The production of light olefins (ethylene, propylene and butenes) from various hydrocarbon feedstocks utilizes the technique of pyrolysis, or steam cracking. Pyrolysis involves heating the feedstock sufficiently to cause thermal decomposition of the larger molecules. The pyrolysis process, however, produces molecules which tend to combine to form high molecular weight materials known as tars. Tars are high-boiling point, viscous, reactive materials that can foul equipment under certain conditions.
The formation of tars, after the pyrolysis effluent leaves the steam cracking furnace can be minimized by rapidly reducing the temperature of the effluent exiting the pyrolysis unit to a level at which the tar-forming reactions are greatly slowed.
One technique used to cool pyrolysis unit effluent and remove the resulting heavy oils and tars employs heat exchangers followed by a water quench tower in which the condensibles are removed. This technique has proven effective when cracking light gases, primarily ethane, propane and butane, because crackers that process light feeds, collectively referred to as gas crackers, produce relatively small quantities of tar. As a result, heat exchangers can efficiently recover most of the valuable heat without fouling and the relatively small amount of tar can be separated from the water quench albeit with some difficulty.
This technique is, however, not satisfactory for use with steam crackers that crack naphthas and heavier feedstocks, collectively referred to as liquid crackers, since liquid crackers generate much larger quantities of tar than gas crackers. Heat exchangers can be used to remove some of the heat from liquid cracking, but only down to the temperature at which tar begins to condense. Below this temperature, conventional heat exchangers cannot be used because they would foul rapidly from accumulation and thermal degradation of tar on the heat exchanger surfaces. In addition, when the pyrolysis effluent from these feedstocks is quenched, some of the heavy oils and tars produced have approximately the same density as water and can form stable oil/water emulsions. Moreover, the larger quantity of heavy oils and tars produced by liquid cracking would render water quench operations ineffective, making it difficult to raise steam from the condensed water and to dispose of excess quench water and the heavy oil and tar in an environmentally acceptable manner.
Accordingly in most commercial liquid crackers, cooling of the effluent from the cracking furnace is normally achieved using a system of transfer line heat exchangers, a primary fractionator, and a water quench tower or indirect condenser. For a typical naphtha feedstock, the transfer line heat exchangers cool the process stream to about 700° F. (370° C.), efficiently generating super-high pressure steam that can be used elsewhere in the process. The primary fractionator is normally used to condense and separate the tar from the lighter liquid fraction, known as pyrolysis gasoline, and to recover the heat between about 700° F. (370° C.) and about 200° F. (90° C.). The water quench tower or indirect condenser further cools the gas stream exiting the primary fractionator to about 104° F. (40° C.) to condense the bulk of the dilution steam present and to separate pyrolysis gasoline from the gaseous olefinic product, which is then sent to a compressor.
The primary fractionator, however, is a very complex piece of equipment that typically includes an oil quench section, a primary fractionator tower and one or more external oil pumparound loops. At the quench section, quench oil is added to cool the effluent stream to about 400 to 6504° F. (200 to 343° C.), thereby condensing tar present in the stream. In the primary fractionator tower, the condensed tar is separated from the remainder of the stream, heat is removed in one or more pumparound zones by circulating oil and a pyrolysis gasoline fraction is separated from heavier material in one or more distillation zones. In the one or more external pumparound loops, oil, which is withdrawn from the primary fractionator, is cooled using indirect heat exchangers and then returned to the primary fractionator or the direct quench point.
The primary fractionator with its associated pumparounds is the most expensive component in the entire cracking system. The primary fractionator tower itself is the largest single piece of equipment in the process, typically being about twenty-five feet in diameter and over a hundred feet high for a medium size liquid cracker. The tower is large because it is in effect fractionating two minor components, tar and pyrolysis gasoline, in the presence of a large volume of low pressure gas. The pumparound loops are likewise large, handling over 3 million pounds per hour of circulating oil in the case of a medium size cracker. Heat exchangers in the pumparound circuit are necessarily large because of high flow rates, close temperature approaches needed to recover the heat at useful levels, and allowances for fouling.
