BASICS TO PETROLEUM REFINING| CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
PETROLEUM REFINING & PETROCHEMICAL INDUSTRY
The terms petroleum refining and petrochemical industry are two different terms people often confuse between. When the crude oil is processed to give fuels such as gasoline, diesel, kerosene, jet fuel etc., then we name the process as petroleum refining whereas when products from refining are further treated (in various units such as isomerisation unit, hydrocracking etc.) to obtain more valuable products is known as petrochemistry. For eg. Naphtha(direct product from refining) is commonly used to make ethenes, propenes, butenes, which form plastics(valuable material).
WHAT IS CRUDE OIL?
Crude oil, which is the raw material for refining, is a multi-component mixture consisting of more than 108 compounds (along with impurities) out of which some are liquids, some solids & other are gases. This mixture has components whose density and hence boiling point varies and hence forms basis for distillation in industries.
Some motor engines are designed for gases, other for liquids, and for varying octane numbers, so there is a need to refine the crude oil in order to get the product with proper specifications for proper working of engines. This is also the reason to why we can’t use crude oil directly and why we have to refine it.
WHAT IS PETROLEUM REFINING?
Petroleum refining is the conversion of crude oil into useful products, mostly transportation fuels (B.pt. between 25–350 deg.C) which is economically practical. Product of refineries include petrochemicals (valuable products), as well as highly profitable products such as transportation fuel gasoline, diesel, jet(turbine) fuels along with some light heating oils. Less than 5% of crude oil is used to make petrochemicals as the demand of transportation fuel is much higher.
In a petroleum refining industry, the equipment is designed to handle the crude oil of average API gravity and average sulfur content. Therefore, crude oils with low API gravity(high specific gravity) and high sulfur content needs to be hydro-treated & desulfurised.
The quality of crude oil is expected to decrease in coming years as the sulfur content and densities are expected to increase. Consequently, refineries will start to process the entire barrel of crude rather than just the material boiling below 550 deg. C.
This is pretty much it friends!!
I hope you liked this article. Suggestions for any betterment of this article are highly welcomed. Do let me know your reviews about this blog in the comment section. The upcoming blogs will be based on “industry insights all over the world”. Till then, take care & stay safe :) .
