DESIGN OF RESIDUAL HYDROCRACKING UNIT

(RHU)

MUHAMMAD HAFIZ Usama ZOHAIB

ALAM
CH-17071 CH-17301

BILAL KHURSHEED AURANGZAIB

KHAN
1 2017-18
CH-17303 CH-17308
UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF

DR FAHIMUDDIN ENGR SHAZAIB HASSAN

(CHARTERED ENGR)
DEPARTMENT OF
CHEMICAL
(ASSISTANT PROFESSOR)
ENGINERING
NED University of Engineering and Technology
 INTRODUCTION

•One of the main advance unit of oil refinery

•Help the refineries in upgrading their residues obtained.

•The increase production of heavy residue had caused the

refineries to upgrade their process technologies.

•Various upgrading technologies have been implemented in

various refineries.

•The most prominent among these upgrading technologies for

the conversion of residue is the residue hydrocracking unit.

NED University of Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL

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 WHY WE NEED THIS PROJECT?
• The main objective of this project is to
convert the heavier fractions obtained from
VDU into valuable products like diesel and
jet fuel.
• To overcome the problem of greater
production of fuel oil and to meet the
demand of petroleum products such as
diesel, and jet fuel.

NED University of Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL

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 • To meet the higher demands of transportations fuels at fixed amount of
crude oil.
• To meet the higher demands of transportations fuels at fixed amount of
crude oil.

NED University of Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL

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 PROJECT
SCOPE

• Hydrocracking Process Prefers High Pressure And High

Temperature Condition.
• Temperature must be set as a controlled variable.
• Condition of catalytic system has direct impact on the product
thus it must maintained.
• Bi-functional catalyst is used in hydrocracking process.
• The reaction temperature must not increase at constant LHSV
becauseNED
it increases
University ofthe aromaticity
Engineering of the unconverted
and Technology vacuumOF CHEMICAL
DEPARTMENT
5 residual oil product ENGINEERING
 FEED OF HYDROCRACKING UNIT
Primarily two feeds are used for the residue hydrocracking reactor that are:
1.HVGO
2.Residue of VDU
HVGO
• Heavy vacuum gas oil is one of the product of VDU and used as feed for FCC unit
and RHCK unit.
• HVGO consists of hydrocarbons in which carbon no ranging from C20 through C50
having boiling point 350°C to 600°C(662°F to 1112°F).
• Inhydrocracking unit, diesel and kerosene production is done by cracking of
HVGO using hydrogen.

NED University of Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL

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 Properties Of HVGO

NED University of Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL

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 Residue Of VDU
•It is the bottom of the barrel product of the vacuum distillation unit and also called as Fuel Oil.
•It is used as a feed in reactor unit and is cracked down into distillate and lighter products.
PROPERTIES OF VDU RESIDUE
Properties Value
Nitrogen(wt.%) 0.17
Sulphur(wt.%) 5.39
Oxygen(wt.%) 0.27
Nickel(ppm) 32.0
Vanadium(ppm) 109.6
Iron(wppm) 81.4
Asphaltenes(wt%) 14.2
H/C(mole) 1.42
VGO 20.0

NED University of Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL

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 RESIDUAL FUEL OIL
• Fuel Oil also referred as furnace oil, is further divided into High Sulfur Furnace Oil
(HSFO) and Low Sulphur Furnace Oil (LSFO)

Furnace Oil Total Price Rs/million Ton

High Sulfur Furnace Oil 71,690
Low Sulfur Furnace Oil 82,580

• Furnace oil has been used as an important fuel in Pakistan for mainly electricity
generation.
• Because of higher production and lower consumption of furnace oil and to meet the
countries demand, the import of furnace oil is banned in Pakistan.

NED University of Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL

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 The Total Storage Capacity Of Furnace Oil In All Refineries Was Estimated About
164,000 Tonnes And The Storages Were Full Up To Capacity Which Caused
Refineries To Reduce Capacity.

Refineries Furnace Oil Production

NRL 19%
PRL 29%
ATRL 16%
PARCO 21%
BYCO 33%

NED University of Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL

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 • The only solution to balance the production and consumption of furnace oil was to export two hundred
thousand tonnes of furnace oil per month.
• And to shift all the refineries to residue hydrocracking units to produce much better quality of petroleum
products instead of furnace oil.
• An estimated amount of $2 to $3billion is required over a period of 3 to 5 years to upgrade all refineries
and for the operating cost of all the upgrading processes.

NED University of Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL

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 HYDROGEN AS SECONDARY FEED

The secondary feed in the reactor is hydrogen and used in both hydrotreating and
cracking reactions.

It is used as a quenching stream in the reactor which functions is to maintain the

temperature of reactor up to operating temperature to increase the catalyst activity.

The important effect of hydrogen is its partial pressure to avoid the formation of
coke during reactions.

If hydrogen pressure is too low than the operating conditions, the premature of
remaining portion of the catalyst encountered.

