Boosting energy efficiency in

aromatics processing
Simulation of a revamped process scheme with improved heat integration
indicates big gains through energy savings and emissions abatement

SUNIL KUMAR, PRASENJIT GHOSH and SHRIKANT NANOTI

CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum

A
new energy efficient
method for process-
Cooling
ing the aromatics mix- water (CW)
Clay Air cooler
ture to produce pure benzene, treating
Condenser
toluene, and xylene (BTX) tower Vessel Vessel
in an aromatics production
Steam /
plant was conceptualised for hot oil Reflux Reflux
a significant increase in pro- Feed Pump Pump
heater
cess energy efficiency and Benzene
Toluene
financial savings. A techno- Distillation
EX-1 column I
economic study was carried (DCI) Cooling
out to estimate the value of Toluene Distillation
water (WC)
+ Xylene
energy savings, capital invest- column II (DCII)

ment and additional capital MP MP

requirement for revamping the steam steam
Reboiler Reboiler
existing design of an aromatics Extract
production plant. The results of hydrocarbons Cooler
from SRC Xylene
the study show large scale sav- overhead Toluene + Xylene Pump
ings in hot utility, cold utility, Feed Cooling
pump
electricity and overall operat- water (WC)

ing costs as a result of imple-

menting the new method.
The payback period for addi-
tional expenditure required to
install heat exchange area pip-
ing modifications would be
less than a year, while process
emissions of CO2 would fall
significantly.
BTX is produced on a large
scale by processing the refor-
mate and pyrolysis gasoline
streams in an aromatics pro-
duction plant. The aromatics
rich stream is first processed in
Figure 1 Schematic of a conventional process for BTX processing
the extraction section to remove
non-aromatics. Subsequently,
the aromatics stream is fur-
ther treated in a clay tower to
remove olefinic impurities,
followed by two distillation
columns to produce pure ben-
zene and toluene. Nowadays,
divided wall column (DWC)
technology, which claims 30%
energy and capital savings over
the conventional two column
arrangement, seems to be the
upcoming approach for frac-
tionation of a BTX mixture in
the aromatics plant.1,2 A DWC
application in a grassroots unit
for BTX production seems very
promising. However, there is a
need for 110 trays for BTX frac-
tionation. Therefore, the appli-
cation of DWC for revamping

