Thermodynamic Properties for the Simulation of Crude Oil Primary Refining

Abstract

Commonly, the use of simulators in the industry is performed without having a proper theoretical support. Sometimes this situation is a consequence of both, lack of time and the dairy dynamism required in the refinery industries. Particularly, the application of thermodynamic models is often not properly considered for the specific process under analysis. An undesirable fact can appear, for example, when a wrong properties package is chosen or even more when this selection step is completely ignored. The aim of this article is to prove that the habitual selection of the thermodynamic models is appropriate or not for the primary refining process. For the purpose, two available simulation softwares and thermodynamic models have been analyzed. The research paper focuses on establishing a guide for plant operators with information that has been previously proven, with theoretical support. In particular, for the oil crude atmospheric distillation (Topping), engineers use almost by default the Peng– Robinson thermodynamic package in Aspen Hysys simulator and Chao–Seader in Aspen Plus. Although the use of the thermodynamic property packages involves a whole theoretical support, this is not considered at the time of their election.