Optimization and simulation of refinery vacuum column with an overhead condenser

Production of clean energy is the major concern for several process industries in recent times such as oil, gas, and petrochemical, however prices are persisted to rise and the optimization of energy in the process industries are keen important. The convectional methods such as distillation column with high energy consumption have been used to convert value added products from crude. Due to frequently uses of the distillation, it is recommended that it should be optimized and utilized efficiently. For the better utilization, it is required to alter the convectional methodology. The new changes can reduce the energy utilization and improve some of consumed energy. In the present paper, investigation on the energy optimization in overhead condenser of a vacuum column of petroleum using cooled water Using Chemcad 5.1 software has been studied. For energy optimization, feed temperature was altered to a suitable temperature (25 °C, 15 °C and 5 °C) for condensation of overhead steam distillation. It is expected that the quality of the hydrocarbon vapors in the overhead condenser outlet would reduce; thereby decreasing the load on the ejector. As per the principle of ejector operation, this would decrease the vacuum column pressure. With reduction in the column pressure, it is expected to introduce the feed at a lower temperature and still operate the column at the same efficiency. It will lower down the burden of energy requirements. This implies reduction in the refinery operating cost. In the next step, the comparison of the three cases, and finally evaluating the overall energy economics were carried out. The main feed was used as a cold fluid in the heat exchanger before the transfer to the main condenser. The result of this study shows that, 1.2532 E+10 cal/hr of energy was required using inleat water temperature of 50 °C in overhead condenser.