Government Polytechnic Jalna Atmospheric Distillation

Introduction

Distillation is the process of separating the components or

substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and
condensation. Distillation may result in essentially complete separation
(nearly pure components), or it may be a partial separation that increases
the concentration of selected components in the mixture. In either case, the
process exploits differences in the relative volatility of the mixture's
components. In industrial chemistry, distillation is a unit operation of
practically universal importance, but it is a physical separation process, not
a chemical reaction.

Distillation is a widely used method for separating mixtures based

on differences in the conditions required to change the phase of
components of the mixture. To separate a mixture of liquids, the liquid can
be heated to force components, which have different boiling points, into
the gas phase. The gas is then condensed back into liquid form and
collected. Repeating the process on the collected liquid to improve the
purity of the product is called double distillation. Although the term is
most commonly applied to liquids, the reverse process can be used to
separate gases by liquefying components using changes in temperature
and/or pressure.

A plant that performs distillation is called a distillery. The apparatus

used to perform distillation is called a still.

History

The earliest known evidence of distillation comes from a terracotta

distillation apparatus dating to 3000 BC in the Indus valley of Pakistan.
Distillation was known to be used by the Babylonians of Mesopotamia.
Initially, distillation is believed to have been used to make perfumes.
Distillation of beverages occurred much later. The Arab chemist Al-Kindi
distilled alcohol in 9th century Iraq. Distillation of alcoholic beverages
appears common in Italy and China starting in the 12th century

Types of Distillation
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1. Simple Distillation

Simple distillation may be used when the boiling points of two

liquids are significantly different from each other or to separate liquids
from solids or nonvolatile components. In simple distillation, a mixture is
heated to change the most volatile component from a liquid into vapor. The
vapor rises and passes into a condenser. Usually, the condenser is cooled
(e.g., by running cold water around it) to promote condensation of the
vapor, which is collected.

2. Fractional Distillation or Atmospheric Distillation

Fractional distillation is used when the boiling points of the

components of a mixture are close to each other, as determined using
Raoult's law. A fractionating column is used to separate the components
used a series of distillations called rectification. In fractional distillation, a
mixture is heated so vapor rises and enters the fractionating column. As the
vapor cools, it condenses on the packing material of the column. The heat
of rising vapor causes this liquid to vaporize again, moving it along the
column and eventually yielding a higher purity sample of the more volatile
component of the mixture.

3. Vacuum Distillation

Vacuum distillation is used to separate components that have high

boiling points. Lowering the pressure of the apparatus also lowers boiling
points. Otherwise, the process is similar to other forms of distillation.
Vacuum distillation is particularly useful when the normal boiling point
exceeds the decomposition temperature of a compound

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Government Polytechnic Jalna Atmospheric Distillation

 Atmospheric/ Fractional Distillation

Atmospheric distillation is the first and most fundamental step in the

refining process. The primary purpose of the atmospheric distillation tower
is to separate crude oil into its components (or distillation cuts, distillation
fractions) for further processing by other processing units. Atmospheric
distillation typically sets the capacity limit for the entire refinery. All crude
oil processed must first go through atmospheric distillation. Also
atmospheric distillation typically provides most of the feed for the other
process units in the refinery.

In most refineries, the bottoms from the atmospheric distillation

tower will be sent to the vacuum tower for further separation. The design
and operation of the atmospheric distillation tower will limit the type of
crude that the refinery can process, further limiting the volume and quality
of feed to other process units.

How Fractional Distillation Works

Crude oil with high salt content firstly will typically be processed
through a desalter before going to distillation, to remove salts that could
cause corrosion in the distillation tower.
Crude oil is then heated to about 700-750F (400C). The heated crude
is injected into the lower part of the distillation column, where much of it
vaporizes. As the vapors rise through the tower, they pass through a series
of perforated trays or structured packing. As the vapors cool, their
components will condense back into liquid at different levels in the tower
based on their boiling point. A portion of the vapors reaches the top of the
column, where it is cooled through heat exchangers and air coolers and
partly converted back into liquid. A portion of this is fed back into the
distillation column as a reflux stream to contact with the rising vapors,
helping to cool them. This effect of counter-current flows of rising vapors
meeting falling cooler liquids allows equilibrium conditions to be
established throughout the column. The lighter (less-dense) hydrocarbons
will condense at higher points in the distillation tower; heavier
hydrocarbons will condenser lower down. This results in separation of the

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hydrocarbons based on the different temperatures at which they

boil/condense.

Hydrocarbons are drawn off of the tower at different heights to get a

set of streams of different boiling points. These different streams are called
distillation cuts or fractions. These individual streams are then sent to other
units for further processing or to finished product blending. The heaviest
fractions of the crude do not vaporize and are drawn off at the bottom of
the tower as atmospheric bottoms. These are sent to the vacuum distillation
for further fractionation under a vacuum.

Products Obtained from Distillation Coloum

The outputs from distillation are called as distillation cuts. Typically, a

crude distillation unit will have the following distillation cuts:

 Refinery gas - Made up of methane and ethane. This stream remains

a gas and is used as fuel for the refinery
 Light ends - Stream containing primarily propane and butane. It is
sent to the sat gas plant for further separation
 Light straight run naphtha - Sold as a feedstock for petrochemicals,
blended directly into gasoline or upgraded through isomerization
 Heavy naphtha - Mostly upgraded through the reformer but
sometimes blended directly into gasoline
 Kerosene - Used to make jet fuel or blended into diesel
 Atmospheric gasoil - Used to make diesel or converted to gasoline.
 Atmospheric bottoms - Contains all of the hydrocarbons that do not
vaporize in the atmospheric distillation tower. It is typically fed to
the vacuum distillation unit for further separation.

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Flow sheet of Atmospheric Distillation

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Government Polytechnic Jalna Atmospheric Distillation

Crude oil Refining Flow sheet

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Government Polytechnic Jalna Atmospheric Distillation

Actual Distillation Setup

Model of Distillation Column

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Government Polytechnic Jalna Atmospheric Distillation

Conclusion

Through this micro project we studied major unit operation of

petroleum crude oil refinery. We understand the operation of an
Atmospheric Distillation unit used in the crude oil refinery. We perceived
the various petroleum product obtained from this process. We prepare the
model of Atmospheric Distillation column.

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Government Polytechnic Jalna Atmospheric Distillation

References / Bibliography

 “Atmospheric Distillation of Crude Oil” Wikipedia, Wikimedia

Foundation, 18 Dec. 2017.
 “Atmospheric Distillation Unit” EnggCyclopedia, 13 Sept. 2017.
 “Vacuum Distillation” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6
Apr. 2018.
 Yogesh A. Karpe (BE and M.tech [chemical Tech]). “Petroleum
and Petrochemical Technology”
 https://nptel.ac.in/content/storage2/nptel_data3/html/mhrd/ict/
text/103107081/lec17.pdf.
 Gary, J.H. & Handwork, G.E. (1984). Petroleum Refining
Technology and Economics (2nd ed.) Marcel Dekker.
 James G, Speight (2006). The Chemistry and Technology of
Petroleum (Fourth ed.). 

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