Fundamentals of Refining

Refining
MB-107
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COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMICS STUDIES (CMES)

Course Code: MB-107
Course Name: Refining
© UNIVERSITY OF PETROLEUM & ENERGY STUDIES

Contents
Unit 1 Growth & Development of Refining Industry in India ................................... 1
Unit 2 Crude Oil and its Characteristics ...................................................................... 7
Unit 3 Specifications of Petroleum Products & Related Tests ................................ 23
Unit 4 Integrated Refinery & Petrochemical Plants ................................................. 53
Unit 5 Future Refining Scenario .................................................................................. 85
Unit 6 Advances in Petroleum Refining ..................................................................... 89
Unit 7 Hydrocarbon Loss Minimization ...................................................................... 93
Unit 8 Energy Conservation ......................................................................................... 95
Unit 9 Gross Refining Margin ...................................................................................... 99
Unit 10 Oil Accounting .................................................................................................. 103
Unit 11 Excise & Custom – Petroleum Products ....................................................... 107

Objective
The objective of this course is to give an insight into various facets of petroleum refining for
producing finished products of the desired specifications. Various refining processes used
in the refineries have been dealt in this module. Characteristics of crude and specifications
of various petroleum products have been explained in detail. Dealing with growth and
development of petroleum refining industry in India, latest advancements in various
technologies for improving profitability of the refineries in the face of increasingly stringent
product specifications for meeting environmental stipulations have also been described.
An Overview
Refining of petroleum for producing fuel and related products for automobiles, domestic
consumption and meeting the needs of the power sector, petrochemicals, fertilizers etc.
and other industries, is very vital for the economic progress of the country. The refining
industry in India has made tremendous progress since independence with its march in
time with the country's economic growth and overall progress. Starting with the
establishment of the first public sector refinery at Guwahati (Assam) in 1962, it has come a
long way with the setting up of most modern, state of the art and highly energy efficient
refineries of the present day. India has 17 operating refineries processing both indigenous
and imported crudes. The crude processing capacity of the country has increased from 6
MMTPA in 1962 to 113 MMTPA as of today. Oil companies in India have met the challenges
of the petroleum market product demands with the desired stringent specifications from
time to time, by making changes/ improvements in their processes while at the same time
sustaining their profitability.
The refineries are highly capital-intensive industries with a medium gestation period and
produce crucial products for meeting the country's needs including that of defence. For
setting up a 6 MMTPA capacity refinery complex with marketing facilities, investments to
the tune of Rs 5000 crores are required. These refineries need to be run efficiently so as to
make profits, and hence need to be modernised and updated from time to time.
The module on refining covers various facets of petroleum refining. Various refining
processes used in the refineries have been dealt with in this module. Characteristics of
crude oil and specifications of various petroleum products have been explained in detail.
Dealing with growth and development of petroleum refining industry in India, latest
advancements in various technologies for improving profitability of the refineries in the
face of increasingly stringent product specifications for meeting environmental stipulations
have also been described.
1
Unit 1 Notes
__________________
__________________
Growth and Development of __________________
Refining Industry in India __________________

__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
Objectives
__________________
After studying the unit, the learner will be able to:
__________________
y Get an overview of the growth of the Indian Refining Industry after
independence.
y Know about special features of Indian Refining Industry.
y Get a good idea of various challenges facing the industry in the

present time/in future and strategies for meeting the same.
With the growth of industry and improvement in the living

standard of people, demand for petroleum products is
increasing rapidly. Consequently, there is a thrust on
increasing their supply by enhancing refining capacity.
First refinery in India started soon after oil production

started in Digboi, Assam. Thereafter addition of refineries
and capacity augmentation continued unabated. Now we are
having seventeen operating refineries with a total capacity
of 113 MMTPA.
The Important Milestones

1866 - Oil discovery at Nahorpung, Assam.
1889 - Oil Production started at Digboi, Assam.
1893 - First Refinery started at Margharita, Assam.
1899 - Assam Oil Company was formed.
1901 - Digboi Refinery was commissioned

supplanting the earlier refinery at Margarita.
1947- 1957 Setting up of three coastal refineries by Multi

National Oil Companies (MNCs)
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Activity 1 A u 2 at Mumbai (Esso & Burmah Shell)