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1001510 PTQ Q2 2018 1

 an existing two column distil-
lation process does not seem
feasible.
A new method for BTX pro-
cessing was conceptualised by
optimising the operating con-
ditions and adopting new heat
integration for the revamp of
a conventional two column
process to deliver substantial
energy savings and reduce the
process’s carbon footprint. A
techno-economic analysis was
carried out to estimate the
quantitative benefits of the pro-
posed scheme over a conven-
tional scheme.
Conventional process
A schematic of the conven-
tional process used for pro-
cessing the aromatics mixture
(BTX mixture) obtained from
a solvent recovery column is
shown in Figure 1. A hydrocar-
bon stream is heated in the heat
exchanger with the clay treating
tower bottoms, and then with
steam to the desired tempera-
ture, before entering the clay
tower for removal of olefinic
impurities.
The clay treated BTX mixture
is processed in a benzene sep-
aration column (DCI) and tolu-
ene-xylene separation column
(DCII) to obtain pure BTX (see
Figure 1). The xylene stream,
which is generally processed
downstream, is either routed
hot or water-cooled for storage.
Energy requirement in a
conventional process
Simulation of a conventional
process as per the schematic
shown in Figure 1 was carried
out using Aspen Hysys. A rig-
orous distillation column model
and Peng Robinson thermo-
dynamic model were used in
the simulation. The propor-
2 PTQ Q2 2018
tions of benzene, toluene, o-xy-
lene, p-xylene and m-xylene in
the hydrocarbon stream were
taken as 12.55 wt%, 39.30 wt%,
16.05 wt%, 16.05 wt%, and 16.05
wt%, respectively. A flow rate
of 20 000 kg/h and a tempera-
ture of 40°C were used as con-
ditions to define the feed. A
pressure drop of 0.5 bar was
used across the process heat
exchangers. A benzene purity
of ≥99.95 wt%, a toluene purity
of ≥99.5 wt%, along with a
recovery level of ≥99.5%, were
targeted in the study. The stor-
age temperature of BTX was
taken as 45°C. The clay treat-
ing column was not simulated
as its operation is beyond the
scope of an energy optimisation
study. The columns DCI and
DCII were simulated using 36
and 32 theoretical trays, respec-
tively. Both distillation column
condenser pressures were kept
close to normal atmospheric
pressure (1.1 bar). A reasonable
pressure drop across the vari-
ous equipment, such as 0.2 bar
across the condenser of DCI,
0.4 bar across the air cooler of
DCII, and 0.2 bar across the col-
umn, were used in the simula-
tion. The reboiler pressures of
the columns DCI and DCII used
in the simulation were 1.5 bar
and 1.7 bar, respectively.
Enhancing process energy
efficiency
A new, energy efficient dis-
tillation configuration based
on DWC technology reduces
the reboiling and condensing
duty to minimise the net pro-
cess energy requirement. The
reboiler and condenser duty
of a given distillation column
depends on operating condi-
tions such as feed temperature,
column pressure, reflux ratio
to meet product purity, num-
ber of trays used, and so on.
However, it is essential to note
that the net process energy
requirement is governed not
only by the distillation column
configuration but also by the
process-to-process heat recov-
ery potential. The extent of
process-to-process heat recov-
ery is governed by the operat-
ing conditions in the different
types of process and process
heat integration equipment in
the scheme adopted. Physical
insight and pinch analysis of
the conventional process reveal
that a significant amount of
energy is wasted in air or cool-
ing water used for condensing
the huge amount of toluene
vapour produced in DCII. It
would be a great achieve-
ment if this energy could be
integrated into the process to
reduce the net process energy
requirement.
The boiling points of BTX
are significantly different.
Thus, it seems quite realistic
to suggest that the condensa-
tion energy of toluene vapour
can be used for preheating the
feed to the clay treating tower
and replacing part of DCI’s
reboiler duty, provided there
is sufficient temperature gradi-
ent for heat transfer. This tem-
perature gradient will depend
upon the condensation temper-
ature of toluene vapour which
increases along with a rise in
pressure in DCII. However, a
rise in DCII’s pressure will also
increase the reboiler and con-
denser duty for specified tolu-
ene purity and recovery values
due to reduced relative volatil-
ity. On the other hand, higher
pressure will lead to a lower
volumetric flow rate of vapour
in DCII. Considering this, a
www.digitalrefining.com/article/1001510
sensitivity analysis of the effect
of DCII’s pressure on these
parameters was carried out to
understand their interaction
quantitatively.
The results of this sensitivity
analysis indicated that reboiler
and condenser duty increases
with a rise in pressure, whereas
maximum actual vapour flow
decreased, as expected. Thus,
an increase in pressure does
not seem to be beneficial with
regard to energy savings until
and unless the introduction of
more energy does not facili-
tate the utilisation of toluene
vapour energy in the process
itself for a significant reduc-
tion in the net process energy
requirement. To find out the
optimum value of DCII’s pres-
sure, the net process energy
requirement was estimated
using the pinch analysis tool in
Aspen Hysys for various pres-
sure values of DCII. The results
are shown in Table 1.
The results clearly indicate
that a DCII pressure of ~3.0 bar
is the optimum value to min-
imise the net process energy
requirement. Subsequently,
a new processing scheme
Effect of DCII pressure on the hot and
cold utility requirement of the process
Pressure, Hot utility, Cold utility,
bar kW kW
1.7
2
4898
5040
4252
4354
2.5 5276 4531
3 3407 2610
3.5 3630 2787
Table 1
ity at Rs. 4.2/kWH ($ = Rs60).3
The capital cost of the heat
exchanger network, reboiler
and condenser were estimated
using correlations reported in
established and reliable liter-
ature.4,5,6,7 The payback period
for additional expenditure
required for new heat exchang-
ers and pipeline rerouting was
estimated using the ratio of
capital cost to annual profit
through energy savings. The
cost of piping modification
was assumed to be 30% of
the installed cost of new heat
exchangers.
Cooling
Clay
water (CW)
Condenser
treating
tower
The actual vapour flow
(AVF) profile of DCII indicates
that there is a 34% reduction
in the maximum value of AVF
on increasing the DCII reboiler
pressure from 1.7 bar to 3.0
bar. This provides the scope to
increase the column through-
put in case of an increase in
the toluene fraction of the feed.
Energy saving analysis reveals
scope for savings of around
40.1%, 32.3%, 84.8% in medium
pressure steam, cooling water
and electricity, respectively.
The design pressure of DCII is
4.5 bar. Thus there is an oppor-
tunity to reduce the operating
cost by 37.7% by revamping
the existing process with the
proposed scheme. The pay-
back period for the addi-
tional expenditure required
for revamping the existing
aromatic plant was found to
be 10.3 months. Moreover,
these energy savings will also
result in a significant reduc-
Cooling
water (WC)
Vessel Vessel

