Design of Atmospheric Petroleum Distillation Column

Abstract
This work summarizes the design procedure for Atmospheric Distillation Column for petroleum oil. The design and operation of crude distillation unit are still done almost on exclusively on an empirical basis. This is because crude petroleum and its products are made of large number of hydro-carbons. The complex mixture due to large number of fractions, side stripper, and reflux made the work of improving energy efficiency into a tedious manner. This creates adversity in designing the distillation column. The varied products are distinguished by performing true boiling point experiment on the basis of boiling ranges as the exact composition in terms of hydrocarbon. The primary separation process in any refinery is that of distillation and separation is done on the basis of
boiling point distribution. The feed capacity of crude oil considered for designing of atmospheric distillation column is 675800 lb/hr of a 36.3 0API crude oil. The design calculations are carried out for five petroleum product viz. Light Naphtha (LN), Heavy Naphtha (HN), Light Distillate (LD), Heavy Distillate (HD) and Atmospheric Gas Oil (AGO).