Reader may like to draw a
Geneological Chart of the current u 1 at Vizag (Caltex)
refineries operative in India.
Please classify by company, The MNCs were already marketing petroleum
technology and year of products in India by then.
establishment and expanded
capacity wherever applicable by 1954 - Indian Oil exploration with the help of Russian
the end of 10th 5 year plan i.e.
2006 – 07. Geologists.
__________________ 1956 - Formation of Oil and Natural Gas Commission
__________________ for exploration and production of crude oil and
__________________ gas.
__________________
1958 - Discovery of Cambay oil field.
__________________
__________________ 1958 - Indian Refineries Ltd (IRL) was formed in the
__________________
public sector to install refineries and pipelines
in India.
__________________
__________________ - Oil India Ltd (OIL) was formed as a joint
__________________ venture company between Government of
India and Burmah Oil Co.
1959 - Indian Oil Company formed for marketing of

petroleum products.
1962 - The first refinery in the public sector

commissioned at Guwahati (0.75 MMTPA)
under IRL.
1963 - Indian Oil Blending Ltd – A JV between Indian

Oil Co. and Mobil Petroleum Co. Inc. was
formed for manufacture of lube oils and
greases.
1964 - IRL was dissolved and merged with Indian Oil

Co. Ltd, to form Indian Oil Corporation Ltd
(IOCL).
1974 - IOBL became part of IOCL.
1981 - Assets of erstwhile Assam Oil Co. were taken

over and vested in IOC as Assam Oil Division
(AOD).
1998 - Panipat Refinery of IOC commissioned.

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UNIT 1 Growth and Development of Refining Industry in India 3
1999 - Reliance Petroleum Refinery at Jamnagar, Activity 1 B
commissioned. What are various options for

increasing the Refining Capacity
2000 - Numaligarh refinery commissioned. in the country?
__________________
In the five decades since independence, 16 refineries have
been added in the public/private/ joint sectors (including __________________
three in the private sector by MNCs, which subsequently __________________
became PSU’s). __________________
__________________
Future Outlook* (as per 2025 vision document)
__________________
Total Refining Capacity
__________________
MMTPA
__________________
2002 – 03 135 __________________
Barauni Expansion
__________________
Haldia Expansion
HPCL, Mumbai Expansion
CPCL, Nagapatinam
RPL Expansion
Essar Oil
2003 – 04 170
Koyali Expansion
Panipat Expansion
BPCL Expansion
CPCL Expansion
BRPL Expansion
Paradip
Essar Oil Expansion
Nagarjuna Oil
2004 – 05 176
Kochi Refinery Expansion
2005 – 06 214
Essar Oil Expansion
RPL Expansion
Bhatinda
2006 – 07 221
BRPL Expansion
Bina
* The anticipated growth in petroleum products may not take place
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Notes Refining Capacity in India as in the year 2002

__________________
No. Refineries MMTPA Year of
__________________ Commissioning
__________________ 1. Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Digboi 0.65 1901
__________________ 2. Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Guwahati 1.00 1962
__________________ 3. Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Barauni 3.30 (6.0) 1964
__________________ 4. Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Koyali 13.5 (18) 1965
__________________ 5. Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Haldia 3.75 (7.5) 1974
__________________ 6. Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Mathura 7.50 1982
__________________ 7. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, Vizag 7.50 1975
__________________ 8. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, Mumbai 5.50 1954
9. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Mumbai 8.90 1955
10. Cochin Refineries Limited, Cochin 7.50 (10.5) 1966
11. Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited, Chennia 6.50 (9.5) 1969
12. Bongaigaon Refineries Limited, Bongaigaon 2.35 1972
13. Madras Refineries Limited (CBR), Nagapatinam 0.50 1994
14. Mangalore Refineries & Petrochemicals Ltd., Mangalore 6.00 (9.0) 1995
15. Indian Oil Corporation Limited Panipat 6.00 1998
16. Reliance Petroleum Limited, Jamnagar 27.00 1999
17. Numaligarh Refineries Ltd., Numaligarh 3.00 2000
Total Capacity 112.45
Indian Refining Industry Emerging Scenario

u Shifting product demand
u Stringent product specifications
u Stringent environmental regulations
u Feedstock quality deterioration
u Globalisation
u Deregulation of oil and gas sector
Indian Refining Industry Special Features

u Larger requirement of middle distillates (diesel,
kerosene)
u Prevalence of old as well as modern technologies

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UNIT 1 Growth and Development of Refining Industry in India 5
u A few refineries with size far lower than world Activity 1 C
standards. i. Describe special features of
Downstream Industry.
Strategies for Indian Refineries ii. Challenges faced and
strategies to meet the same.
u Residue upgradation technologies for heavy crudes
__________________
u Technologies for producing lighter fuels __________________
u Process technologies to improve quality with respect to: __________________

