17 Apr 2018 145049667RK72FRU1ProcdescriptionPRFCC
17 Apr 2018 145049667RK72FRU1ProcdescriptionPRFCC
PROJECT TITLE
BPCL’s Mumbai Refinery Bottoms Upgrader Project involves setting up of a 3.0 MMTPA PRFCC
complex.
PRFCC process produces valuable light ends in refineries directly from heavy residues and also provides
integration of refinery and petrochemical complex. Heavy fractions like Vacuum Gas Oil (VGO) and
Vacuum Residue (VR) from crude & vacuum distillation unit and Hydrocracker Unit (HCU) bottoms are
converted into valuable products like C3/C4 cuts (LPG), Gasoline, Light Cycle Oil and Slurry Oil. The LPG
stream has high propylene content which can be used to produce polypropylene. The gasoline stream
produced is rich in BTX (Benzene, Toluene & Xylene) which can be separated and gives valuable aromatics
in a downstream aromatics recovery unit. Light Cycle Oil is hydro treated to produce diesel product while
slurry oil forms part of fuel oil pool.
The combustion flue gas is routed through a secondary catalyst separator to remove 70 to 90 percent of
the particulates in the flue gas leaving the regenerator. The expansion of flue gas through a pressure
reducing turbo-expander provides sufficient power to drive the main air blower. Flue gas wet scrubbing
is carried out to control SOx and NOx emissions. The flue gas is finally processed through an electrostatic
precipitator (ESP) to remove residual particulate matter to comply with any applicable environmental
regulations regarding particulate emissions. The steam generated in the waste heat boiler is further
utilized for internal steam demand and to generate power through a steam turbine. The expanded steam
is routed to MP Steam header.
Liquid from High Pressure Receiver is pumped to stripper (de-ethanizer), basically to strip off any C1-C2
light ends. Stripper bottoms are sent to debutanizer while overheads sent back to absorbers. Debutanizer
separates naphtha from lighters. Debutanizer bottoms as Naphtha is sent to Gasoline Treatment Unit
(GTU) while lighter fraction undergoes amine treatment and LPG treatment followed by C3/C4 splitter. C3’s
are sent to Propylene Recovery Unit (PRU) while C4’s are sent to LPG pool or further refinement in Methyl
Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) unit.
Treated LPG from PRFCC is separated into C3 and C4’s in a C3-C4 Splitter located in PRFCC unit. C3 stream
from C3-C4 Splitter overhead is fed to the De-ethanizer which operates on total reflux and separates C2’s
as overheads. Recovered light ends are sent to PRFCC gas concentration section for further processing.
The bottoms product from the De-ethanizer Stripper is fed into the C3 Splitter. The bottoms product is to
have minimum C2 content in order to meet PGP Propylene spec in the C3 Splitter. De-ethanizer overheads
are controlled to minimize the losses of C3 material into the Fuel Gas. De-ethanizer Rectifier requires a
refrigeration system for the condenser operating conditions.
Propylene product is recovered in C3 Splitter Column. The C3 Splitter is a heat pumped column system to
minimize the energy consumption where tower overhead vapors are compressed to a pressure with a
corresponding condensing temperature suitable for re-boiling the tower. A part of compressed overhead
stream is used as re-boiling fluid and returned as reflux after condensation in the reboiler. The balance
overheads are condensed in water cooled exchanger. A part of the condensed overhead stream is used
as reflux as required for the desired column performance and the balance is sent out as propylene product
stream after passing through COS Guard Bed. C3 splitter bottoms are recovered as propane stream and
routed to the LPG pool.
The Unsaturated LPG Treating Unit (ULTU) consist of the following sections:
From The PRFCC unit the sour water stream is routed to the Sour Water Storage Tank which will act as
buffer for sour water processing. Sour water from the tank is pumped to Sour Water Flash Drum (3-phase
separator) where entrained vapor and liquid hydrocarbons are separated from the sour water. The vapors
are routed to the Acid Flare.
Liquid hydrocarbons are collected in a separate compartment and pumped to the slops system. The sour
water from the feed drum is pumped to the Sour Water Stripper column after preheating in Feed/Bottom
Exchanger.
Sour Water Stripper column is reboiled with low pressure steam. The column has a top pump around
system to remove heat from the system. The pump around system maintains the column overhead
temperature to ensure there is minimum water vapor fed to the SRU while also preventing deposition of
solid NH4HS. Ammonia and hydrogen sulphide will be removed from the sour water as overhead stream
and sent to SRU.
The phenol rich stripped water from the Sour Water Stripper bottoms is cooled in Feed/Bottom Exchanger
and rundown air cooler and send to Waste Water Treatment Plant for further treatment.
vi. Sulphur Recovery Unit (SRU)
Acid gases which comes from Amine Regenerations unit (ARU) are further processed in Sulphur Recovery
Units to convert to molten or Solid Sulphur. As per PFR, it is expected that new SRU of capacity 165 MT/D
of has to be installed as part of PFRFCC. SRU will be integrated with Tail Gas Treatment unit (TGTU) to
achieve recovery of 99.9% and ensure that all emission are within limits. Also there can be steam high
pressure generation from incinerator as part of heat integration and gases going to stack are relatively
low temperature.
Rich amine received from PRFCC unit is received in a Rich Amine Flash Drum from where it is pumped and
fed to the Amine Regenerator Column before getting preheated in Lean/Rich Exchanger. The Amine
Regenerator Column is a conventional distillation column utilizing LP steam in the reboiler to strip off sour
gases from the amine. Low pressure steam is used to avoid overheating of the amine in the reboiler. The
column operates on total reflux with overheads cooled to a controlled temperature. Sour gases recovered
from the Overhead Drum are sent to Sulfur Recovery Unit (SRU) for sulfur recovery. The Lean amine
recovered from the column bottoms pumped to PRFCC lean amine header after cooling in Lean/Rich
Exchangers and rundown air cooler. A bleed stream of sour water to Sour Water Unit is generally provided
to avoid buildup of ammonium salts in the column overheads.
To prevent the amine solution from foaming and to avoid the equipment corrosion, provision exists to
add the antifoaming agent and the corrosion inhibitor to the column overhead. For conditioning of the
lean amine a slip stream (15 - 20% vol) is taken out for filtration to remove mechanical impurities.
Filtration system consists of a Pre-filter, Activated carbon filter and an after filter.