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[bendel47]

I need help designing and optimising a crude oil distillation unit for my final year project. Any help in the form of advice, standards, books etc is welcome... Thanks in advance

[kkala]

I suppose you will have a given crude and break it into pseudocomponents, http://books.google....ponents&f=false '> http://books.google....ponents&f=false . And you will try to simulate the atmospheric distillation of this crude using e.g. HYSYS, or some other simulator, http://vimeo.com/29785015 '> [media]http://vimeo.com/29785015[/media] . My knowledge on the above is quite limited, others could give guidelines. But a general knowledge of petroleum processing is judged to be necessary. One starting question would be "what products this distillation column has to have".
Useful books for this purpose would be:
1. Petroleum Refinery Engineering by W. L. Nelson, 4th edition, McGraw-Hill, 1958
2. Petroleum Refinery Distillation by R. N. Watkins, 2nd edition, Gulf, 1979 (also teaching how to do calculations manually).
If your instructor can arrange a visit to a refinery after some familiarization of yours, it would be beneficial.
Note: There are 3 basic types of petroleum refineries, http://www.cheresour...rsion-refinery'> http://www.cheresources.com/invision/topic/15561-difference-between-full-conversion-and-semi-conversion-refinery.