__________________
– performance parameters
__________________
– eco-friendly products
__________________
u Value addition to refinery streams __________________
u Increased emphasis on Process Control/ Automation __________________

__________________
u Evolutionary/innovative technological changes expected
__________________
rather than revolutionary ones
u Refineries to be integrated ,compact and flexible with

respect to crude/ product mix.
Future Technological Challenges

u Meeting higher demand of petroleum products (viz.
distillates)
u Meeting higher standards of product qualities
u More emphasis on environment
u Value addition to refineries
u Technologies to improve margins
u Zero emission refinery
Capacity Increase (To Meet Demand of

Petroleum Products )
u Low cost revamps/ addition of units
u Run length improvement of units
u Infrastructure development for crude receipt/storage/
distribution
u Installation of matching secondary processing plants.

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Notes Value Addition

__________________
u Production of value added products from refinery
__________________
streams
__________________
u Propylene, butene – 1, butene – 2, N – Paraffin, Lab,
__________________
Benzene, Toluene, Hexane, P – Xylene etc.
__________________
__________________ u Generation of power from heavy ends
__________________
Distillation Range Improvement
__________________
__________________ u New residue conversion technologies like FCC,
Hydrocracker, RDS-RFCC
__________________
u Advanced controls and optimisation
u Advanced catalysts
u Continuous simulation of plants/ product mix through
computer models
u Prudent selection of technologies and proper

integration of secondary units/ plants.
Review Questions
1. Please identify technological challenges that refineries
will face in future.
7
Unit 2 Activity 2 A
How is the crude oil formed?
__________________
Crude Oil and Its __________________
Characteristics __________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
Objectives
__________________
__________________
y Understand the chemistry of petroleum, different types of crudes
__________________
and their characteristics.
y Develop an insight into the significance of various characteristics

of crudes and method of determination of the same.
y Get an idea of various crudes used in Indian Refineries.
y Appreciate the difference between Indian crudes and typical middle

east crudes.
Crude Oil Characteristics and its Significance

(General Information)
Crude oils are formed by the action of geological processes
on the remains of ancient marine life.
It is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons and over 16,000
compounds have been identified in one sample.
Composition varies widely:
– By geographical location
– Mix of individual wells
– Variance of wells with time
Chemistry of Petroleum
Crude oil contains almost all known hydrocarbons and non-
hydrocarbons. As it is drawn from the earth, it also contains
impurities like water, mud and salts which get associated
during its production and transportation.
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Activity 2 B Crude oil, the basic raw material of refining industry, is a

What are the type of hydrocarbons mixture of eight different hydrocarbon families:
present in the crude?
__________________ i. Paraffins
__________________ ii. Cyclopentanes
__________________
iii. Cyclohexanes
__________________
__________________ iv. Cycloheptanes
__________________ v. Di-cyclo-paraffins
__________________
vi. Benzenes
__________________
__________________ vii. Aromatic cycloparaffins
__________________ viii. Dinuclear and polynuclear
Aromatics are present in smaller amounts in compounds

containing metallic constituents such as Vanadium, Nickel,
Iron, Copper, Magnesium, Calcium, Zinc, Titanium etc.
Besides impurities such as Sulphur, Nitrogen and Oxygen
compounds mostly present in high boiling point fractions are
also present in crude oil. Based on boiling point, the fractions
are separated and given secondary treatment to utilise it as
finished products. Based on proportion of types of
hydrocarbon, it can be divided into Paraffin, Napthenic and
Aromatic categories. The purely hydrocarbon content may
be as high as 97% and as low as 50% for heavy crude oils. The
non-hydrocarbon portion retains hydrocarbon characteristics
as the molecules contain one or two atoms of elements other
than carbon and hydrogen. The carbon content is between 83
to 87% and hydrogen content between 11 to 14%. The ratio
of carbon to hydrogen increases from the low to high
molecular weight fraction due to increase in polynuclear
aromatic and multi ring cycloparaffins in these higher boiling
fractions. Atmospheric distillation is adopted for separating
the compounds present into various fractions upto 366ºC:-
i. Overhead gases containing mainly methane, ethane,

propane and butane.
ii. C5–90º C light naptha
iii. 90ºC–140ºC heavy naptha
iv. 140ºC–204ºC Mineral Turpentine Oil (MTO)

