Title: Exergetic improvement and environmental impact assessment of crude oil distillation unit of Shazand-Arak oil refinery

Authors: Syed Navid Sajedi; Mir Esmaeil Masoumi; Kamyar Movagharnejad

Addresses: Faculty of Engineering, Chemical Engineering Department, Islamic Azad University – Tehran North Branch, P.O. Box: 19585/936, Tehran, Iran ' Faculty of Engineering, Chemical Engineering Department, Islamic Azad University – Tehran North Branch, P.O. Box: 19585/936, Tehran, Iran ' Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Babol (Noshirvani) University of Technology, Shariati Ave., Babol, Mazandaran, Iran

Abstract: In this study, the crude oil distillation unit (CDU) of the phase 1 Shazand-Arak oil refinery has been studied by the exergy point of view. Exergy analysis specifies the system exergy loss points. The considered CDU has been designed twice due to a feed change during the past two decades. Both designs of the unit are simulated by Aspen PLUS software to gather required data for the calculations and evaluate exergy efficiency improvement by suggesting new strategies for the system. Furthermore, the effect of the proposed process changes on CO₂ emission rate reduction is explored. The analysis indicated that the atmospheric distillation column and the main furnace sections owned the lowest exergy efficiency among the studied sections of the unit. Finally, the most achieved improvements were ∼1.2% gain for the exergy efficiency and 5.5% reductions in CO₂ emission rate in comparison to the last design of the unit.

Keywords: exergetic improvement; exergy efficiency; crude oil distillation units; carbon dioxide; CO2; carbon emissions; environmental impact assessment; EIA; emission reduction; Aspen PLUS; oil refineries; exergy analysis; exergy loss; simulation; atmospheric distillation column; main furnace.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEX.2015.069116

International Journal of Exergy, 2015 Vol.16 No.4, pp.464 - 480

Received: 18 Nov 2013
Accepted: 20 Apr 2014
Published online: 28 Apr 2015 *

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