January 2008 - Vacuum systems are installed in various plant sections in oil refineries and in petrochemical units:
The vacuum distillation column (VDU) which is arranged downstream of the crude oil process is the most important and profitable plant section. Further on, desulphurization of diesel, oil drying, some fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) and even fluid coke processes take place under vacuum.
All these vacuum systems are traditionally served by the extremely reliable steam jet vacuum pumps.
The development of a new ejector series, the optimization of the condenser design and the combination of ejectors and liquid ring vacuum pumps (hybrid systems) lead to a very significant reduction in operating cost. In comparison to old traditional vacuum systems, the total cost of ownership over a period of 3 years is sharply reduced.
GEA Jet Pumps developed a new generation of ejectors based on trial tests with different shapes and nozzles and based on thousands of test reports which had been recorded in the past 50 years by the GEA Jet Pumps R&D center.
The new ejector features some significant improvements in the inner shape of the mixing nozzle, the position of the motive nozzle and the motive nozzle itself.
In particular for a compression ratio between 2.5 and 6.5 the efficiency improves by 15 % which leads to steam consumption savings of 15 % compared to the old steam ejectors.
In many cases the revamping of the existing vacuum systems by the replacement of the ejectors and liquid ring vacuum pumps help to improve the profitability of an existing “old“ refinery within a very short time.