Pre-Heat Train 1

Pre-Heat Train

© 2001 Hyprotech Ltd. All Rights Reserved

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Workshop
In this module you will continue to develop your ability to create
HYSYS simulations. Here, we will continue with the HYSYS case that
was started in the previous module.

Typically, after some preheating the first unit that a crude oil will pass
through is the desalter. This unit is responsible for removing salt, grit,
and other impurities from the oil. This unit is normally placed along the
Pre-Heat Train, needed to recover energy from products and to raise the
temperature of the oil stream before it enters the Atmosphere Crude
Column. You will learn how to use Heat Exchanger in HYSYS.

In this module you will also gain knowledge of some other important
and helpful tools in HYSYS.

Learning Objectives
Once you have completed this section, you will be able to:

• Install and converge Heat Exchangers

• Understand Logical Operations (Balances and Adjusts)
• Use the Case Study tool to perform case studies on your
simulation

Prerequisites
Before beginning this section you need to have:

• Completed the Oil Characterization module.

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Process Overview
4 Pre-Heat Train

Building the Simulation

For this module you will continue building on the case you worked on
in the previous module by adding a Heater Exchanger, a Desalter, two
simple Heaters and a Pre-Flash Separator, to complete a simple pre-
heat train.

1. Open the case you saved at the end of the previous module (Oil
Characterization).

Only the composition is known for stream Raw Crude. Add the
following data to it:

Temperature 15°C (60°F)

Pressure 1000 kPa (145 psia)

Mass Flow 6 e05 kg/h (1.3 e06 lb/hr)

Adding a Stream
You need to add a Water stream. Before adding it, you need to add
Water to the Fluid Package. Afterwards, create a material stream called
Water, at 15 oC and a mass flow rate of 21600 kg/h (100% water). If you
are using field units it is 59 oF and 47600 lb/hr.

Adding a Mixer
A mixer is added to combine the raw crude with water to represent the
oil sample entering the refinery. Downstream the free water is knocked
Mixer button out with the three - phase separator.

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Add a Mixer with the following values.

In these cells... Enter...

Connections

Name Mixer

Inlets Raw Crude

Water

Outlets To Heater

Parameters

Pressure Assignment Equalize All

Adding a Heater
Since the Pre-Heat Train consists of various heat exchangers you need
to add a heater to account for them and raise the temperature to 65 C
(149 F).

Heater button Add a simple Heater, we will use a Tube and Shell Heat Exchanger later.

1. Complete the first view with the following names.

2. Enter a Delta P of 50 kPa in the Parameters view.

3. In the worksheet specify a temperature of 65 C (150 F) for stream
To Heat Exchanger.

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Adding a stream
Before adding the Heat Exchanger, we need to define the Pumparound
stream, which will exchange heat with the Raw Crude.

1. Add a Material Stream

2. Change the stream name to Hot Pumparound.

At this stage, we don’t know the pumparound composition. As a starting

point, we are going to use the same composition as the Raw Crude. Of
course, later, when we build the Crude Tower, we will change it to the
actual stream.

3. Double click on the Define from other Stream button and

complete like the following table.

4. Press the Ok button to return to the previous menu and enter the
following values: Temperature 180 C, Pressure 200 kPa and Liq
Volume Flow of 175 m3/h. (356 F, 30 psia and 2,6e4 barrel/day if
you are using field units)

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Adding the Heat Exchanger

A Heater Exchanger is added to continue heating the crude stream. A
shell and tubes heater will be used to preheat the crude with the
Pumparound, which is at 180 C.

The Heat Exchanger performs two-sided energy and material balance

calculations. The Heat Exchanger is capable of solving for
temperatures, pressures, heat flows (including heat loss and heat leak),
material stream flows and UA.

1. Double click on the Heat Exchanger button in the Object Palette.

Heat Exchanger button 2. On the Connections page, enter the following information.

The Tube side and Shell Side streams can come from different
Flowsheets, so you could use the Steam package on one side of the
exchanger and PR on the other side.

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3. Switch to the Parameters page. Complete the page as shown in

the following figure. The pressure drops for the Tube and Shell
sides, in field units, will be 5 psi and 1 psi, respectively.

The Heat Exchanger models are defined as follows:

• Weighted. The heating curves are broken into intervals, which

then exchange energy individually. An LMTD and UA are
calculated for each interval in the heat curve and summed to
calculate the overall exchanger UA. The Weighted method is
available only for Counter-Current exchangers.
• Endpoint. A single LMTD and UA are calculated from the inlet
and outlet conditions. For simple problems where there is no
phase change and Cp is relatively constant, this option may be
sufficient.
4. Go to the Specs page.

