See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/362907585

Considerations in Designing Sour Water Strippers

Article · June 2022

CITATIONS READS

0 450

2 authors, including:

Jed Bellen
Bellen Management Consulting
18 PUBLICATIONS 6 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Jed Bellen on 25 August 2022.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

12

Considerations in Designing
Sour Water Strippers
Jed M. Bellen, ChE, MBA, AICD, PMP, SCPM
Bellen Management Consulting, O.P.C.
108 E. Aguinaldo St., Bacacay, Albay
4509 Philippines

Jant Erbert B. Garboso, AMIChemE

Technological University of the Philippines-Visayas
Capitan Sabi St., Talisay City, Negros Occidental
6115 Philippines

Introduction
The Sour Water Stripping Unit is an
essential part of a refinery. This is
for the reason that the produced
sour water can be treated for reuse
as a utility water, as an extractive
medium in crude unit de-salter,
and as wash water in hydro-
processing units, provided that
there are no phenols and cyanides
in the sour water (Singhal, 2010).
Furthermore, if the stripped
water has to be discharged to
bodies of water, it will meet the
effluent quality requirement
of environmental regulations.
Sour water is a water produced
in the refinery contaminated
with mostly H2S and NH3. It can
be obtained from Atmospheric
Crude Columns and Vacuum Crude
Towers when stripping steam
is condensed and removed by
overhead condensing systems.
It is also produced in Vacuum
Crude Towers from equipment
such as ejectors and barometric
condensers which are designed
to maintain vacuum inside the
column. Steam injection to vacuum
heater is another source of sour
water in Vacuum Distillation Unit.
In Thermal and Catalytic Cracking
Units, sour water is produced as
condensates from steam used in
injection, stripping, and aeration.
Hydrotreater wash water is also
another major source of sour water.
Heavy viscous feeds which
are rich in sulphur produce
high H2S concentrations
when hydrogenated while
ammonia (NH3) is produced
from hydrogenation of organic
nitrogen compounds. If more
sulphur will be removed to meet
the more stringent environmental
requirements then there may
be more nitrogen converted to
ammonia which would accumulate
in wash water. Hydrogen sulphide
and ammonia concentrations are
highest in sour water coming from
Hydrodesulfurization (HDS) Units
and Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC)
Units. In addition to this, phenols
are produced from reactions
between steam and cyclic
hydrocarbons. Sour water with
extremely high concentration of
phenols would come from the FCC
Units.
As an overview of Sour Water
Stripping process, the sour
water is first fed to a Flash Drum
where hydrocarbon vapours and
liquids are removed. The vapours
are flashed through a pressure
controlled vent connected to a
low-pressure system like sour
water system flare knock out
drum. The collected hydrocarbons
are pumped to a slop system where
it could be reprocessed. The sour
water from the flash drum is then
fed to the Feed Stabilization Tank.
This stabilization tank is used to
increase the residence time of
the sour water for longer mixing
and homogenization of the feed
composition and for further
removal of hydrocarbons.
If this is not done and it happens
that the sour water composition
changes significantly, the stripper
will not operate properly and it
could result to inconsistency in
product specification or steam
wastage by overstripping leading to
the worst composition (Armstrong
et al., 1996). Furthermore,
environmental regulations might
require vent gases to be treated
for hydrocarbon or H2S (Beychok,
1967).
The sour water from the tank is
sent to a heat exchanger where
it is pre-heated through heat
exchange with the stripped water.
 13

