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petroleum refining
Table of Contents
petroleum refining

 * Introduction
   
 * History
    * Distillation of kerosene and naphtha
   
    * Conversion to light fuels
   
    * Environmental concerns

 * Raw materials
    * Hydrocarbon chemistry
      * Saturated molecules
      * Unsaturated molecules
   
    * Types of crude oil
   
    * Conventional measurement systems

 * Basic refinery processes
    * Separation
      * Fractional distillation
      * Vacuum distillation
      * Superfractionation
      * Absorption
      * Solvent extraction
      * Adsorption
      * Crystallization
   
    * Conversion
      * Naphtha reforming
      * Catalytic cracking
      * Polymerization and alkylation
      * Hydrocracking
      * Isomerization
      * Visbreaking, thermal cracking, and coking
   
    * Purification
      * Sweetening
      * Mercaptan extraction
      * Clay treatment
      * Hydrogen treatment
      * Molecular sieves

 * Petroleum products and their uses
    * Gases
   
    * Gasoline
      * Octane rating
      * High-volatile and low-volatile components
      * Gasoline blending
   
    * Kerosene
   
    * Diesel oils
   
    * Fuel oils
   
    * Lubricating oils
   
    * Gear oils and greases
   
    * Other petroleum products

 * Petrochemicals
    * Olefins
   
    * Aromatics
   
    * Polymers
   
    * Inorganic chemicals

 * Refinery plant and facilities
    * Processing configurations
      * Topping and hydroskimming refineries
      * Conversion refineries
   
    * Off-sites
      * Tankage
      * Flares
      * Utilities
      * Environmental treatment
   
    * Bulk transportation

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PETROLEUM REFINING

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By Lee H. Solomon | See All • Edit History

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petroleum refining, conversion of crude oil into useful products.




HISTORY




DISTILLATION OF KEROSENE AND NAPHTHA

The refining of crude petroleum owes its origin to the successful drilling of
the first oil wells in Ontario, Canada, in 1858 and in Titusville, Pennsylvania,
U.S., in 1859. Prior to that time, petroleum was available only in very small
quantities from natural seepage of subsurface oil in various areas throughout
the world. However, such limited availability restricted the uses for petroleum
to medicinal and specialty purposes. With the discovery of “rock oil” in
northwestern Pennsylvania, crude oil became available in sufficient quantity to
inspire the development of larger-scale processing systems. The earliest
refineries employed simple distillation units, or “stills,” to separate the
various constituents of petroleum by heating the crude oil mixture in a vessel
and condensing the resultant vapours into liquid fractions. Initially the
primary product was kerosene, which proved to be a more abundant,
cleaner-burning lamp oil of more consistent quality than whale oil or animal
fat.

The lowest-boiling raw product from the still was “straight run” naphtha, a
forerunner of unfinished gasoline (petrol). Its initial commercial application
was primarily as a solvent. Higher-boiling materials were found to be effective
as lubricants and fuel oils, but they were largely novelties at first.

The perfection of oil-drilling techniques quickly spread to Russia, and by 1890
refineries there were producing large quantities of kerosene and fuel oils. The
development of the internal-combustion engine in the later years of the 19th
century created a small market for crude naphtha. But the development of the
automobile at the turn of the century sharply increased the demand for quality
gasoline, and this finally provided a home for the petroleum fractions that were
too volatile to be included in kerosene. As demand for automotive fuel rose,
methods for continuous distillation of crude oil were developed.




CONVERSION TO LIGHT FUELS

After 1910 the demand for automotive fuel began to outstrip the market
requirements for kerosene, and refiners were pressed to develop new technologies
to increase gasoline yields. The earliest process, called thermal cracking,
consisted of heating heavier oils (for which there was a low market requirement)
in pressurized reactors and thereby cracking, or splitting, their large
molecules into the smaller ones that form the lighter, more valuable fractions
such as gasoline, kerosene, and light industrial fuels. Gasoline manufactured by
the cracking process performed better in automobile engines than gasoline
derived from straight distillation of crude petroleum. The development of more
powerful airplane engines in the late 1930s gave rise to a need to increase the
combustion characteristics of gasoline and spurred the development of lead-based
fuel additives to improve engine performance.



During the 1930s and World War II, sophisticated refining processes involving
the use of catalysts led to further improvements in the quality of
transportation fuels and further increased their supply. These improved
processes—including catalytic cracking of heavy oils, alkylation,
polymerization, and isomerization—enabled the petroleum industry to meet the
demands of high-performance combat aircraft and, after the war, to supply
increasing quantities of transportation fuels.

The 1950s and ’60s brought a large-scale demand for jet fuel and high-quality
lubricating oils. The continuing increase in demand for petroleum products also
heightened the need to process a wider variety of crude oils into high-quality
products. Catalytic reforming of naphtha replaced the earlier thermal reforming
process and became the leading process for upgrading fuel qualities to meet the
needs of higher-compression engines. Hydrocracking, a catalytic cracking process
conducted in the presence of hydrogen, was developed to be a versatile
manufacturing process for increasing the yields of either gasoline or jet fuels.




ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS

By 1970 the petroleum-refining industry had become well established throughout
the world. Delivery of crude oil to be refined into petroleum products had
reached almost 2.3 billion tons per year (40 million barrels per day), with
major concentrations of refineries in most developed countries. As the world
became aware of the impact of industrial pollution on the environment, however,
the petroleum-refining industry was a primary focus for change. Refiners added
hydrotreating units to extract sulfur compounds from their products and began to
generate large quantities of elemental sulfur. Effluent water and atmospheric
emission of hydrocarbons and combustion products also became a focus of
increased technical attention. In addition, many refined products came under
scrutiny. Beginning in the mid-1970s, petroleum refiners in the United States
and then around the world were required to develop techniques for manufacturing
high-quality gasoline without employing lead additives, and beginning in the
1990s they were required to take on substantial investments in the complete
reformulation of transportation fuels in order to minimize environmental
emissions. From an industry that at one time produced a single product
(kerosene) and disposed of unwanted by-product materials in any manner possible,
petroleum refining has become one of the world’s most stringently regulated
manufacturing industries, expending a major portion of its resources on reducing
its impact on the environment as it processes some 4.6 billion tons of crude oil
per year (roughly 80 million barrels per day).




RAW MATERIALS




HYDROCARBON CHEMISTRY

Petroleum crude oils are complex mixtures of hydrocarbons, chemical compounds
composed only of carbon (C) and hydrogen (H).



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2022.
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