Vacuum distillation

Vacuum distillation is a method of distillation whereby the pressure above the liquid mixture to
be distilled is reduced to less than its vapor pressure (usually less than atmospheric pressure)
causing evaporation of the most volatile liquid(s) (those with the lowest boiling points).[1] This
distillation method works on the principle that boiling occurs when the vapor pressure of a liquid
exceeds the ambient pressure. Vacuum distillation is used with or without heating the mixture.
Vacuum distillation in petroleum refining
Petroleum crude oil is a complex mixture of hundreds of different hydrocarbon compounds
generally having from 3 to 60 carbon atoms per molecule, although there may be small amounts
of hydrocarbons outside that range.[10][11][12] The refining of crude oil begins with distilling the
incoming crude oil in a so-called atmospheric distillation column operating at pressures slightly
above atmospheric pressure.[8][10][11]
Vacuum distillation can also be referred as "low temperature distillation"
In distilling the crude oil, it is important not to subject the crude oil to temperatures above 370 to
380 C because the high molecular weight components in the crude oil will undergo thermal
cracking and form petroleum coke at temperatures above that. Formation of coke would result in
plugging the tubes in the furnace that heats the feed stream to the crude oil distillation column.
Plugging would also occur in the piping from the furnace to the distillation column as well as in the
column itself.
The constraint imposed by limiting the column inlet crude oil to a temperature of less than 370 to
380 C yields a residual oil from the bottom of the atmospheric distillation column consisting
entirely of hydrocarbons that boil above 370 to 380 C.
To further distill the residual oil from the atmospheric distillation column, the distillation must be
performed at absolute pressures as low as 10 to 40 mmHg (also referred to as Torr) so as to limit
the operating temperature to less than 370 to 380 C.

Figure 2 is a simplified process diagram of a petroleum refinery vacuum distillation column that
depicts the internals of the column and Figure 3 is a photograph of a large vacuum distillation
column in a petroleum refinery.
The 10 to 40 mmHg absolute pressure in a vacuum distillation column increases the volume of
vapor formed per volume of liquid distilled. The result is that such columns have very large
diameters.[13]
Distillation columns such those in Images 1 and 2, may have diameters of 15 meters or more,
heights ranging up to about 50 meters, and feed rates ranging up to about 25,400 cubic meters
per day (160,000 barrels per day).
The vacuum distillation column internals must provide good vaporliquid contacting while, at the
same time, maintaining a very low pressure increase from the top of the column top to the bottom.
Therefore, the vacuum column uses distillation trays only where withdrawing products from the
side of the column (referred to as side draws). Most of the column uses packing material for the
vaporliquid contacting because such packing has a lower pressure drop than distillation trays.
This packing material can be either structured sheet metal or randomly dumped packing such
as Raschig rings.
The absolute pressure of 10 to 40 mmHg in the vacuum column is most often achieved by using
multiple stages of steam jet ejectors.[14]
Many industries, other than the petroleum refining industry, use vacuum distillation on a much a
smaller scale.

Desulfurisation
Desulfurisation is a chemical process for the removal of sulfur from a material. This involves
either the removal of sulfur from a molecule (e.g. A=S A:) or the removal of sulfur compounds
from a mixture such as petrochemicals or flue gases.[1]
These processes are of great industrial and environmental importance as they provide the bulk of
sulfur used in industry (Claus process and Contact process), sulfur-free compounds that could
otherwise not be used in a great number of catalytic processes, and also reduce the release of
harmful sulfur compounds into the environment, particularly sulfur dioxide (SO2) which leads
to acid rain.
Processes used for desulfurisation include hydrodesulfurization, SNOX process and the Wet
sulfuric acid process(WSA Process).