Then it flows to the Sour Water
Stripper where some of it is
flashed through a reduction in the
pressure across a control valve.
There are varieties of sour water
stripping methods employed. Most
of them involve the flow of sour
water through trays or packings
in a column while the stripping
steam or gas flowing upwards
removes H2S and sometimes NH3
(Beychok, 1967). The steam that
could be used maybe live steam or
steam produced from the reboiler.
The reboiler boils sour water at
the minimum tower operating
pressure by utilizing the latent
heat of low pressure steam as
the heating medium. This has the
advantage of no additional water
load in the stripper and the steam
condensate can be recovered
and returned to the boiler house.
The H2S, NH3 and steam rising
to the tower cooling section are
cooled by pumped-around sour
water in the middle of the tower.
The temperature is maintained
at 180 deg. F. The reason for
this is that if the temperature
would be well above this value,
there could be carry over of
condensates into the overhead
due to high vapour flow. On the
other hand, if the temperature is
well below this value there could
be no sufficient removal of H2S
in the sour water. The overhead
gases flow by pressure control to
a lower pressure system like the
Sour Water Gas Flare Knock Out
Drum or Sulphur Recovery Unit.
The stripped water collected at
the tower bottom flows through a
heat exchanger where it is cooled
via heat exchange with sour water
feed to the tower. It is then pumped
off-site on level control for further
processing. It could be sent to a
crude unit desalter; a liquid/liquid
extractor that transfer ninety-five
percent (95%) of phenols in water
to atmospheric crude feed. Phenol
removal in sour water stripper is
minimal (~ 10% reduction) but if it
is sent to the desalter, the phenol
content is reduced substantially
(Bellen, 2009). See Figure 1 for
the Process Flow Diagram of Sour
Water Stripping System.

Figure 1. Process Flow Diagram of Sour Water Stripping System

In this paper, the focus of the discussion are the considerations for designing Sour Water Strippers to obtain optimal
performance and lower the capital and operating costs.
14
Design Considerations
for Sour Water
Strippers
Before starting the design, it is
imperative to know the feed source,
composition, temperature, NH3
and H2S concentrations, as well as
the presence of other impurities
such as phenols or HCN. There
should be separate strippers
for sour water containing H2S
and NH3 only and the sour water
containing H2S, NH3, phenols and
HCN. In the case of the former, the
stripper design is based on NH3
specifications as it is less volatile
than H2S. In the latter case, it is
necessary to use direct steam
injection to lessen the corrosion in
reboiler piping.
The next step would be to
determine the operating
conditions. The first to be
determined is the operating
pressure at the top of the
stripper. This is crucial as
the best stripping operation
performance can be obtained at
low pressures. This is determined
Figure 2. The Feed Temperature is at the Intersection of the Plot of the Condenser Duty versus Feed Temperature and the
Plot of the Reboiler Duty versus Feed Temperature.
from the minimum required
pressure of the downstream
offgas treatment facility adding
0.2 to 0.3 bar estimated pressure
drop to account for the pressure
drops of overhead piping, flow
instrument, and control valve.
If a lower pressure drop is
necessary, a special type of flow
instrument with a pressure drop
of 0.05 bar can be employed.
The other operating condition to
be determined is the operating
temperature at the top of the
stripper. The temperature at this
point should be maintained above
the condensing temperature of
NH3 and H2S as the produced
NH4HS can plug the off-gas
pipeline and corrode the overhead
piping. The temperature chosen
should be between 80 and 90 0C.
The feed temperature is also
crucial because if it is low, the
steam requirement is increased
as well as the number of trays.
In this case, the trays will have
very low stripping efficiency. It
is recommended that the feed
temperature is near the bubble
point because the required
reboiler duty will be lower. The
feed temperature can be validated
by generating the graph shown in
Figure 2 using the HYSYS software.
Determining the
Optimal Number of
Trays
The number of trays in the tower
can range between 30 to 60.
The tray efficiencies can range
between 15% to 45% (Weiland and
Hatcher, 2012). The tray number
can be optimized by plotting the
steam requirement against the
theoretical tray number. The
tray number at which the steam
requirement starts to level off is
the optimal number of theoretical
trays. Divide that number by the
chosen efficiency, that gives the
actual number of trays.
From Figure 3, the optimum
theoretical tray number is 6. At
that point, steam savings start
to pinch out. Assuming a tray
efficiency of 30%, the actual tray
number is 6/0.3 = 20.

