Petroleum is a complex mixture of organic liquids called crude oil and natural gas, which occurs naturally in the ground and was formed millions of years ago. Crude oil varies from oilfield to oilfield in colour and composition, from a pale yellow low viscosity liquid to heavy black 'treacle' consistencies. Crude oil and natural gas are extracted from the ground, on land or under the oceans, by sinking an oil well and are then transported by pipeline and/or ship to refineries where their components are processed into refined products.
Crude oil and natural gas are of little use in their raw state; their value lies in what is created from them: fuels, lubricating oils, waxes, asphalt, petrochemicals and pipeline quality natural gas. An oil refinery is an organised and coordinated arrangement of manufacturing processes designed to produce physical and chemical changes in crude oil to convert it into everyday products like petrol, diesel, lubricating oil, fuel oil and bitumen. As crude oil comes from the well it contains a mixture of hydrocarbon compounds and relatively small quantities of other materials such as oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, salt and water.
In the refinery, most of these non - hydrocarbon substances are removed and the oil is broken down into its various components, and blended into useful products. Natural gas from the well, while principally methane, contains quantities of other hydrocarbons - ethane, propane, butane, pentane and also carbon dioxide and water. These components are separated from the methane at a gas fractionation plant. The refining process
Every refinery begins with the separation of crude oil into different fractions by distillation. The fractions are further treated to convert them into mixtures of more useful saleable products by various methods such as cracking, reforming, alkylation, polymerisation and isomerisation. These mixtures of new compounds are then separated using methods such as fractionation and solvent extraction.
Impurities are removed by various methods, e.g. dehydration, desalting, sulphur removal and hydrotreating. Refinery processes have developed in response to changing market demands for certain products. With the advent of the internal combustion engine the main task of refineries became the production of petrol. The quantities of petrol available from distillation alone was insufficient to satisfy consumer demand. Refineries began to look for ways to produce more and better quality petrol. Two types of processes have been developed: * breaking down large, heavy hydrocarbon molecules
* reshaping or rebuilding hydrocarbon molecules. Back to top Distillation (Fractionation) Because crude oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons with different boiling temperatures, it can be separated by distillation into groups of hydrocarbons that boil between two specified boiling points. Two types of distillation are performed: atmospheric and vacuum. Atmospheric distillation takes place in a distilling column at or near atmospheric pressure.
The crude oil is heated to 350 - 400oC and the vapour and liquid are piped into the distilling column. The liquid falls to the bottom and the vapour rises, passing through a series of perforated trays (sieve trays). Heavier hydrocarbons condense more quickly and settle on lower trays and lighter hydrocarbons remain as a vapour longer and condense on higher trays. Liquid fractions are drawn from the trays and removed. In this way the light gases, methane, ethane, propane and butane pass out the top of the column, petrol is formed in the top trays, kerosene and gas oils in the middle, and fuel oils at the bottom.
Residue drawn of the bottom may be burned as fuel, processed into lubricating oils, waxes and bitumen or used as feedstock for cracking units. To recover additional heavy distillates from this residue, it may be piped to a second distillation column where the process is repeated under vacuum, called vacuum distillation.This allows heavy hydrocarbons with boiling points of 450oC and higher to be separated without them partly cracking into unwanted products such as coke and gas. The heavy distillates recovered by vacuum distillation can be converted into lubricating oils by a variety of processes.
The most common of these is called solvent extraction. In one version of this process the heavy distillate is washed with a liquid which does not dissolve in it but which dissolves (and so extracts) the non-lubricating oil components out of it. Another version uses a liquid which does not dissolve in it but which causes the non-lubricating oil components to precipitate (as an extract) from it. Other processes exist which remove impurities by adsorption onto a highly porous solid or which remove any waxes that may be present by causing them to crystallise and precipitate out.
Reforming Reforming is a process which uses heat, pressure and a catalyst (usually containing platinum) to bring about chemical reactions which upgrade naphthas into high octane petrol and petrochemical feedstock. The naphthas are hydrocarbon mixtures containing many paraffins and naphthenes.
In Australia, this naphtha feedstock comes from the crudes oil distillation or catalytic cracking processes, but overseas it also comes from thermal cracking and hydrocracking processes. Reforming converts a portion of these compounds to isoparaffins and aromatics, which are used to blend higher octane petrol. * paraffins are converted to isoparaffins
* paraffins are converted to naphthenes * naphthenes are converted to aromatics e.g. | catalyst| | | | | | heptane| ->| toluene| +| hydrogen| | | | C7H16| ->| C7H8| +| 4H2| |
| catalyst| | | | | | cyclohexane| ->| benzene| +| hydrogen| | | | C6H12| ->| C6H6| +| 3H2| |
------------------------------------------------- Oil refinery From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anacortes Refinery (Tesoro), on the north end of March Point southeast of Anacortes, Washington
An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where crude oil is processed and refined into more useful products such as petroleum naphtha, gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt base, heating oil, kerosene, and liquefied petroleum gas. Oil refineries are typically large, sprawling industrial complexes with extensive piping running throughout, carrying streams of fluids between large chemical processing units. In many ways, oil refineries use much of the technology of, and can be thought of, as types of chemical plants. The crude oil feedstock has typically been processed by an oil production plant.
