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Petroleum Refinery

5rd Semester

Lecture Six / Vacuum Distillation

By
Ass. Lec. Ahmed Omar Abdullah
Chemical - Petrochemical Engineering Department
Salahaddin University

Ass. Lec. Ahmed Omar Abdullah

Chemical - Petrochemical Engineering Department
1
Salahaddin University
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Vacuum Distillation

To extract more distillates from the atmospheric residue, the bottom from the
atmospheric CDU is sent to the vacuum distillation unit.
The vacuum unit distillates are classified as

- light vacuum gas oil (LVGO).

- medium vacuum gas oil (MVGO).
- heavy vacuum gas oil (HVGO).
- Vacuum residue.

Originally vacuum units followed closely the design of the atmospheric units except,
of course, they operated under a vacuum condition. The vacuum was obtained by
two or three stage steam ejectors, and the internals of the tower were traditional
trays, mostly bubble cap type.

Under these conditions the vacuum obtained in the flash zone required the injection
of steam to provide the required hydrocarbon partial pressure for adequate
vaporization of the fuel oil feed. With the molecular weight of steam low at 18, the
tower vapor traffic was extremely high in velocity requiring a large tower diameter
to accommodate it. This process known as the “Wet Vac”

To provide vacuum towers of much lower diameters require the use of high-capacity
steam ejectors producing very low vacuum condition in the tower overhead.
This coupled with the development of highly efficient expanded grid internals with
very low pressure drop allowed the desired flash zone conditions to be met without
the injection of steam.
This process became known as the “Dry Vac” process and is the accepted process
now for vacuum crude distillation.

Both units have a wash grid above the flash zone; the feed to the column enters
the flash zone at very high velocity, and a high amount of heavy liquid is entrained
in the flash zone vapor.
The heavy gas oil that is returned to the column over the wash grid washes down
the entrained liquids. Metals and con-carbon are also washed back in the grid.

Ass. Lec. Ahmed Omar Abdullah

Chemical - Petrochemical Engineering Department
2
Salahaddin University
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Ass. Lec. Ahmed Omar Abdullah

Chemical - Petrochemical Engineering Department
3
Salahaddin University
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Process Description

The vacuum distillation unit (VDU) follows the atmospheric or the crude distillation
unit (CDU).
The atmospheric residue is further distilled to provide the heavy distillate streams
used for producing lube oil or as feed to conversion units.
This distillation however has to be conducted under sub atmospheric pressure
conditions.
The temperature required for vaporizing the residue at atmospheric pressure would
be too high and the crude would crack. The process follows very much the same
pattern as the atmospheric distillation. Should the cold feed be pumped from
storage, it is heat exchanged against hot product and pump around streams before
being vaporized in the distillation unit heater.
Normally, though, the feed is pumped hot directly from the CDU’s residue stripper
to the vacuum unit’s heater.
Thereafter the distillate vapors are condensed in the tower by heat and mass transfer
with the cold reflux streams moving down the tower in the same way as the side
streams in the atmospheric unit.
The products are taken off at the appropriate sections and are cooled either by heat
exchange with colder streams in the atmospheric unit, by air coolers, or, in some
cases, as heating media for light ends reboilers.
They are then pumped to storage.
In “Wet Vac” To enhance vaporization, the pressure is lowered even further to (10
mm Hg or less) by the addition of steam to the furnace inlet and at the bottom of
the vacuum tower. Addition of steam increases the furnace tube velocity and reduces
the coke formation in the furnace as well as decreasing the total hydrocarbon partial
pressure in the vacuum tower.
The vacuum condition is produced by steam ejectors taking suction from the top of
the tower. These ejectors remove inert and other vapors that may exist and pull a
vacuum of about 5 mmHg absolute. The tower internals are usually expanded grid
type which offer low pressure drop such that the flash zone pressure is about 25–30
mmHg absolute.
The feed enters the vacuum tower at the lower part of the column. As in the case of
atmospheric distillation, a 3–5 vol% over flash is maintained This is to provide some
fractionation between the high-vacuum gas oil (HVGO) draw-off tray and the flash
zone, thereby controlling its end point. The distillate is low vacuum gas oil (LVGO)
and two other cuts, namely medium vacuum gas oil (MVGO) and high-vacuum gas
oil (HVGO). The two cuts of MVGO and HVGO are essential to extract heat from
the tower at a more advantageous level from the HVGO pump around.

Significant cracking of the oil in a vacuum tower cause:

- High load to the ejectors (due to the formation of light ends)
- In lube oil production, decolorizing of the distillate streams
Ass. Lec. Ahmed Omar Abdullah
Chemical - Petrochemical Engineering Department
4
Salahaddin University
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- When producing feed to hydrotreaters or hydrocrackers, high hydrogen

consumption in these units due to the presence of unsaturates as the product
of cracking

Steam Jet Ejector

Ejectors recompress the gases through a nozzle where vapors from the column are
sucked into the venturi section of the nozzle by a stream of medium- or low-pressure
steam. The vapor phase at the ejector exit is partially condensed in an exchanger
with cooling water.
The liquid phase flows to the overhead drum. The vapor phase goes from the
condenser to another ejector-condenser stage.
where high-pressure motive steam enters through a steam nozzle. As the steam flows
through this nozzle, its velocity greatly increases as it flows to the condenser.

The condenser condenses the steam at a low temperature and low pressure.
The steam accelerates toward the cold surface of the tubes in the condenser, where
its large volume will disappear as the steam turns to water.
The motive steam accelerates to such a great velocity that it can exceed the speed of
sound (i.e., sonic velocity).
This high increase in velocity of the steam represents a tremendous increase in
kinetic energy of the steam.
Ass. Lec. Ahmed Omar Abdullah
Chemical - Petrochemical Engineering Department
5
Salahaddin University
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The source of this kinetic energy is the pressure of the steam.

As the high-velocity steam enters the mixing chamber it produces an extremely low
pressure. The gas flows from the jet suction nozzle and into the low-pressure mixing
chamber.
The rest of the jet is used to boost the gas from the mixing chamber up to the higher
pressure in the condenser, which is carried out in two compression steps: converging
and diverging.

Ass. Lec. Ahmed Omar Abdullah

Chemical - Petrochemical Engineering Department
6
Salahaddin University
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Liquid ring pumps are similar to rotor gas compressors. One pump can replace
two or three stages of ejectors in dry or wet type vacuum distillation.
They do not use steam and can significantly reduce hydrocarbon-rich
aqueous condensates in a system using ejectors.
Systems with ejectors are much more flexible and rapid to put into operation.

Ass. Lec. Ahmed Omar Abdullah

Chemical - Petrochemical Engineering Department
7
Salahaddin University