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Notes 3

Ukzn

Uploaded by

Olwethu Nolie
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Acid gas: CO2 and / or H2S

Sour natural gas: A natural gas that contains high / considerable quantities of acid
gas
Sweet natural gas: A natural gas that contains very low / negligible quantities of
acid gas
Wet natural gas: A natural gas that contains high moisture content / water vapour
content
Dry natural gas: A natural gas that contains very low moisture content / water
vapour content

Amine unit / Natural gas sweetening unit:


Aim: To remove/separate acid gas from sour and wet natural gas
Feed: Sour and wet natural gas + Solvent (aqueous solution of alkanolamine:
MEA, DEA. MDEA, DGA)
Product: Sweet and wet natural gas + acid gas
Solvent: Aqueous solution of alkanolamine: MEA, DEA. MDEA, DGA

Natural Gas Dehydration unit or Glycol unit:


Aim: To reduce / separate moisture content / water content of a wet natural gas
Feed: Wet and sweet natural gas (that comes from amine unit) + solvent (aqueous
solution of tri-ethylene-glycol: TEG)
Product: Dry and sweet natural gas + water vapour
Solvent: Aqueous solution of tri-ethylene-glycol: TEG

Sulfur Recovery Unit / Claus Unit:

1
Aim: To convert H2S in acid gas to sulfur
Feed: Acid gas + Air
Main product: Sulfur

Natural gas sweetening unit and dehydration unit are normally based on
absorption. In case the flow rate of natural gas is low we can use adsorption units.
In this case:

In natural gas sweetening unit, we can use Activated Carbon as adsorber.


In natural gas dehydration unit, we can use Silica-Gel as adsorber.

Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) contains mainly propane (C3) and butane (C4) and
small quantities of mercaptans (thiols: represented by R-SH, S represents sulfur,
H is hydrogen and R could be CH3, C2H5, etc). Separation of mercaptans from LPG
is done in Merox unit that is based on chemical absorption.

Merox Unit:
Aim: To separate mercaptans from sour LPG (sour kerosene) based on chemical
absorption
Feed: Sour LPG (sour kerosene) + Solvent (NaOH).
Product: Sweet LPG (sweet kerosene).
Solvent: NaOH.

Hydrotreating Unit:
Aim: To separate heavy impurities (like heavy S, N, O, metal compounds) from
sour hydrocarbon streams (like sour light and heavy naphtha, sour diesel oil, etc)
using H2 gas and a catalyst.

2
Feed: Sour hydrocarbon streams (like sour light and heavy naphtha, sour diesel
oil, etc) + H2 gas
Product: Sweet hydrocarbon streams (like sweet light and heavy naphtha, sweet
diesel oil, etc) + Sour gas (that is sent to gas sweetening unit).
Catalyst: CoMo OR NiMo

Isomerization Unit:
Aim: To convert linear hydrocarbons / normal-alkanes / normal-paraffins to
branched hydrocarbons / iso-alkanes / iso-paraffins in hydrotreated light
naphtha in presence of H2 gas and a catalyst.
Feed: Hydrotreated light naphtha + H2 gas.
Product: Isomerate (Main product) + Gas (by-product)
Catalyst: AlCl3 with HCl in a fixed-bed reactor under moderate-high temperature
and pressure conditions.

Catalytic Reforming Unit / Catalytic Reformer:


Aim: To convert hydrocarbons / HCs in hydrotreated heavy naphtha to
iso/branched HCs, aromatics, naphthenic HCs and smaller HCs.
Feed: Hydrotreated heavy naphtha
Product: Reformate (Gasoline) + H2 gas (an important by-product) + gas (fuel gas)
Catalyst: Pt / Rh on silica / silica-alumina support base that must be chlorinated
first.

Cracking:
Aim: To convert invaluable and heavy products like gas oil to valuable and
expensive products especially gasoline in presence OR absence of catalyst.

3
Catalytic Cracking Units: Fluidized bed Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCC OR FCCU) and
Hydrocracking Unit
Non-Catalytic Cracking Units / Thermal Cracking Units: Delayed Coking Unit
(Delayed Coker) and Visbreaking Unit (Visbreaker)

Fluidized bed Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCC OR FCCU):


Aim: To convert heavy molecular weight hydrocarbons in feedstock to light
molecular weight hydrocarbons in presence of a catalyst and in absence of H2
gas.
Feed: Hydrotreated Atmospheric Gas Oil (AGO) + Light Vacuum Gas Oil (LVGO)
Catalyst: Zeolite (in some cases Alumina)
Product: FCC Gasoline (Main Product); Fuel gas; FCC LPG; FCC Kerosene; FCC
Diesel Oil; FCC Gas Oil.
Reactor: Fluidized bed reactor (Not a fixed bed reactor)

Hydrocracking Unit (Hydrocracker):


Aim: To convert heavy molecular weight hydrocarbons in feedstock to light
molecular weight hydrocarbons in presence of a catalyst and in presence of H2
gas.
Feed: Heavy Vacuum Gas Oil (HVGO) + H2 gas
Catalyst: Biofunctional catalyst
Product: Hydrocracker Gasoline (Main Product); Fuel gas; LPG; Kerosene; Diesel
Oil; Gas Oil.
Reactor: Fixed bed reactor

Visbreaking Unit (Visbreaker):

4
Aim: To reduce viscosity of the feedstock (vacuum bottoms / vacuum residue) in
order to convert it to fuel oil with acceptable viscosity.
Feed: Vacuum bottoms / vacuum residue
Product: Fuel oil (Main product) + fuel gas; LPG; gasoline; kerosene; diesel oil; gas
oil.
Catalyst: No catalyst
Reactor: Furnace

Delayed Coker:
Aim: To convert vacuum bottoms / vacuum residue to petroleum coke (solid fuel)
Feed: Vacuum bottoms / vacuum residue
Product: Petroleum coke (Main product) + fuel gas; LPG; gasoline; kerosene;
diesel oil; gas oil; fuel oil.
Catalyst: No catalyst
Reactor: Furnace

Asphalt Unit:
Aim: To convert vacuum bottoms / vacuum residue to asphalt
Feed: vacuum bottoms / vacuum residue + Air
Product: Asphalt

Alkylation Unit:
Aim: To combine iso-paraffins (typically isobutane) from hydrocracker with
alkenes (typically propene, butane, pentene) from FCC in order to produce large
iso-paraffin molecules for production alkylate (gasoline).

5
Feed: Iso-paraffins (typically isobutane) from hydrocracker and alkenes (typically
propene, butane, pentene) from FCC.
Product: Alkylate (gasoline) (main product) + Fuel gas (by-product).
Catalyst: H2SO4 OR HF

Steam reformer:
Aim: To produce H2 gas.
Feed: CH4 + steam
Product: H2 (main) + CO2 (by product)
Catalyst: Typically Ni

Sour water treatment:


Aim: To remove H2S, NH3 and sulfur compounds from water
Feed: Sour water containing H2S, NH3 and sulfur compounds
Product: Stripped water (main) + steam + impurities

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