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UNIT 2 Crude Oil and its Characteristics 9
v. 140ºC–240ºC Aviatin Turbine Fuel (ATF) Activity 2 C
i. How do you classify crudes
vi. 140ºC–270º Kerosene based on proportion of type of
hydrocarbon present in them?
vii. 270ºC–340ºC Gas oil ii. What is Crude Assay? How are
these Assays utilized?
viii. 340ºC–366ºC Jute Batching Oil (JBO)
__________________
366ºC plus fraction i.e. Reduced Crude Oil (RCO) is subjected __________________
to vacuum distillation for obtaining vacuum gas oils, raw __________________
Lube Distillate and short residue. Various fractions obtained __________________
from atmospheric and vacuum distillation are given further __________________
treatment to meet required specifications for use.
__________________
Crude Assay __________________

__________________
Crude Assay is the determination of properties of various __________________
fractions of crude oil. This is done to assess the utility
__________________
of the crude for processing for production of various
products and their yields. Crude Assay Data are utilised for
the following:
u Crude oil selection
u Crude oil grading
u Crude valorization
u Crude swapping
u Crude imports
u Creation of new infrastructure at the existing refineries
u Grassroot refineries
u Production planning management
u Inventory problems
u Demand/supply gaps
Types of Evaluations
Preliminary Assay
u Crude characteristics – Consistency of crude supply.
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Notes Short Evaluation

__________________
u Crude characteristics u Absorption of new
__________________
crude in fuel refinery
__________________
__________________ u TBP assay u To study the change in
__________________
quality of crude over a
period of time
__________________
__________________ u Yield data and key u Detailed characteri-
__________________ characteristics of straight sation of crude oil
__________________ run cuts in fuel range and including all micro
long residue constituents.
__________________
Detailed Evaluation
u Design data for grass u TBP assay in
root refinery atmospheric and
vacuum range
u Product optimisation u Selection and design of

secondary conversion
units.
u Yield and characterist-

ics of sets of distillates
in atmospheric and
vacuum range with
variation in IBP, FBP
characterisation of
several long and short
residues.
Information Required
u Base and general properties of crude oil
u Presence of impurities
u Operating and design data
– Fractionating or TBP distillation curves
– Equilibrium of flash vaporization curves
– API or specific gravity curves of each fraction

distilled.
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u Property curves of fractions vs% distilled Notes
__________________
– Mid% curves
__________________
– Yield% curves __________________
__________________
– ISO% curves
__________________
u Properties and yield of straight run fractions and __________________
residues
__________________
u Detailed composition of light distillates __________________
__________________
u Hydrocarbon Type Distribution of Middle and Heavy
__________________
Distillates
Characteristics of Crude Oil

Basic Properties Impurities
Density & API Water Content
Reid Vapour Pressure (RVP) Salt Content
Light End Analysis BS & W
Pour Point Sulphur Content
Viscosity Nitrogen Content
Wax Content Inorganic and
Asphaltenes Total Acid
Carbon Residue Trace Metals
Ash Content
Distillation Characteristic (D86 or D285)
Base of Crude Oil
Crude Oil Characteristics and their Significance

Density
Density is used for:
u Weight to volume or vice versa calculations
u Checking the consistency of crude supply
u Control of refinery operations
u Used in various correlations

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Notes u Also gives a rough indication of type of crude oil

__________________
MASS (M)
__________________ Density =
VOLUME (V)
__________________
__________________ M/V
Specific GRAVITY=
__________________
M’/V (WATER)
__________________
__________________ 141.5
API GRAVITY= –131.5
__________________
SP.GR AT 60/60°F
__________________
__________________ Examples:
Water = 10 API
Kerosene = 45 API
Motor Gasoline = 58 API
Natural Gasoline = 75 API
Crude oils are categorised based on gravity
Light grades : Above 33 degree API
Medium grades : 23-33 degree API
Heavy grades : upto 22 degree API

CRUDE Density API TYPE TOTAL DISTILLATE UPTO 370ºC
Narimanam 0.7920 47.08 I 79.6
Ankleshwar 0.7930 46.85 I 78.2
Jotana 0.8161 41.80 P 52.0
Bombay High 0.8278 39.35 I 65.4
Heera 0.8412 36.62 I 60.6
Kalol 0.8414 36.55 P 47.0
Rumaila 0.8448 35.90 I 55.7
Ratna 0.8484 35.20 I 51.0
Rostam 0.8495 35.00 I 59.7
Jhalora 0.8496 35.16 I 42.1
Basrah 0.8527 34.40 I 52.5
Sobashan 0.8549 33.99 P 43.0
N. Gujarat 0.8553 33.85 I 44.0
Geliki 0.8675 31.50 I 54.5
Nahorkatiya 0.8688 31.30 I 60.9
Kuwait IF IR. 0.8698 31.10 I 47.0
Oman
Elmorgan 0.8727 30.55 I 48.1
Jorajan 0.8821 28.84 N 60.7
Kharsang 0.8910 27.22 N 61.7
Lakwa 0.8952 26.50 N 53.7
Jhalora 0.8986 25.87 I 31.8
Kothana 0.9000 25.64 I 28.2

