Browsing by Author "Almuamri, Ali"
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thesis.listelement.badge MODELING AND SIMULATION OF A VACUUM DISTILLATION UNIT IN AN OIL REFINERY(2017-05-02) Almuamri, Ali; Kayı, HakanIn this thesis, we studied the modeling and simulation of a vacuum distillation unit (VDU). A distillation unit operating under vacuum pressure was designed to be fully used in Libyan refineries to make benefit from its residue instead of exporting it to other countries, and to extract more valuable products. The atmospheric residue has a very high boiling point (370 ºC). We need to find a way to decrease its boiling point, and then to separate it into its components easily and efficiently. It is known that when the pressure applied on a fluid decreases its boiling point decreases too. In the vacuum distillation column, the boiling point of the atmospheric residue is decreased by decreasing the pressure applied on the residue. The main products from the vacuum distillation unit are off gas, light vacuum gas oil (LVGO) and heavy vacuum gas oil (HVGO). In addition, a vacuum residue is produced. To be able to investigate the further distillation of the residue of the atmospheric distillation, a vacuum distillation unit was designed and simulated by Honeywell UniSim® Design v450 software, which is a very powerful program that helps us to create steady-state and dynamic models for plant design. At the end of the simulations, the liquid volume percent of the atmospheric residue was found to be 31.9%, while the liquid volume percent of vacuum residue was found to be 0.098%. Our simulations by using UniSim software indicated that the use of VDU significantly decrease the amount of the residue in the petroleum refinery.