Determining the Feed
Tray Location
The feed tray can be optimally
selected by determining the feed
NH3 and H2S composition and
match that with the tray of almost
similar composition. The NH3
concentration profile for each tray
can be plotted to determine the
feed tray which will result to the
greatest separation of NH3 with
water.
In Figure 4, it can be gleaned that
there is a sharp separation of NH3
from water when the feed tray
chosen is Tray No. 3.
For steam stripping, the steam
to feed ratio can also be plotted
against feed tray location. The
tray with the lowest steam to feed
ratio should be chosen as the feed
tray because at that point there is
minimal steam usage. From Figure
5, the tray with lowest steam to
feed ratio (0.1) is Theoretical Tray
No. 3.
Types of Tray to Use
The stripping column is divided
into two sections. The first one is
called the heat exchange section
which is that part above the feed
tray to the pump around draw off
tray. The second one is called the
stripping section which is that
part from the feed tray to the last
tray at the bottom of the stripping
column.
For the heat exchange section,
baffle trays are used because it
is good for heat exchange though
minimal component separation
can be achieved. The baffles effect
a crossflow of the hot gas through
the cold liquid flowing downward
through the perforations on tray
edge.
In the stripping section, sieve trays
are used. It is more economical
and less prone to fouling than
other types of trays such as valve
or bubble cap trays.
Tray Sizing
The calculated tray diameter
becomes the basis of the stripping
column’s inside diameter. The
calculation is based on the
maximum tray loading, i.e. the
maximum amount of vapor
entering the tray and the maximum
amount of liquid leaving the tray.
To account for foaming tendencies
a safety factor should be employed
but this should depend on the
specific company practice.
15
Figure 3. Steam requirement
versus the theoretical tray
number.
Furthermore, the Sour Water
Stripper pressure profile can be
determined from the actual tray
pressure drop, which is about 5 to
6 mmHg. For a 25 % tray efficiency,
the theoretical tray pressure drop
is 20 to 24 mmHg. This can be
used in the simulation.
Appurtenances
Chimney or Accumulator Tray
is provided for the purpose of
providing sufficient time for vapor
to separate from the liquid and
provide a sump for pump around
draw off. There is no separation at
Chimney Tray because in here, the
liquid and vapor do not come into
contact with each other.
Sour water feed distributor shall
also be provided to distribute
the feed evenly on the feed tray.
Nozzles for instruments such as
level gauge, pressure transmitter,
temperature transmitter shall
also be provided. There is a need
to install a pressure safety valve
and vent on the column. Vortex
breakers shall be provided at the
inlet nozzle for reflux and the
outlet nozzle for stripped water.
The Sour Water Stripper should
have manholes for inspection and
maintenance purposes.
16
Figure 4. Separation of NH3 with water when the Feed Tray is at Theoretical Tray No. 1 and 3.
Figure 5. Steam to feed ratio versus feed tray location
CONCLUSION
Sour Water Strippers are essential
in a petroleum refinery and LNG
processing facilities. As such,
its optimal design is imperative
to deliver both the operational
and environmental regulatory
requirements. In this paper, an
approach to the optimal design of
a Sour Water Stripper is presented.
It tackles about the selection of
design and operating conditions,
the determination of theoretical
and actual number of trays, the
determination of feed location, the
selection of tray types to use, the
sizing of trays and the provision of
appurtenances to the Sour Water
Stripping Column.
View publication stats
Figure 6. Baffle Tray (Photo from GTI Solutions.)
REFERENCES
1. Armstrong, T., Scott, B., 4. Singhal, S. (2010)
Taylor,K.andGardner,A.(1996)‘Sour ‘Optimize sour water stripper
water stripping’, Today’s Refinery. feed preheating for low capital
cost’, Petrotech 2010. New
2. Bellen, J. (2009) Delhi, 31 October – 3 November.
‘Design of sour water stripping
system’, 70th Philippine 5. Weiland, R. and Hatcher,
Institute of Chemical Engineers N. (2012) ‘Sour water strippers
Annual National Convention. exposed’, Laurence Reid Gas
Waterfront Insular Hotel, 25 – Conditioning Conference. Norman,
27 February. Davao: Philippine 26-29 February.
Institute of Chemical Engineers.
3. Beychok, M. (1967)
Aqueous Wastes from Petroleum
and Petrochemical Plants. New
York: John Wiley and Sons.