In order to solve the Heat Exchanger, unknown parameters (flows,

temperatures) are manipulated by the solver. Each parameter
specification will reduce the degrees of freedom by one. The number of
constraints (specifications) must equal the number of unknown
variables. When this is the case, the degrees of freedom will be equal to
zero, and a solution will be calculated.

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Two specifications are need for this exchanger:

• Heat Balance = 0. This is a Duty Error specification and is

needed to ensure that the heat equation balances. This is a
default specification that is always added by HYSYS so you do
not need to supply it.
• Min Approach = 30 oC (54 F). This is the minimum temperature
difference between the hot and the cold stream.

You can have multiple Estimate specifications. The Heat Exchanger will
only use the Active specifications for convergence.

5. You will first need to deactivate the UA specification. To do this,

click on the Active check box for the UA specification.

6. To add a specification, press the Add button, the Exchanger

Specification view displays.
7. Provide the following information using the drop-down list to
specify the Type and Pass:

In this cell... Enter...

Name Temp Approach

Type Min Approach

Pass Overall

Spec Value 30 oC (54 F)

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When you change the type of specification, the view will change
accordingly. Once all the information has been provided, the view will
be as below

Adding the Desalter

Add the remaining physical unit property to complete the simulation.
The Three-Phase Separator divides the vessel feed into vapour, light
liquid and heavy liquid (Aqueous) phases.

1. Add a Three-phase Separator with the following information.

Three-phase button

What is the Molar Flow rate of

Crude?_________________________________
What is the Molar Flow rate of Desalter
Water?__________________________

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Finishing the Simulation

You need to add the last three units before the crude enters in the
Atmospheric Column: two heaters and a Preflash separator to reduce
the light components in the feed. Since you already know how to use
tube and shell heater exchangers, we will simulate these heaters in a
simplified mode.

Adding the First Heater

Add a Heater with the following values:

In this cell... Enter...

Connections

Name Simple Heater 2

Inlet Crude

Outlet To Preflash

Energy H2 Q

Parameters

Delta P 375 kPa (54 psi)

Worksheet

To Preflash Temperature 175 oC (347 oF)

The Delta P represents the result of the pressure drop along the various
heaters.

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Adding the Pre Flash

Click on the Separator button from the Object Palette.

Separator button
In this cell... Enter...

Connections

Name Pre-Flash

Inlets To Preflash

Vapor Outlet Light Prod

Liquid Outlet Bttm Liq

Adding the Last Heater

Add a Heater with the following values:

In this cell... Enter...

Connections

Name Furnace

Inlet Bttm Liq

Outlet ATM Feed

Energy H3 Q

Parameters

Delta P 250 kPa (36 psi)

Worksheet

ATM Feed Temperature 400 oC (752 oF)

Save your case!

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Adding the Balance

The Balance operation provides a general-purpose heat and material
balance facility. There are different Balances available in HYSYS.

• Mole. An overall balance is performed where only the molar

flow of each component is conserved. Outlet streams will have
the same molar flow rate and composition as the inlet stream,
but will contain no vapour fraction, temperature, or pressure
values.
• Mass. An overall balance is performed where only the mass
flow is conserved. The outlet stream will contain no
composition, vapour fraction, temperature, or pressure.
• Heat. An overall balance is performed where only the heat flow
is conserved.
• Mole and Heat. An overall balance is performed where the heat
and molar flow is conserved.

Look at the Vapour Fraction for stream To Desalter. The feed to the
Desalter has to be liquid, in this case it is, but it could change with the
pressure. The stream parameters are calculated so there is no way you
can force the stream to calculate a bubble point. Adding a Mole Balance
allows you to create a second steam with the same molar flowrate and
composition as To Desalter, but no vapour fraction, temperature or
pressure.

1. Double click on the Balance icon in the Object Palette.

Balance button 2. Add the following information

In this cell... Enter...

Connections

Name Bubble Point

Inlet Streams To Desalter

Outlet Streams Bubble Temperature

Parameters

Balance Type Mole

3. Specify a Pressure of 915 kPa (133 psia) for the stream Bubble
Temperature.
4. Set the Vapour Fraction to calculate the bubble point
temperature.

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Up to what Temperature can the Feed be heated in the

Pre-heat Train so that it remains liquid?_______________

Adding the Adjust

The Adjust operation is a Logical Operation: a mathematical operation
rather than a physical operation. It will vary the value of one stream
variable (the independent variable) to meet a required value or
specification (the depend variable) in other stream of operation.