In addition, the primary fractionator has a number of other limitations and problems. In particular, heat transfer takes place twice, i.e., from the gas to the pumparound liquid inside the tower and then from the pumparound liquid to the external cooling service. This effectively requires investment in two heat exchange systems, and imposes two temperature approaches (or differentials) on the removal of heat, thereby reducing thermal efficiency.
Moreover, despite the fractionation that takes place between the tar and gasoline streams, both streams often need to be processed further. Sometimes the tar needs to be stripped to remove light components, whereas the gasoline may need to be refractionated to meet its end point specification.
Further, the primary fractionator tower and its pumparounds are prone to fouling. Coke accumulates in the bottom section of the tower and must eventually be removed during plant turnarounds. The pumparound loops are also subject to fouling, requiring removal of coke from filters and periodic cleaning of fouled heat exchangers. Trays and packing in the tower are sometimes subject to fouling, potentially limiting plant production. The system also contains a significant inventory of flammable liquid hydrocarbons, which is not desirable from an inherent safety standpoint.
There is therefore a need for a simplified method for cooling pyrolysis unit effluent and removing the resulting heavy oils and tars which obviates the need for a primary fractionator tower and its ancillary equipment.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,279,733 and 4,279,734 propose cracking methods using a quencher, indirect heat exchanger and fractionator to cool effluent, resulting from steam cracking.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,150,716 and 4,233,137 propose a heat recovery apparatus comprising a pre-cooling zone where the effluent resulting from steam cracking is brought into contact with a sprayed quenching oil, a heat recovery zone, and a separating zone.
Lohr et al., “Steam-cracker Economy Keyed to Quenching,” Oil & Gas Journal, Vol. 76 (No. 20), pp. 63-68, (1978), proposes a two-stage quenching involving indirect quenching with a transfer line heat exchanger to produce high-pressure steam along with direct quenching with a quench oil to produce medium-pressure steam.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,092,981 and 5,324,486 propose a two-stage quench process for effluent resulting from steam cracking furnace comprising a primary transfer line exchanger which functions to rapidly cool furnace effluent and to generate high temperature steam and a secondary transfer line exchanger which functions to cool the furnace effluent to as low a temperature as possible consistent with efficient primary fractionator or quench tower performance and to generate medium to low pressure steam.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,107,921 proposes transfer line exchangers having multiple tube passes of different tube diameters. U.S. Pat. No. 4,457,364 proposes a close-coupled transfer line heat exchanger unit.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,923,921 proposes a naphtha steam cracking process comprising passing effluent through a transfer line exchanger to cool the effluent and thereafter through a quench tower.
WO 93/12200 proposes a method for quenching the gaseous effluent from a hydrocarbon pyrolysis unit by passing the effluent through transfer line exchangers and then quenching the effluent with liquid water so that the effluent is cooled to a temperature in the range of 220° F. to 266° F. (105° C. to 130° C.), such that heavy oils and tars condense, as the effluent enters a primary separation vessel. The condensed oils and tars are separated from the gaseous effluent in the primary separation vessel and the remaining gaseous effluent is passed to a quench tower where the temperature of the effluent is reduced to a level at which the effluent is chemically stable.
EP 205 205 proposes a method for cooling a fluid such as a cracked reaction product by using transfer line exchangers having two or more separate heat exchanging sections.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,294,347 proposes that in ethylene manufacturing plants, a water quench column cools gas leaving a primary fractionator and that in many plants, a primary fractionator is not used and the feed to the water quench column is directly from a transfer line exchanger.
JP 2001-40366 proposes cooling mixed gas in a high temperature range with a horizontal heat exchanger and then with a vertical heat exchanger having its heat exchange planes installed in the vertical direction. A heavy component condensed in the vertical exchanger is thereafter separated by distillation at downstream refining steps.
WO 00/56841; GB 1,390,382; GB 1,309,309; and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,444,697; 4,446,003; 4,121,908; 4,150,716; 4,233,137; 3,923,921; 3,907,661; and 3,959,420; propose various apparatus for quenching a hot cracked gaseous stream wherein the hot gaseous stream is passed through a quench pipe or quench tube wherein a liquid coolant (quench oil) is injected.