This practical and highly-interactive course includes real-life case studies and exercises where participants will be engaged in a series of interactive small groups and class workshops.

This course is designed to provide participants with a detailed and up-to-date overview of Crude & Vacuum Process Technology. It covers the role of crude and vacuum distillation in the refining process and the properties and characteristics of crude oil; the crude oil pretreatment, fundamentals of fractional distillation, atmospheric distillation and safety and environmental considerations; the CDU process flow and equipment, heat integration in crude distillation and main column operation and control; the purpose and operation of side strippers, steam stripping principles, control of light ends in side products and stripper reboiler operation; the product quality control and CDU troubleshooting; and the purpose and role of vacuum distillation. During this interactive course, participants will learn the vacuum system design and operation, VDU column configuration and VDU heater operation; the VDU product handling, VDU troubleshooting, process control strategies and energy efficiency improvements; the fouling and corrosion management, debottlenecking and capacity increase, advanced process monitoring and process safety management; the common CDU/VDU operational issues, shutdown and startup procedures and turnaround planning and maintenance; and the emerging technologies in crude and vacuum processing covering advanced crude preheat systems, structured packing advancements, online fouling monitoring and AI-based process optimization.