Lecture.

2 Petroleum Refinery Eng Jalal Mustafa Hasan

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Crude Oil Units : Types & Design

Introduction to oil industry

Crude oil industry is usually divided into three major components: upstream, midstream and
downstream.

 The upstream industry finds and produces crude oil and natural gas. The upstream is
sometimes known as the exploration and production (E&P).
 The midstream industry processes, stores, markets and transports commodities
 The downstream industry includes oil refineries, petrochemical plants, petroleum
products distributors, retail outlets and natural gas distribution

Petroleum Refining Processes

Petroleum refining processes are the chemical engineering processes and other facilities used in
petroleum or oil refineries to transform crude oil into useful products such as liquefied
petroleum gas(LPG), gasoline or petrol, kerosene, jet fuel, diesel oil and fuel oils.

Lera stepakani upstream w

Mid w downstream bzana
 Pretreatment of Crude Oil

1. Gas Oil Water Separation Plant (GOWSP):

Crude oil–gas–water mixtures produced from wells are generally directed to the
separation of the phases (oil, gas, and water) into separate streams. This take place in two
devices:

a- Two phase gas - oil separation plant (GOSP), when the produced stream
contains no water.
b- Three phase gas – oil – water separation plant (GOWSP) when the
produced stream contain water.

The separators are used to relieve the excess pressure due to the gas associated with the
produced crude and, consequently, separating it from the oil. When water exists in the
produced stream,
separators are also used to separate the free water from the oil. The function of
separation depends on gravity i.e difference in densities between the phases.

Separation is done inside pressure vessel fig: 1 , its capacity about 100 cubic
meters, e.g. a cylinder 3 m in diameter and 14 meters long, its weight typically around 50
tons for this size.

Bas away xatm ledaya Tarkizi lebka

Fig 1. Shows Gas – Oil – Water Separator (GOWS) pressure vessel

 There are generally many more instruments and control devices mounted on the separator.

a. The liquid outlets from the separator will be equipped with vortex breakers to
reduce formation of vortex when a liquid is drained from vessel.
b. The gas outlets are equipped with demisters, essentially filters that will
remove liquid droplets in the gas.
c. Emergency Valves (EV) are sectioning valves that will separate the process
components.
d. Blow-down valves that will allow excess hydrocarbons to be burned off in the
flare.

For good separation you should control operation conditions which is mainly for this
process is pressure and then control phases level inside the pressure vessel.

For first stage Inlet temperature is often in the range of 100-150 ˚C but pressure is
about 3-5 MPa (30-50 times atmospheric pressure).

Fig: 2 show the P&ID of separation plant and how operating conditions controlled.

Fig: 2. Show GOWSP P&ID drawing

Second stage separator:
The second stage separator is quite similar to the first stage HP separator. In addition
to output from the first stage, it will also receive production from wells connected to
the Low Pressure manifold. The pressure is now around 1 MPa (10 atmospheres)
and temperature below 100 degrees C. The water content will be reduced to below
2%. An oil heater could be located between the first and second stage separator toreheat
the oil/water/gas mixture. This will make it easier to separate out water when
initial water cut is high and temperature is low. The heat exchanger is normally a
tube/shell type where oil passes though tubes in a cooling medium placed inside an outer
shell.
Third stage separator:
The final separator here is a two phase separator, also caall flash-drum.
d The pressure is now
reduced toabout atmospheric pressure (100 kPa) so that the last heavy gas components
will boil out. In some processes where the initial temperature is low, it might be necessary to heat
the liquid (in a heat exchanger) aaign before the flash drum to achieve good separation of the
heavy components.

2. Remove of moisture or mist from hydrocarbon gases:

The separated gas may contain moisture or mist and droplets, and must be removed before it
reaches the compressor. If liquiddroplets enter the compressor they will erode the fast rotating
blades. Fig: 3 show a scrubber is designed to remove small fractions of liquid from the gas.

