Progressive crude oil distillation: An energy-efficient alternative to conventional distillation process

• Published in: Fuel (Guildford) Vol. 239; pp. 1331 - 1337
• Main Authors: Nalinakshan, Shankar, Sivasubramanian, V., Ravi, Vineesh, Vasudevan, Aneesh, Sankar, M.S. Ramya, Arunachalam, K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01-03-2019; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Aspen HYSYS; Computer simulation; Crude oil; Distillation; Energy conservation; Energy efficiency; Energy saving; Oil refineries; Optimization; Process control; Progressive crude oil distillation; Real time operation; Refineries; True boiling point; Progressive crude oil distillation; Energy saving; Aspen HYSYS; True boiling point
• ISSN: 0016-2361; 1873-7153
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fuel.2018.11.033

Distillation, the major process in crude oil refineries as of now. In this work we focused the attention to energy saving with respect to an industrial crude oil distillation unit. An alternative to the conventional crude oil distillation model present in the Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Kochi Refinery is proposed and simulated. The theoretical predictions as well as the simulated results indicate that the Progressive crude oil distillation reduces the utility burden as well as increase the extraction of more valuable light components. The simulation was carried out using Aspen HYSYS V8.8.2. Different crudes are taken into account and their properties and amount of distillate are analyzed. The optimization is done in an easy manner rather than the conventional mathematical method, together with the advanced process control tools; make it profitable in the operation in real time.