Exergetic Analysis Of Atmospheric Distillation Plant: A Case Study Of Wrpc Refinery

ABSTRACT

Exergctic analysis of atmospheric distillation plant of Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Company (WRPC) was conducted to evaluate exergy efficiencies and irreversibilities in each unit of the system with aim of identifying potential areas for improvement. The process simulation was carried out using commercial simulator HYSYS® 2003. The results of the simulation compared reasonably well 'with actual plant process parameters with a relative error of 7.22%, Thchighest irreversibility occurred in the main fractionator followed by'TPA, IPA, kerosene stripper, BPA, LGO stripper' and HGO strippers with their respective values of 80.1 7, 5.05, 5.0 I, 0.77, 0.76, 0.42 and 0.12 GJ/h. of processed crude. The main cause of thermodynamic irreversibility in the system was due to uncontrolled mixing of process streams without due consideration of their potential to produce work. Base 011 the assessment of the system, the stage by stage excrgy profile generates ideas about how the improvement can be,made in order to reduce' irreversibilities in the components. After modi fication, the' cxergy efficiencies show an increase of21.8 % for the fractionator,'19.5% in KERO stripper, 15.3% in the HGO stripper 3IJd 10.3% :in the LGO stripper.