There is usually an oil depot (tank farm) at or near an oilrefinery for the storage of incoming crude oil feedstock as well as bulk liquid products. An oil refinery is considered an essential part of the downstream side of the petroleum industry. Contents [hide] * 1 Operation * 2 Major products * 3 Common process units found in a refinery * 3.1 Flow diagram of typical refinery * 3.2 The crude oil distillation unit * 4 Specialty end products * 5 Siting/locating of petroleum refineries * 6 Safety and environmental concerns * 7 Corrosion problems and prevention * 8 History * 8.1 Oil refining in the United States * 9 See also * 10 References * 11 External links| -------------------------------------------------
Crude oil is separated into fractions byfractional distillation. The fractions at the top of the fractionating column have lower boiling points than the fractions at the bottom. The heavy bottom fractions are often cracked into lighter, more useful products. All of the fractions are processed further in other refining units. Raw or unprocessed crude oil is not generally useful in industrial applications, although "light, sweet" (low viscosity, low sulfur) crude oil has been used directly as a burner fuel to produce steam for the propulsion of sea-going vessels.
The lighter elements, however, form explosive vapors in the fuel tanks and are therefore hazardous, especially in warships. Instead, the hundreds of different hydrocarbon molecules in crude oil are separated in a refinery into components which can be used as fuels, lubricants, and as feedstocks in petrochemical processes that manufacture such products as plastics,detergents, solvents, elastomers and fibers such as nylon and polyesters. Petroleum fossil fuels are burned in internal combustion engines to provide power for ships, automobiles, aircraft engines, lawn mowers, chainsaws, and other machines. Different boiling points allow the hydrocarbons to be separated by distillation. Since the lighter liquid products are in great demand for use in internal combustion engines, a modern refinery will convert heavy hydrocarbons and lighter gaseous elements into these higher value products.
The oil refinery in Haifa, Israel is capable of processing about 9 million tons (66 million barrels) of crude oil a year. Its two cooling towers are landmarks of the city's skyline. Oil can be used in a variety of ways because it contains hydrocarbons of varying molecular masses, forms and lengths such as paraffins, aromatics, naphthenes (or cycloalkanes), alkenes, dienes, and alkynes.
While the molecules in crude oil include different atoms such as sulfur and nitrogen, the hydrocarbons are the most common form of molecules, which are molecules of varying lengths and complexity made ofhydrogen and carbon atoms, and a small number of oxygen atoms. The differences in the structure of these molecules account for their varying physical and chemical properties, and it is this variety that makes crude oil useful in a broad range of applications. Once separated and purified of any contaminants and impurities, the fuel or lubricant can be sold without further processing.
Smaller molecules such as isobutane and propylene or butylenes can be recombined to meet specific octane requirements by processes such as alkylation, or less commonly, dimerization. Octane grade of gasoline can also be improved by catalytic reforming, which involves removing hydrogenfrom hydrocarbons producing compounds with higher octane ratings such as aromatics. Intermediate products such as gasoils can even be reprocessed to break a heavy, long-chained oil into a lighter short-chained one, by various forms of cracking such as fluid catalytic cracking, thermal cracking, and hydrocracking. The final step in gasoline production is the blending of fuels with different octane ratings, vapor pressures, and other properties to meet product specifications.
Oil refineries are large scale plants, processing about a hundred thousand to several hundred thousand barrels of crude oil a day. Because of the high capacity, many of the units operatecontinuously, as opposed to processing in batches, at steady state or nearly steady state for months to years. The high capacity also makes process optimization and advanced process controlvery desirable.
Major products  Petroleum products are usually grouped into three categories: light distillates (LPG, gasoline, naphtha), middle distillates (kerosene, diesel), heavy distillates and residuum (heavy fuel oil, lubricating oils, wax, asphalt). This classification is based on the way crude oil is distilled and separated into fractions (called distillates and residuum) as in the above drawing. * Liquified petroleum gas (LPG)
* Gasoline (also known as petrol) * Naphtha * Kerosene and related jet aircraft fuels * Diesel fuel * Fuel oils * Lubricating oils * Paraffin wax * Asphalt and tar * Petroleum coke * Sulfur Oil refineries also produce various intermediate products such as hydrogen, light hydrocarbons, reformate and pyrolysis gasoline. These are not usually transported but instead are blended or processed further on-site. Chemical plants are thus often adjacent to oil refineries. For example, light hydrocarbons are steam-cracked in an ethylene plant, and the produced ethylene is polymerized to produce polyethene.