Condensate splitter 2

[babytt]

Do you know where I can find some description of a splitter used for the treatment of condensate (natural gas liquids) ?
thank you !

 

[TD2K]

That's a little vague, what sort of information are you looking for?

 

[babytt]

I'm looking for general informations (diagram, drawing and explanation), which could help me to understand :
how condensate (natural gas liquids) splitter function
why some of them are integrated in refineries, petrochemical plants or not,
why there is more and more splitter
...
thanks a lot

 

[TD2K]

A condensate splitter is simply a distillation tower. To understand how a distillation tower works, you really need a course in mass transfer. Very simply, the light materials go out the top of the tower and heavy materials go out the bottoms. There are always some lights in the heavy stream and vice versa, how much depends how you design the tower and how you operate it.

As to why you have a condensate splitter, that depends on the application. It might be that they have a vapor pressure specification on the natural gasoline and need to remove some of the light material to meet that spec.

It can also depend on where the material is being sent to. Natural gasolines might be a feedstock for a reformer to make gasoline. Reformers work best with heavier materials, C5 and lighter materials aren't reformed and just take up space in the system which could be used more benefically by heavy material. Thus, you might want to remove the light materials from the natural gasoline to increase total gasoline production from the refinery.

That's just one example, there could be hundreds of reasons why a plant/refinery would want to have a splitter. But since it costs money to install it and operate it, there was a reason at one time and it would be driven by the process requirements and specifications.

 

[chela]

Dear Baby,
Let me tell you something from experience:
Condenasates are ultra-light crudes having upto 98% ditillates(boiling below 360Deg C). Of course not all of them are so good. Some have upto 20% heavy ends(360DEgC +). They have naphtha ranging from 25% to 75%. Around 20 to 40% Kerosine and 10 to 30% Diesel. Around 3 to 8 % LPG.All the streams are very low in Sulphur content. So a refiner with a condensate splitter, does not require secondary treatment units unless of course for ultra low sulfur diesel. Naphtha streams sometimes require Metal removal facilities for producing petrochemical grade Naphtha to remove Lead, Mercury and Arsenic poisons from certain condenstes. Normally condensate splitters produce Naphtha for a petrochemical Plant by processing a small amount of feed compared to a Crude Distillation column( So low Capital Investment), and the kerosine and Diesel streams are conveniently processed in a refinery before despatch as finished products. A splitter unit cannot have economical sized secondary units because the streams too small in quantity. Splitters are basically crude diatillation units with may be pre-flash tower and a main distillation column. Gas plant is required to handle the LPG and stabilization of light naphtha.
As the condensate is a byproduct of Natural Gas, it has to be sold by the producers either separately or as a spiked product in Crude ( if available nearby). In the last few years, a lot of condensate is coming from Australia, which cannot consume all the condensate produced. Algerian condensate is processed in Ethylene crackers without splitting.Each condensate is different just like crudes and have to have their own processing scheme. It is ideal for a new topping refinery which wishes to feed a Petrochemical Cracker nearby. The Naphthas from condensates can be highly paraffinic ( for olefin crackers), or it can be Naphthenic/Aromatic ( ideal for Aromatic Petrochemical complex ). Get in touch with some of the Oil traders and they will let you know what is available in the Market.Design considerations are similar to Crude Distillation except thta the material is ultra light.Hope U got something out of all this.

 

[babytt]

Thank you very much for your whole answer.
I have now a question about condensate and ethylene cracker(steam cracker). In the US petrochemicals companies seems to use Naphthenic/Aromatic condensate in their ethylene cracker. If they want to optimize ethylene production, they whould rather use paraffinic condensate (as european petro chemicals do). I ask myself if the reason is not that they want to produce pyrolise gasoline and finally BTX. Have you got a better answer ? Maybe there is legislation reason...