NED University Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL

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 PRODUCTS OF HYDROCRACKING UNIT
The RHCU can produce a different variety of products and depending upon the
what feed it processes and how it is being designed and operated.

1 Diesel
2 Kerosene
3 Heavy Hydrocrackate
4 Light Hydrocrackate
5 Hydrocracked vacuum Residue
NED University Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL
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 • The total demand of Pakistan for the petroleum product, including oil and the
product of lubricants is essentially increased by 18% from 28m tons this year is
approximately about to 32m tons for the next five years.

• High Speed Diesel would be a main factor for the consumption growth in
petroleum products.

NED University Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL

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 AVAILABLE PROCESS
Cracking of VDU residue is done by following process in refineries:

1a. • ARDM/ARDS – RFCC - HDT

2a. • VDU - DC- HP HCK - HDT
3a. • VDU - RHCK - DC - HP HCK - HDT
4a. • VDU - RHCK - MPHCK - FCC - HDT
5a. • VDU - RHCK - HP HCK - HDT
6a. • VDU - SDA - HP HCK
7a. • VDU - HPHCK - VRDM/ds - RFCC

NED University of Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL

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 RESULTS OBTAINED FROM ABOVE PROCESSES
Process 3a gives the oil
refineries upper hand in
getting more distillates

VDU + RHCK + DC +HPHCK

+HDT

NED University of Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL

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 PROCESS DESCRIPTION
VDU+ RHCK + DC+ HDT

UNITS INVOLVED IN PROCESS

• VDU
• RHCK
• DC
• HDT

NED University of Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL

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 VDU

• Abbreviated as Vacuum Distillation Unit

• The process starts first at VDU unit where residue of CDU

unit comes and it further distillates into various products.

• HVGO(HEAVY vacuum gas oil)

• LVGO(Light Vacuum Gas Oil)
• VACUUM RESIDUE
NED University of Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL
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 RHCK UNIT

• This unit consist of 2-3 or more vessels

Cracking

HYDROGENATION
• Addition Of Hydrogen
• Process Which Also Help In Removing
Hydrogen Sulphide

NED University of Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL

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 CONVENTIAL
HYDROCRACKING
PROCESS
VARIABLE VALUE
OPERATING TEMPERATURE 300-425 °C

HYDROGEN PRESSURE 85-170 bar

REACTOR PRESSURE APPROX 110-200 bar

CATALYST ACTIVATION 300-440 °C

TEMPERATURE

NED University of Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL

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 PFD OF THE
UNIT

NED University Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL

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 CATALYST USED IN PROCESS
• In this unit two catalyst are used and each
catalyst performs one function.
• For hydrogenation process Ni, Mo etc. and other
metallic catalyst are used and usually zeolites are
used to operate cracking process.
ACID FUNCTION OF
• CATALYST
Acid function is perform by the zeolite
site of bifunctional catalyst
• Generally this site of catalyst is made by
the combination of amorphous silica-
alumina (ASA) and zeolite for high yield
of middle distillate.
NED University of Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL
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 PROCESS MODEL

SELECTION OF PROPERTY PACKAGE SELECTION

COMPONENTS
• Vacuum Distillation Unit Residue or • Its simulation requires a change in fluid package
HVGO which have the components which is to be
processed in Hydrocracking reactor
• Hydrogen
• Hydrocracking reactor have its own list of
components
• It is necessary to convert this
components into HCR
components which is done by
installing a feed cutter which is
based on HCRSRK

NED University of Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL

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 HYDROCRACKER UNIT
• In ASPEN HYSYS RHCK reactor have its built
in furnace, compressor for pressurized the
hydorogen gas and HP seprator so this covers the
whole Proces Flow diagram
• The high pressure separates the unreacted
hydrogen from other products and recycle back to
the reactor

NED University of Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL

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 ASSUMPTIONS

• Reactor is cylindrical design

• The process operating condition is in steady state.
• There is no heat losses by radiation.
• Since H is in excess, so the hydrocracking is a first
2
order homogeneous reaction.
• No losses of Hydrogen.
• Recycle gas is pure hydrogen gas.

NED University of Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL

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 REACTION KINETICS

C = Concentration of Reactant,  
CF = Feed Concentration,
Cp = product concentration,
k = rate constant,
n = reaction order,
t = time.

NED University of Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL

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 MATERIAL BALANCE AROUND
REACTOR
CODE NO NAME

R-3 Reactor Feed

R-4 Make up Hydrogen

R-5 Product

CODE NO NAME
R-100 Hydrocracking Reactor
C-103-R High pressure Separator
K-100-R And K-101-R Hydrogen Compressor

NED University of Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL

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 Name PRODUCT REACTOR PURGE MAKE UP
FEED HYDROGEN

Vapour 0 0 1 1
Fraction

Temperature 270 352.75 48 50

[C]

Pressure [kPa] 12800 13000 8800 400

Mass Flow 3877.130 3872.82 70.61 3011.14

[kg/h]

Liquid Volume 4.17 4.06 1.42 80

Flow [m3/h]

NED University of Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL

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 NED University of Engineering and Technology DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL
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