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THERMAL CRACKING
The processes is which hydrocarbons are decomposed
at elevated temperatures to from material of lower Mol. wt.
are called thermal conversion process. Any fraction of the
crude from Naphtha to Vac. Residue can be processed
thermally.
The most important types of thermal conversion process
are thermal cracking, visbreaking and coking.
Thermal cracking is used for conversion of residues and
higher Mol. wt. hydrocarbons into more useful products by
cracking the large hydrocarbon molecules into smaller ones
at a temp. level of 4500 5000C.
Cracking activity varies with the type of hydrocarbons
and decrease in the following order:
nparaffin > Isoparaffins > cycloparaffins > aromatics >
aromatics / naphthenics > polynuclear aromatics.
Olefins crack to smaller olefins and di-olefins
Gas+ gasoline
Cyclone
Long
Residue
Furnace
Cracked
Residue
Short
Residue
Furnace
F
R
A
C
T
I
O
N
A
T
O
R
Gas oil
Heavy Distillate
+ Recycle
Cracked Residue
F
R
A
C
T
I
O
N
A
T
O
R
Furnace
Gas+ Gasoline
Gas Oil
Cracked Residue
Short residue
C5 1650C
8.5
165 3500C
23.5
12
45
19
82
Products
C1 C4
VISBREAKING
Visbreaking an abbreviation for viscosity breaking or
viscosity lowering is a liquid phase thermal conversion
process to reduce the viscosity of Atmospheric (long
reduce) and Vacuum (short residue) to produce
specification fuel oil.
Small quantities of LPG and a fair amount of naphtha are
also produced.
Visbreaking is a mild thermal cracking process and
help in reducing the viscosities and pour point of long
and short residues. Refinery production of heavy oils can
be reduced by 30% using visbreaking. Visbreaking also
produces gas, gas oil stock and gasoline which go for
further processing.
Coil Visbreaker
Gas
Heater
Gasoline
Reduced
Crude
Charge
Steam
Gas Oil
Tar
Operating parameter
Furnace
Furnace inlet temp. 0C
3400C
470 4900C
22
15
10
Quench temp; 0C
260
Columns
Fractionate
Stabilizer
Top temp. 0C
138
50
Bottom temp 0C
360
160
Pressure kg/cm 2
5.5
8.5
100
395
Feed temp. 0C
Flash zone temp. 0C
Naphtha
*If
93*
Soaker Visbreaking :
In this process a soaker drum is added between the
furnace and the fractionator. This drum provide large
residence time for the feedstock. The cracking reactions
take place in soaking drum. Since higher residence time
allows improved conversion at lower temps. ; Soaker
Visbreaking Technology is more energy efficient and
provides higher run lengths as coking reactions in the
furnace coil are significantly reduced. Run lengths to 6-18
months for Soaker Visbreaker.
Other advantages of Soaker Visbreaking are :
Lower capital cost (10/15% lower)
Smaller furnace ; less waste Heat Recovery equipment
Less pressure drop through furnace
Lower fuel consumption (15% less fuel : 0.2% on feed)
Better and more selective yields.
Gas
Soaker Visbreaker
Naphtha
Steam
Steam
Gas Oil
Soaker
Drum
Tar
Heater
Residual
Stock
Operating parameter
Soaker Drum
Pre.
5 15 bar (g)
Temp.
4400C
Vapour Cracking
minimum
Liquid Cracking
Run length
Yes
300 days
Yield Pattern
Product
Yield; % of feed
Gas
1.7
Naphtha (80-2000C)
3.1
13.2
27.0
Residue (5200C+)
55.0
COKING
Coking is the most widely practiced means of reducing
the C H ratio of residual oils, Of the 2 main process
delayed coking and fluid coking more than 90% capacity is
in delayed coking units.
Delayed coking is a thermal cracking process in which a
hydrocarbon feedstock, mainly residue is converted to
lighter and more valuable products and coke.
Main advantage of the process is that it can take residual
stocks from a wide variety of process unit in a Refinery
Coking Furnace and the coke drums are the key elements in
the process. Cracking is initiated in the furnace tubes where
short residence time is allowed. Coking of the feed material
is delayed until it reaches large coking drums with larger
retention time; downstream of the coking heater.
Three types of coke structures can be produced shot,
sponge or needle coke.
Decoking
Waterjet
Delayed Coking
Gas
Accumulator
Naphtha
P/A
Coke Drum
Fractionator
Steam Stripper
Steam
Heater
Heavy
gas oil
Steam Gen.
Feed
Condensate
Drum
Coke
Process Description
Delayed coking is a semi continuous process in which
the heated charge is transferred to large coking drums
which allow the long residence time needed to allow the
cracking reactions to proceed to completion feed to
these units is normally heavy atmospheric residues,
although heavy catalytic cycle oils and cracked tars may
also be used.
Feedstock gets pre heated by exchange of heat from
outgoing products and is partially vaporized in a
specially designed coking furnace. Mild cracking takes
place in the furnace where thermal cracking temps; of
4850 to 5050C are reached.
decoking operation
Following procedure is used to remove the coke :
4800 5150C
1.7 Kg/cm2g
1500C
3500C
Fractionator Pres.
API
7.4
12.0
12.5
Sulfur wt%
2.76
1.6
0.6
CCR wt %
19.6
9.6
14.8
Gases
13.2
12.0
6.4
Naphtha
11.1
15.7
21.6
31.4
35.2
46.0
15.5
Coke
44.3
21.6
26.0
0.57
1.2
2.2
Yields
Fluid Coking
Fluid coking is a continuous process that uses the
fluidized solids technique to convert residue including
vacuum pitches to more valuable products.
Fluid coking uses 2 vessels a Reactor and a
Burner. Both the reactor vessel and the burner vessel
contain fluidized beds with coke particles circulating
between the two vessel by fluidized solids technique.
Coke particles are circulated to transfer heat to the
reactor. The residuum is cooled by distributing it as a
thin film of liquid on the outside of the hot-coke
particles.
The vapor products pass through cyclones that
remove most of the entrained coke.
To Stock
Steam
Green Coke
Fuel Gas
Incinerator
&
Boiler
Rotary Kiln
Rotary Cooler
Coke Fines
Calcined
coke