20th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering ESCAPE20

S. Pierucci and G. Buzzi Ferraris (Editors)

2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Advantages in the production of Process Design

Packages (Hydrotreating Units as study case)
Fabio Ferraria, Lorenzo Selmib, Eugenio Caposselac
a

Foster Wheeler Italiana, via Caboto 1, Corsico 20094,

fabio_enrico_ferrari@fwceu.com
b
Foster Wheeler Italiana, via Caboto 1, Corsico 20094, lorenzo_selmi@fwceu.com
c
Foster Wheeler Italiana, via Caboto 1, Corsico 20094, eugenio_capossela@fwceu.com

Abstract
Nowadays due to the improved quality of diesel, required by the market, the number of
Hydrotreating Units has increased, affecting the workload in Engineering Companies.
The possibility to use structured databases for hydrotreating technologies has shown
interesting perspectives to reduce the time losses during the project development. This
paper in particular focuses on hydrotreating unit standard configurations that offer the
possibility to create templates for these types of unit.
For analysis purposes two different configuration have been developed in order to cover
the whole possible database structures, leaving new prospects for further
implementations.
Following the approach presented in this study and in particular the possibility to reuse
the template previously created, has shown that the project performances have been
enhanced, reducing the manhours required for the deliverables creation.
Moreover it has to be qualified that the project template is not necessarily bound to a
particular process simulator, but allows the data input through the whole set of different
solutions offered by the market.
Keywords: Simulation Software, Structured Database

1. Introduction
As direct consequence of the increase in the total number of units dedicated to deep
residue conversion, the demand for Hydrotreating Units is increased as well.
Specifically those units are necessary in order to comply with the market requirements,
which, in the last years, have more stringent quality restrictions.
Due to the fact that the oil and gas market is a very competitive field especially for what
concern the prices of the offers relevant to Basic Engineering Design Packages, this
situation leads to a cost reduction competition and boosts to analyze the projects
workflow in order to identify all the time losses caused by lacks in
deliverables/information management.
Moreover an additional criticality can occur when a high workload is affecting the
Engineering Company, so the possible reduction in the number of people required to
proceed with the project development can offer a good advantage to respect tight
schedules.
The aim of this paper is to show the advantages experienced by FWI with the
implementation of Structured Databases, specifically through the use of plant unit
templates.

F. Ferrari et al.

2. Hydrotreating Unit templates identification

In order to identify the best solution to approach the integration between the
Hydrotreating Unit projects and the use of Structured Databases, FWI has carried out a
strong work of standardization of plant configurations.
This activity has been developed also through the definition of the standard main
deliverables and their connections with the relevant equipment.
The sections present in Hydrotreating Unit (HTU) schemes are here below summarized:

Feed preheating

Reaction

Separation

Stripping and Drying

Hydrogen recycling

Before the reaction where organic sulphur is converted to H2S, the feed stream is
preheated passing through feed/effluent exchangers and a fired heater.
Subsequently in the Separation Section the effluent is cooled and the unreacted
hydrogen is recovered and compressed, to be reused in the Reaction Section.
The liquid effluent is then stripped to reduce light hydrocarbons and H2S presence and
is finally sent to the Drying Section to remove the water.
Depending on the feedstock quality and on the hydrogen purity requirements, the
scheme described can be modified adding to the listed sections other possible
configurations.
However from the analysis resulted that Hydrorteating Units configurations can be
mainly distinguished, dividing all the possible diagrams in two typical schemes.
The two Hydrotreating typical schemes can be identified as:
1) Basis Configuration
2) Expanded Configuration

Advantages in the production of Process Design Packages (Hydrotreating Units as

study case)
In the expanded configuration the basis scheme previously described can be modified,
introducing the following additional sections:
Hydrogen Sweetening
Fractonating
The Hydrogen Sweetening can be in fact introduced to increase the purity of the
recycled stream to the reactor in order to cope with the catalyst requirements.
The Fractonating Section instead can be added if the feedstock contains lighter
hydrocarbon fractions that have be separated.
Moreover the two schemes Separation Sections highly differ on the separators number
and on the pressure/temperature levels, in particular in order to optimize the thermal and
hydrogen recovery.
In the following chapters will be described how the standardized schemes can be easily
embedded in the database, creating template structures to be used multiple times.