We are going to use this tool to optimize the heating-train, by specifying

the Flowrate of Light Prod in the Pre-Flash, which depends on the
temperature of the feed stream.

The Adjusted Variable must always be a user specified value.

1. Double click on the Adjust button in the Object Palette; the Adjust
property view displays.
Adjust button

2. Press the Select Var… button in the Adjusted Variable group to

open the Variable Navigator.

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3. From the Object List select To Preflash. From the Variable List,
which is now visible, select Temperature.

Always work left to right in the Variable Navigator. Don’t forget you can
use the Object Filter when the Object list is large.

4. Press the OK button to accept the variable and return to the

Adjust property view.
5. Press the Select Var button in the Target Variable group.
6. Select Light Prod Molar Flow as the target Variable.

7. Enter a value of 200 kgmole/h in the Specified Target Value box.

(440 lbmole/hr).

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8. The completed Connections tab is shown below.

9. Switch to the Parameters tab, and leave the parameters at the

default values. Note the Tolerance and step Size values. When
considering step sizes, use larger rather than smaller sizes. The
Secant method works best once the solution has been bracketed
and by using a larger step size, you are more likely to bracket the
solution quickly.

When adjusting certain variables, it is often a good idea to provide a

minimum or maximum that corresponds to a physical boundary, such
as zero for pressure or flow.

10. Press the Start button to begin calculations.

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11. To view the progress of the Adjust go to the Monitor page.

Note how the Secant method works.

What is the To Preflash Temperature to achieve the Light
Prod Flow specification?______________

Using the Case Study

The Case Study tool allows you to monitor the steady state response of
key process variables to changes in your process. You select
independent variables to change and dependent variables to monitor.

HYSYS varies the independent variables one at a time, and with each
change, the dependent variables are calculated.

Instead of using the Adjust to find a feed temperature to achieve a

required flowrate you can use the Case Study to examine a range of
temperatures and flow.

Before installing the Case Study, the Adjust has to be turned off so that
it does not conflict with the Case Study.

Any Unit Operation can be temporarily removed from the calculations

by selecting the Ignore check box.

1. Open the Adjust property view.

2. Check the Ignored check box.

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3. Close the Adjust property view.

4. From the Tools menu select Databook, or use the <Ctrl><D> Hot
Key, to open the Databook.

Both the independent and the dependent variables are added to the
Databook from the Variables tab.

5. On the Variables tab, press the Insert button to open the Variable
Navigator.
6. Select the To Preflash Temperature as the first variable.
7. Press the Add button to add the variable. This will leave you in the
Variable Navigator to add the second variable.
8. Select Light Prod - Molar Flow and press the Add button.
9. Close the view to return to the Databook.
10. In the Databook, switch to the Case Studies tab.
11. Press the Add button to add a new Case Study.
12. Select To Preflash Temperature as the Independent Variable and
Light Prod - Molar Flow as the Dependent Variable.

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Only user supplied variables can be selected as Independent Variables.

13. Press the View button to setup the Case Study

14. Enter values for Low Bound, High Bound, and Step Size of 150 oC
(300 oF), 250 oC (482 oF) and 10 oC (18 oF) respectively.

15. Press the Start button to begin de calculations.

What is the influence of temperature in Light Prod

flowrate?_______________________

Once you have finished the Case Study, activate the Adjust operation by
unchecking the Ignored box.

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Exploring with the simulation

Exercise 1
When you added the Balance, a new stream was created, and then you
introduced a value of 915 kPa for the pressure, because it was that of To
Desalter stream. But the pressure in the To Desalter stream could
change, and consequently the bubble point. There is a tool in HYSYS,
which allows you to set the pressure of Bubble Temperature as a
function of To Desalter pressure. It is a Logical Unit Operation called
Set button Set.

The Set is a steady-state operation used to set the value of a specific

Process Variable (PV) in relation to another PV. The relationship is
between the same PV in two like objects; for instance, the temperature
of two streams, or the UA of two exchangers.

In this case we want it to be the same, but in other cases, it could be

useful to use a linear dependency.

Try to use this option to set the Bubble Temperature pressure.

Exercise 2
Your boss is very concerned about the behaviour of the Pre-flash. He
wants to achieve a good separation of the light components. Although
you adjusted the temperature to the required flowrate, usually this
value of the molar flow is not know, and the specification is a desired
molar fraction of light products in the stream entering the Atmosphere
Use a spreadsheet to create Column.
this new variable.

Use the Adjust to achieve a molar fraction of light products (C1, C2, C3,
i-C4, n-C4, i-C5, n-C5 and Water) in the Bttm Liq of 0.12.
Which is the required
temperature?_____________________________________

Save your case!

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