ANÁLISIS JERÁRQUICO DE VARIABLES DE OPERACIÓN DE UNA TORRE DE DESTILACIÓN DE CRUDO USANDO DATOS DE PLANTA, MODELOS DE SIMULACIÓN Y DISEÑO DE EXPERIMENTOS

Inside a crude refinement process, independent variables are a well known set but its size is very large in special for Atmospheric Distillation Towers (ADT) changing softy for their design. Many variables or dimensions increase the complexity and difficulty in applications like Operational Analyses, Metamodeling, Optimization, between others. Reducing the number of variables is very useful without losing functionality in applications and a way is by variables hierarchization. In this study, it determined principal impact operational variables in white products (Naphtha, Jet and Diesel) of ADT considering crude with constant composition and products quality measure with final boiling point of ASTM D-86 Distillation. Hierarchical analyze allowed to reduce a set with 16 independent variables until one of small size easier to manipulate than the original offering the same results. For doing the hierarchization or variables analyzes inside of ADT, it was used Screening Experiment Designs like Plackett-Burman and Random Balance which identified variables with principal relevant effects for white product yield, reducing entrance space dimension.