice that the light naphtha is lighter (5% point 50 versus
102 °F) and its flow rate is less. Light-naphtha composition
changes from 0.07 to 0.18 mol % methane, from 0.36 to 0.95
mol % ethane, and from 1.79 to 3.87 mol % propane (compare
Figures 1B and 5B).
Likewise, the heavy naphtha is lighter (5% point 179 versus
195 °F). However, its flow rate is higher (1110 versus 649 lb-
mol/h). The concentration of ethane in the heavy naphtha is
very small in both cases; thus, it does not need to be fed to the
deethanizer.
The preflash furnace duty is smaller (156.6 versus 203.1 MM
Btu/h), but the pipestill furnace duty is larger (241.1 versus
200.5 MM Btu/h).

5. CONCLUSION
An improved flowsheet of a petroleum preflash column has
been developed. Energy costs are reduced in terms of furnace
duties, compressor work, deethanizer refrigeration, and
deethanizer reboiler duty. Losses of propane in the gas stream
and the deethanizer distillate are reduced by 28%.

■ AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*Telephone: 610-758-4256. Fax: 610-758-5057. E-mail: wll0@
lehigh.edu.

■ REFERENCES
(1) www.eia.doe.gov/energyexplained.
(2) Aspen Technology, Inc. Getting Started Modeling Petroleum
Processes; Aspen Technology, Inc.: Burlington, MA, 2004.
(3) Luyben, W. L. Distillation Design and Control Using Aspen
Simulation; Wiley: New York, 2006; p 291.

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