Project Synopsis
Evaluate replacing a refinery’s crude tower with either an optimally designed new tower or refurbishing existing towers available on the used equipment market.
Project Summary
PETROLEUM REFINERY CRUDE TOWER REPLACEMENT EVALUATION STUDY
Process Engineering Associates, LLC (PROCESS) was contracted by a small independent petroleum refining client to evaluate a crude tower and determine if replacement of the entire tower or tower internals could improve efficiency and capacity. A simulation of the tower was developed using PROCESS‘ licensed commercial computer process simulation software CHEMCAD to evaluate different sizing scenarios. The client submitted the dimensions of several potential replacement towers available on the used equipment market and PROCESS evaluated these towers to determine if the diameter and height were adequate for the target capacity.
PROCESS also determined the optimum tray design for a new tower based on CHEMCAD sizing calculations and recommended new internals.
In addition to the tower evaluation, PROCESS also provided orifice sizes for new flow meters to measure the flows associated with the crude tower. These results were then submitted to the client in a final project report.
Industry Type
- Petroleum Refining
Utilized Skills
- Fractionation tower design
- Used distillation column evaluation