Fig: 3 show eathylen glycol moisture and mist absorption from hydrocarbones gases
 Agar Basi Floating roof tanki krd
2-3 Xall lawanai lo bnwsa
Crude Oil Receiving
• Crude oil is received and stored in a floating roof tank

• Roof is made floating over the oil to avoid loss of hydrocarbon vapors and low boiling factions

• The roof also floats up and down to compensate for the breathing of operation during pumping
in and out of the tank

• Crude oil received from tank cars, pipelines or tanker ships may contain water

• This water must settle in the receiving tank before oil accounting is started

Floating roof tank

3- Desalting and Dewatering Lo boshay grnga

Crude oil is typically produced as a water-in-oil emulsion (water droplets suspended in a
continuous oil phase) . The water must be removed (down to a level of < 1 %) in a process
usually called demulsification or dehydration.
It is important unit and required practically if the salt content in crude oil exceeds 20 PTB
(pounds of salt, expressed as equivalent sodium chloride, per thousand barrels of oil) but
the reduction of salt content down to 5 PTB is feasible. Desalting of crude oil willeliminate
or minimize problems resulting from the presence of mineral salts in crude oil.
These salts often
deposit chlorides on the heat transfer equipment of the distillation units and causefouling
effects. In addition, some chlorides will decompose under high temperature,
forming corrosive hydrochloric acid and lowering of catalysts activity.
The main objective of a desalting plant is to break the films surrounding the small water
droplets,
coalescing droplets to form larger drops, and allowing water drops to settle out during
or after coalescing. The most important variables affecting desalting performance
that have been identified and studied include (1) settling time, (2) chemical
demulsifier, (3) heat, (4) adding freshwater, (5) mixing (emulsion, chemical, and
the freshwater), and (6) electricity.

a- Chemical desalting process: This is done by using demulsifiers which are a surface-
active chemicals adsorb to the water-oil interface, rupture the film surrounding
waterdrops, and displace the emulsifying agents back into the oil. Breaking the film
allowswater drops to collide by the natural force of molecular attraction. The chemical
used as a demulsifier is a special materials specified under the trade name e. g. Servo
CC 3408 supplied by Servo Delden BV (Netherlands).

In chemical desalting, water and chemical surfactant (demulsifiers) are added

tothecrude,whichisheatedsothatsaltsandother impurities dissolve or attach to the water,
then held in a tank to settle out.The feedstock crude oil is heated to between 150° and
350°F
r to reduce viscosity and surface tension for easier mixing and separation
g of the
water.

Heating and
Crude oil Settling
mixing

Deionized
Demulsifier
water additives

b. Electrostatic desalting unit:

It is a highly efficient desalting process In this case; an external electric field is
applied, to coalesce the small water droplets and thus promote settling of the
water droplets out of the oil, electrical desalting is the application of high-voltage
electrostatic charges and a surfactants are added only when the
crude has a large amount of suspended solids.
 Labirma awa loma hatbowa daway
Aw Rasmay dakrd loi bkai
Demulsification can be achieved by three means: mechanical, electrical, and chemical. The
addition of chemical demulsifiers is the most widely used method.

Classification of surfactants

Loya har basi ( Chemical Demulsification yan

Water in oil ( w/o) y krd , aw rasmai lobka
 The role of surfactants
Salt content cab be as high as 2000 PTB and should be lowered to 2 – 5 PTB. Salt can cause
deposition in tubes in furnaces and HEX (heat exchangers), Corrosion problems and Catalyst
poisoning.

Desalter Operation variables

• Temperature: increasing temperature lowers density and viscosity. settling rate is increased
with temperature
Agar basi ( Desalter operation variable ) y krd
• Washing water ratio Bas awandai lo bzhmera ka dear kraya
• Water level: raising water level reduces settling time for water droplets. If too high it can reach
the electrode
• Washing water injection point: water is injected at the mixing valve. Sometimes to avoid salt
deposition injection is done after the crude pump.

• Demuslifier injection rate: added after the crude pump or before mixing valve at 3 – 10 ppm of
the crude

• Type of washing water: soft water to prevent scaling. Slightly acidic (pH 6). Free from
hydrogen sulfide and ammonia. Distillation overhead or process water can be used

• Pressure drop in mixing valve: compromise between better mixing and emulsion stabilization

Crude oil oAPI versus water wash volume and temp. used in desalting process