Design of Crude Distillation Plants with Vacuum Units. I. Targeting

Abstract

In previous work (Ji, S.; Bagajewicz, M. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2002, 41, 3003), it was shown that the preflash/prefractionation arrangement of distillation units is not as energy efficient as the conventional design in the absence of a vacuum unit. The same was found for a newly proposed stripping-type design. The use of a vacuum column, however, has many implications on energy consumption, which alters these conclusions. Three atmospheric vacuum distillation arrangement combinations are therefore studied in this paper, revealing that the addition of a vacuum column favors the preflashing distillation arrangement.