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Petroleum Processing

Exercise 3

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Instructions for Exercise 3

Submit your answers by creating and uploading your pdf to the Exercise 3 Assignment in the Lesson 4 Module. Please Note: Scans of handwritten pages are not acceptable unless showing something on the graphs provided.

Distillation curve. Diesel distills at a much higher temperature than kerosene
Figure 4.12. Distillation curve.
Credit: Dr. Semih Eser © Penn State is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
  1. Two crude oils A (Naphthenes: 20%, Aromatics: 10%) and B (Paraffins: 14% , Aromatics: 40%) are blended in A/B = 2/5 to make C. What is the paraffin content of C? 20 pts
  2. Consider the ASTM distillation curves given in Figure 4.12 for kerosene and diesel cuts obtained from distillation. Determine whether the separation in the column was good or bad. 40 pts
  3. Figure 4.13 shows an empirical plot that correlates an F factor which is defined as the product of the number of plates between the two adjacent side draws and the reflux ratio. The solid lines in the plot represents cases where no stripping steam is used in the side column, dashed lines represent the maximum amount of stripping steam used in the separation. The numbers shown at the bottom of the solid and dashed lines are given as the difference in °F of the TBP 50% distillation points between the light and heavy products.
Emprical plot (see caption and text for details)
Figure 4.13. Correlations between the number of plates, reflux ratio, and use of steam to design atmospheric distillation columns for the desired separation of side stream products drawn off from the side of the column [8].
Credit: Dr. Semih Eser © Penn State is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Using the correlations in Figure 4.13, calculate how many plates will be needed between kerosene and light gas oil (LGO) draw-off trays to obtain a 10°F ASTM gap between kerosene products. The TPB 50% temperatures are 300° F and 550° F for kerosene and diesel products, respectively. The reflux ratio is given as 0.5. Consider a) no steam for stripping, b) maximum steam for stripping. Comment on the results. 40 pts

Instructions for Submitting your Answers:

Once you have a solution to the exercises, you will submit your answers as a PDF to be graded. Please follow the instructions below.

  1. Find the Exercise 3 assignment in the Lesson 4 Module by either clicking Next until you find it, or by clicking Assignments and scrolling down until you find it.
  2. Make sure that your name is in the document title before uploading it to the correct assignment (i.e. Lesson4_Exercise3_Tom Smith). 
[8] Jones, D. S.J., Handbook of Petroleum Processing, Springer, 2006, p. 130. Enter bibliography info here.