No abstract

Objective: Generally, Petroleum refineries are put in place to convert or refine unprocessed crude oil into more useful products using both physical separation and chemical conversion processes. Albeit, different refining unit are subsets of the physical separation category. The atmospheric and vacuum distillation unit seems to be more prominent. Conventionally, the crude atmospheric residue cannot be further heated in an atmospheric condition due to: coke formation, pipes plugging, thermal cracking and straining of the furnace. A vacuum distillation column is therefore required. Methods: This study, therefore, focuses on the limitations, “over straining of the furnace to provide the necessary heat” and “non-reliance on the additional re-boiler since it only acts as a heat exchanger”. An integrated distillation column with a capacity of 10,000 barrel per day was therefore designed for the concurrent production of all distillate cuts. Results: This was achieved through the introduction of a submerged combustion zone at the stripping section of the column where Naphtha was utilized as the source of fuel. Verification of this approach was also conducted using Autodesk invention software and a finite element analysis tool to evaluate both thermal and computational fluid analysis impact. Overall, all derived distilled products met the American Society for Testing and Material Standard Table 6.

Industrially, unprocessed crude oil has little or no value; hence there is the need for any country to have operational petroleum refineries to convert the crude oil from its original state into more useful product. According to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) 2001-2013 annual bulletin, even with a total refining capacity of 445,000 bopd (barrel of oil per day) expected from the Nigeria four conventional refineries, the country still records scarcity of refined products as none of the refineries can boast of working above 60 percent of its design capacity. In an attempt to provide solution to the above worsening scenario, modular refineries set up at strategic positions within the country can help to boast refining capacity. Although different modular topping refinery configurations exist, this paper examines the simple, pre-flash and the pre-flash pump around reflux scheme in terms of maximum product yield using the Niger Delta Petroleum Resources (NDPR), Bonny Light, Bonny Medium, Brass and Qua Iboe crude assay. Crude oil characterization using Aspen Hysys was done based on their true boiling point to determine the maximum liquid volume fraction of the different distillates. Simulations of the different crude assay were carried out on the different topping refinery configurations highlighting the variation between characterized and simulated volumetric cuts. The result shows that NDPR crude will favour the production of LPG, light naphtha and diesel. Bonny medium crude will favour the production of gas oil and residue oil while qua iboe and brass will favour the production of kerosene and heavy naphtha respectively. The best scheme for different distillates was also determined

It is of no new update that plastic recycling has taken another dimension in advanced countries all around the world. This is owing to the enormous plastic wastes being produced amounting to about 9 billion tonnes since the first production and the immerse technological advancements which can be seen in pelletizing plants, pyrolysis plants and 3D printers of today. However, here in Nigeria, the case of large plastic waste generation cannot be over emphasized, as efforts in recycling has being hampered consequently from low power generation of the National grid, high energy cost (fuel and electricity), polymer waste selectivity and even low capital resource from most parts of the country. Hence, this paper looks at the development of a solar-vacuumed actuated pyrolysis plant integrated with gas combustion energy supply which will employ the use of concentrated solar energy as the primary energy source for pyrolysis reaction for fuel production and use the flee gas from the reaction as an alternative energy source. A process flow configuration (PFD) involving the reactor, solar lenses, vacuum pump, solar panel, inline components and the condenser is set up to perform the thermal gasification and condensation of waste plastics in the reactor. Computationally, the finite element analysis (FEA) was done to see the thermodynamic effects inside and outside the reactor for effective fuel production. The idea is to ascertain that the inside temperature of the reactor which was initiated by solar thermal energy is enough to attain the boiling point of about 400°C of most plastic polymers but in vaccum conditions. When accomplished, this will complete the value chain of plastic recycling, eliminate plastic waste selectivity in terms of colour and type, sanitize the environment and create jobs for future entrepreneurs in Nigeria.