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Generally, crude petroleum is heated and changed into a gas. The hot gases are passed into the bottom of a distillation column and become cooler as they move up the height of the column. As the gases cool below their boiling point, they condense into a liquid. The liquids are then drawn off the distilling column at specific heights, ranging from heavy resids at the bottom, raw diesel fuels in the mid-sections, and raw gasoline at the top. These raw fractions are then processed further to make several different finished products. Although all fractions of petroleum find uses, the greatest demand is for gasoline. One barrel of crude petroleum contains only 30-40% gasoline. Transportation demands require that over 50% of the crude oil be "converted" into gasoline. To meet this demand some petroleum fractions must be converted to gasoline. This may be done by Cracking breaking down large molecules of heavy heating oil and resids; Reforming changing molecular structures of low quality gasoline molecules; and Isomerization rearranging the atoms in a molecule so that the product has the same chemical formula but has a different structure, such as converting normal butane to isobutene. Generally, the simplest refineries consist of crude, vacuum, reforming and some hydrotreating capacity. The next level of complexity adds cat cracking and some additional hydrotreating. The most complex refineries add coking, more hydrotreatingand hydrocracking. Refining separates crude oil into components used for a variety of purposes, from high-performance fuels to plastics.
Refining Process Definitions Coker Unit: processes vacuum resid, which is heated to over 900 F and put into the coke drums, where it undergoes thermal cracking as the oil decomposes under the extreme heat. Products include butane and lighter material, naphtha for Reforming, turbine and diesel fuel, gas oil for Cat Cracking, and fuel grade petroleum coke. Reformer Unit: using heat, catalyst and moderate pressure, the reformer changes the molecular structure of crude and coker naphthas to produce a high octane primary gasoline blend stock called reformate. Alkylation Unit: uses acid catalyst to combine small molecules into larger ones collectively called alkylate, which has a high octane and is the cleanest burning of the gasoline blendstocks. Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit: uses heat and catalyst to break or crack large gas oil molecules into a range of smaller ones, specifically gasoline, low quality diesel stocks, and a residual oil called slurry (fuel oil). Desulfurization Unit: a device used to remove sulfur from petroleum oil. Hydrotreating: removes impurities by using hydrogen to bind with sulfur and nitrogen. Hydrocracking: breaks or cracks diesel stock material into gasoline blending stocks using heat, catalyst and hydrogen under very high pressure. Isomerization: rearranges the atoms in a molecule so that the product has the same chemical formula but has a different structure, such as converting normal butane to isobutane.
Coke is a residue high in carbon content and low in hydrogen that is the final product of thermal decomposition in the condensation process in cracking. It is almost pure carbon with a variety of uses from electrodes to charcoal briquets. Asphalt is dark brown-to-black cement-like material obtained by petroleum processing and containing bitumens as the predominant component. It used primarily for road construction and roofing materials, and thus must be inert to most chemicals and weather conditions.