with modified heat integra-

tion was conceptualised (see Steam Reflux Reflux
Feed Pump Pump
Figure 2). heater
Benzene Toluene
Distillation Distillation
Comparative analysis PEX-1 column I column II
Conventional and proposed (DCI) (DCII)

processes with an optimum

pressure for column DCII as Reboiler Reboiler
shown in Figures 1 and 2 were MP
steam
MP
steam
simulated in a closed loop NE-1
Steam
for evaluation of their actual NE-3 (optional
energy requirement. In the NE-2 cooler)
present study, the annual oper- Feed from Toluene + Xylene Cooler
Xylene
ating cost was estimated for an SRC
Pump
overhead
operating rate of 8000 h/y and Feed
pump
Cooling
for utility prices of steam at water (CW)

Rs. 1500 per ton, cooling water

at Rs. 1.8/ton and electric- Figure 2 Integrated flow scheme for an energy efficient process

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1001510 PTQ Q2 2018 3

 tion in CO2 emissions from the
plant.
Conclusion
BTX is produced on a large
scale in the refining and pet-
rochemical industries. A small
increment in energy efficiency
would result in significant
financial savings. Conventional
and proposed processes were
simulated in a closed loop
to estimate the real value of
energy savings and the area
requirement for heat exchang-
ers. The results of the study
reveal that 40.1%, 32.3%, and
84.8% savings in hot utility, cold
utility and electricity can be
achieved by implementing the
proposed scheme in an exist-
ing BTX processing plant. These
savings would result in overall
savings of 37.7% in operating
costs. The payback period for
additional expenditure required
for installing new heat exchang-
ers and piping modification
would be around 10.3 months.
Implementation of the proposed
scheme would also reduce pro-
cess CO2 emissions significantly.
It can be observed from the
configuration of the conven-
tional process and the proposed
scheme that the proposed
method is easy to retrofit to an
existing plant and can be imple-
mented to revamp the existing
process configuration for large
scale energy and emissions
savings and increased profit
margin.
4 PTQ Q2 2018
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Sunil Kumar is a Senior Scientist with
CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP)
Dehradun’s separation process division.
His research areas include solvent
extraction for aromatics production and
recovery, extractive desulphurisation of
gas oil and fuel oil, process design and
integration, production of methanol
and DME and life cycle analysis of fuels.
Technologies and processes to which he
contributed have been commercialised,
including at Reliance Jamnagar refinery.
His awards include Certificate of Merit
for Academic Excellence from IIT Kanpur,
and Institution of Engineers India Young
Engineers Award in Chemical Engineering.
He holds three US patents.
Prasenjit Ghosh is a Scientist with
CSIR-IIP Dehradun working on aromatic
extraction and process simulation
and modelling. His areas of interest
are process modelling and simulation,
separation processes, reaction
engineering and process optimisation.
He holds a BE in chemical engineering
from Jadavpur University Kolkata and an
MTech in chemical engineering from IIT
Kanpur.
Shrikant Nanoti retired as Head of the
refining technology division of CSIR-IIP
Dehradun in 2016 and is now a Consultant
with the company. With over 30 years of
experience in the development and scale-
up of separation based technologies,
process design, process integration
and pinch analysis for the petroleum
refining and petrochemical industries,
the technologies he has developed
have been commercialised in various
refineries. He has published more than
40 research papers, holds eight patents,
and received the CSIR Technology Award
and Technology Shield for development
and commercialisation of aromatics
extraction technologies. He holds a
doctorate in chemical engineering from
Indian Institute of Technology.
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