3. Template approach methodology

The traditional project workflow in FWI is characterized by interactions between the
different disciplines, responsible for the deliverables development.
This fact implies the necessity to issue many different documents, in order to transmit
data among the involved company departments.
For that reason it has to be underlined that the described approach seemed interesting
because most of the time required for the Basic Engineering Design Package
development, is often spent only for the document preparation (i.e. duty specifications,
equipment datasheets, PFD/P&ID drafting).
Having identified the main HTU configurations, the template structures have been
directly created in the database software: following that approach all the project
deliverables have been as well implemented.
3.1. PFDs and P&IDs implementation
Among project documents, Process Flow and Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams can
be considered as primary deliverables. As a matter of fact, these drawings are the first
and main representation of the process schemes and they have to completely reflect the
database structure. Indeed, the possibility to have them already suitable for the use
inside the software and consistent with the database can highly reduce the manhours
required for the project set up and execution.
Furthermore, the template approach dramatically reduces the manhours necessary for
diagrams drafting and checking, including the Material of Construction drawing
preparation because all the Departments involved are required to fill in only the relevant
data.
3.2. Database flexibility
The template approach, previously described and adopted for the HTU, does not imply
that the structure and objects embedded in the software, cannot be modified if
necessary: the tool offers, in facts, a wide range of opportunities to improve or change
the unit configuration and to fit the designer requirements.
This feature can be considered particularly important for those systems where the main
configuration is always similar, but the design of the equipment sequence can be highly
affected by the feedstock quality, in order to achieve the best unit performance. Indeed
the HTU configuration respect the criticality previously stated, for example for what
concern the thermal integration and the hydrogen recovery.

F. Ferrari et al.
3.3. Additional advantages on project document preparation
As pointed out in the previous chapters, the described approach offers a set of
documents already prepared and embedded in the preliminary templates customization
(i.e. datasheets and drawings).
Moreover the project deliverables always include many other list type documents that
are time consuming for their preparation, may contain typing errors and are very
difficult to be updated/revisioned.
For example those projects require the issue of the following list type deliverables:

Equipment List

Fluid List

Line List

Utility Consumption

Battery Limit Line List
Using the tools provided by the structured database software, all these type of
deliverables can be automatically created, without the user direct action.
Indeed being the update and the revision managed by the database, the software always
guarantees the correctness of the represented information as demonstrated by FWI
experience.
3.4. Project redundancy reduction
During the project development, a huge number of data are shared in many different
documents, just affecting the consistency among database variables.
Specifically this occurs because the same information can be reported many times, so if
a single datum is duplicated without control, even if it is logically dependent from
another one, it will not be interconnected inside the database.
In those cases, in particular during the revision phases, an incorrect data modification
can occur, introducing errors in the reported information.
For that reason the standardization of the unit configurations and the strict definition of
all the documents and variables involved in the structure had the intention to lead to a
rigorous classification of all the information normally managed during the project.
Indeed that analysis offered the possibility to reduce/eliminate the data redundancy,
taking advantage from the additional features offered by the software tools through the
connections between the equipment, in order to obtain an adequate variable sharing and
data transmission.
3.5. Operating cases
An additional improvement in the process design is the possibility to handle many
operating cases in the same database.
This feature can offer to the designer the advantage of keeping all the simulation
parameters in the same environment, without requiring a manual check of all the cases.
3.6. Simulation import
FWI standard workflow normally foresees the use of simulation softwares for HTU
process modeling.
During the use of the templates implemented in the database, many different simulation
tools have been tested to verify the adequacy of data import.
The tests have been successfully carried out and demonstrated the good performance of
the software in all the data transfer phases.
However, automatic interfaces are by default given by the program only for some
simulators, but others can be easily introduced in the workflow, using some additional
devices internally developed in FWI.

Advantages in the production of Process Design Packages (Hydrotreating Units as

study case)
It has to be highlighted that the use of simulation softwares is not strictly necessary and
the project development can start also only from the Heat and Material Balances
definition, without no major difficulties.

4. Results
As evidenced in the present paper the template approach offers the possibility to reduce
the time necessary for the issue of all the documents already embedded in the database.
This advantage can be highly effective so that the duty specifications can be sent in
advance to external entities in the earlier phases of the project development, just
shortening the schedule for the feedback replies and the follow-up activities.
In addition the reduction in the time required for the drawing draft preparation gives as
consequence the chance to implement other HTU configurations; in particular it offers
the opportunity to create additional templates in order to include particular process
schemes with additional equipment.
From all the points above described and as general final result, Foster Wheeler Italiana
experienced during the evaluation of the HTU project development an effective
manhours reduction of about 10-20%.
This result has given interesting perspectives for future implementation of the structured
database template approach, to be foreseen for other units, especially for those that can
be easily standardized.