Petroleum refining processes: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia
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{{Short description|Methods of transforming crude oil}}
[[File:Anacortes Refinery 31911.JPG|right|thumb|upright=1.5|Petroleum refinery in [[Anacortes, Washington]], United States]]
'''Petroleum refining processes''' are the [[chemical engineering]] processes and other facilities used in petroleum refineries (also referred to as oil refineries) to transform [[crude oil]] into useful products such as [[liquefied petroleum gas]] (LPG), [[gasoline|gasoline or petrol]], [[kerosene]], [[jet fuel]], [[diesel oil]] and [[fuel oil]]s.<ref name="Handwerk">{{cite book|author1=Gary, J.H. |author2=Handwerk, G.E. |name-list-style=amp |title=Petroleum Refining Technology and Economics|edition=2nd|publisher=Marcel Dekker, Inc|year=1984|isbn=978-0-8247-7150-8}}</ref><ref name="Leffler">{{cite book|author=Leffler, W.L. |title=Petroleum refining for the nontechnical person|edition=2nd|publisher=PennWell Books|year=1985|isbn=978-0-87814-280-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=James G, Speight|title=The Chemistry and Technology of Petroleum|edition=Fourth|publisher=CRC Press|year=2006|id=0-8493-9067-2}}</ref>
Refineries and petroleum industries are very large industrial complexes that involve many different processing units and auxiliary facilities such as utility units and storage tanks. Each refinery has its own unique arrangement and combination of refining processes largely determined by the refinery location, desired products and economic considerations.
Some modern petroleum refineries process as much as 800,000 to 900,000 [[Barrel (unit)|barrel]]s (127,000 to 143,000 cubic meters) per day of crude oil.{{cn|date=May 2021}}
==History==
[[Crude oil]] was [[distilled]] by [[Alchemy and chemistry in medieval Islam|Islamic chemists]], with clear descriptions given in handbooks such as those of [[Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi]] ({{circa|865–925}}).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Forbes |first1=Robert James |title=Studies in Early Petroleum History |date=1958 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |page=149 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eckUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA149}}</ref> The streets of [[Baghdad]] were paved with [[tar]], derived from petroleum that became accessible from natural fields in the region. In the 9th century, [[oil field]]s were exploited in the area around modern [[Baku]], [[Azerbaijan]]. These fields were described by the [[Islamic geography|Islamic geographer]] [[Abu al-Hasan 'Alī al-Mas'ūdī]] in the 10th century, and by [[Marco Polo]] in the 13th century, who described the output of those wells as hundreds of shiploads.<ref>{{Cite book|contribution=1000 Years of Missing Industrial History|author=Salim Al-Hassani|author-link=Salim Al-Hassani|title=A shared legacy: Islamic science East and West|editor=Emilia Calvo Labarta |editor2=Mercè Comes Maymo |editor3=Roser Puig Aguilar |editor4=Mònica Rius Pinies|publisher=[[University of Barcelona|Edicions Universitat Barcelona]]|year=2008|isbn=978-84-475-3285-8|pages=57–82 [63]}}</ref> Islamic chemists also distilled crude oil in order to produce [[Flammability|flammable]] products for military purposes.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=petroleum|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|author1=Joseph P. Riva Jr. |author2=Gordon I. Atwater |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/454269/petroleum|access-date=2008-06-30}}</ref>
Prior to the nineteenth century, petroleum was known and utilized in various fashions in [[Babylon]], [[Egypt]], [[China]], [[Philippines]], [[Rome]] and along the Caspian Sea. The modern history of the petroleum industry is said to have begun in 1846 when Abraham Gessner of [[Nova Scotia]], [[Canada]] devised a process to produce kerosene from coal. Shortly thereafter, in 1854, [[Ignacy Lukasiewicz]] began producing kerosene from hand-dug oil wells near the town of [[Krosno]], [[Poland]]. The first large petroleum refinery was built in [[Ploiești|Ploesti]], [[Romania]] in 1856 using the abundant oil available in Romania.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.150deanidepetrol.ro/history.html |title=150 Years of Oil in Romania |website=150deanidepetrol.ro |year=2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110902203529/http://www.150deanidepetrol.ro/history.html |archive-date=2011-09-02}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/eakins/we_1844.htm |title=World Events: 1844–1856 |website=www.pbs.org |year=2002}}</ref>
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In the United States, for various complex economic and political reasons, the construction of new refineries came to a virtual stop in about the 1980s. However, many of the existing refineries in the United States have revamped many of their units and/or, constructed add-on units in order to: increase their crude oil processing capacity, increase the [[octane]] rating of their product gasoline, lower the [[sulfur]] content of their diesel fuel and home heating fuels to comply with environmental regulations and comply with environmental air pollution and water pollution requirements.
==Main Processing unitsUnits of usedRefineries in- refineriesTreatment==
* [[Petroleum refining processes#The crude oil distillation unitCrude_oil_-_Distillation_Unit|Crude Oil Distillation unit]]: Distills the incoming crude oil into various fractions for further processing in other units.
* [[Vacuum distillation]] unit: Further distills the residue oil from the bottom of the crude oil distillation unit. The vacuum distillation is performed at a pressure well below atmospheric pressure.
* [[Hydrodesulfurization|Naphtha hydrotreater]] unit: Uses [[hydrogen]] to desulfurize the [[petroleum naphtha|naphtha]] fraction from the crude oil distillation or other units within the refinery.
* [[Catalytic reforming]] unit: Converts the desulfurized [[naphtha]] [[molecule]]s into higher-octane molecules to produce ''reformate'', which is a component of the end-product gasoline or petrol.
* [[Alkylation]] unit]]: Converts [[isobutane]] and [[butylene]]s into ''alkylate'', which is a very high-octane component of the end-product gasoline or petrol.
* [[Isomerization]] unit: Converts linear molecules such as normal [[pentane]] into higher-octane branched molecules for blending into the end-product gasoline. Also used to convert linear normal butane into isobutane for use in the alkylation unit.
* [[Hydrodesulfurization|Distillate hydrotreater]] unit: Uses hydrogen to desulfurize some of the other distilled fractions from the crude oil distillation unit (such as diesel oil).
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* [[Delayed coking]] and [[fluid coker]] units: Convert very heavy residual oils into end-product petroleum coke as well as naphtha and petrol oil by-products.
==Auxiliary facilitiesProcessing requiredUnits inof refineriesRefineries - Pretreatment==
* [[Steam reforming]] unit: Converts natural gas into hydrogen for the hydrotreaters and/or the hydrocracker.
* [[Claus process|Sour water stripper]] unit: Uses steam to remove hydrogen sulfide gas from various wastewater streams for subsequent conversion into end-product sulfur in the [[Claus process|Claus unit]].<ref name="Beychok">{{cite book |author=Beychok, Milton R. |title=Aqueous Wastes from Petroleum and Petrochemical Plants |edition=1st |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=1967 |lccn= 67019834}}</ref>
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===Light distillates===
* [[C1 components]]
* [[Liquified petroleum gas (LPG)| Liquified petroleum gas]]
* [[Light naphta]]
* [[Gasoline (petrol)|petrol]]
* [[Heavy naphtha]]
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* Asphalt
===Other useful end products===
===Others===
* Coke (similar to coal)
* Elemental sulfur