To address the issue of high steam consumption in the propane removal tower of the three tower gas fractionation process in refineries, it is proposed to use a high and low pressure dual tower propane removal process instead of the single tower propane removal process in the original process. The process was simulated under steady?state conditions using Unisim Design process simulation software. The steam load of the high?pressure depropanizer and the hot water load of the deethanizer were analyzed, and the main operating parameters were optimized. The results showed that under the operating conditions of n(top C3 production)/n(total feed C3)=0.6, top pressure of 1.81 MPa, feed tray position of the 10th plate, and feed positions of the 114th and 126th plates at the top of the propane removal tower and low?pressure propane removal tower respectively, using the high and low?pressure double tower propane removal process can save 56.12% of steam load compared to the original process, save 49.83% of hot water load in the ethane removal tower compared to before optimization, reduce total energy consumption by 235.4 kW, and save about 339.71 yuan in thermal utility costs per hour.