Rudrasagar 0.9210 22.10 N 60.3
Sanand 0.9242 21.45 I 24.4
N- Kadi Mix 0.9340 19.91 I 27.6
Badarpur 0.9430 18.39 N 60.6
Santhol 0.9507 17.29 I 22.9
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Sulphur Notes
__________________
Crude oils are also categorised based on sulphur.
__________________
u Sulfur is a measure of “sourness” and “sweetness” of __________________
crude __________________
- Sweet grades<0.5% of Sulphur __________________

__________________
- Sour grades >0.5% of Sulphur
__________________
Sulphur is passed on to products as much as regulations or __________________
market accepts. It is removed in hydrotreater by reacting
__________________
with H2 and recovered as elemental sulfur in SRU.
__________________
Reid Vapour Pressure (RVP) and Light End Analysis
RVP indicates relative Percentage of gaseous and lighter
hydrocarbons in crude oil.
Component RVP, Kg/cm2
Propane 14.1 Kg/cm2
Butane 6.6 Kg/cm2
Crude Oil 0.01-0.05
Light end analysis carried out by GLC actually gives the

percentage of hydrocarbons upto C5 and is the basis of
assessing the LPG potential of crude.
TYPICAL HYDROCARBON ANALYSIS
Components % WT on Crude
C1 ND
C2 TRACES
C3 0.1
ISO-C4 0.1
N-C4 0.3
ISO-CS 0.3
N-C5 0.5
TOTAL 1.3
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Notes
Flow Characteristics of Crude Oils
__________________
__________________ Characteristics BH Crude Basrah Crude
__________________ WAX, % WT 10.9 3.5
__________________ Pour Point,°C +30 -24
__________________ Viscosity Kinematic cst
__________________ AT 37.8 °C, 50°C 4.30, 3.32 6.18, 4.84

Geological Characteristics
__________________ Yield Value Dynes/ cm2 AT
__________________ 32°C 45.0 2.0
__________________ 24°C 85.0 5.0
__________________ 18°C 222.0 10.0
16°C 330.0 12.5
Plastic Viscosity, C.P. AT
32°C 7.9 9.6
24°C 30.7 14.7
18°C 43.7 16.0
16°C 45.0 17.3
Pour Point
u Indicates relative amount of wax present in crude oil
u Is the temperature below which pumping and
transportation problems may be encountered
u Along with viscosity, is used in pumping and design
calculations:
Wax Content
Normal paraffins above C16 are solid at somewhat ambient
temperatures. These hydrocarbons
u Affect the flow behaviour of crude
u Affect the product quality of gas oil, VGO and asphalt
u Lube manufacture is also dependent on wax content of
the crude.
Salt Content
It is measure of contamination in crude that will cause
overhead corrosion or foul up exchangers by settling and
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sealing. It is removed in desalter by washing and settling Activity 2 D
mainly chlorides and sulphates of Na, K, Ca, Mg. i. How do you separate various
fractions present in crudes?
Resins
Waxy Agglomerates ii. What are various impurities in
Particulates crudes, their bad effects and
how are these impurities
Brine Droplet
removed?
iii. Method of determination of
Asphaltenes Na+ Na+ salt content, BS&W & Viscosity.
COO- COO- Alkyl Benzene
__________________
__________________
Naphthenates
Carboxylates __________________
__________________
FIGURE 2.1 POSTULATED STRUCTURE OF STABLISED EMULSION
__________________
Problems Encountered Due to Salts __________________

__________________
u Irregular behaviour in distillation
__________________
u Equipment corrosion in the atmospheric distillation __________________
caused by HCL liberated due to hydrolysis of chlorides __________________
Increased Consumption of Amonia

u Salt is a major cause of blocking and fouling of heat
exchangers
u Residual product contamination
100
•
HCL%%
Ashci
75 •
Total Chloride evolved as
•
50 •
25
• •
0
0 100 200 300 400
Salt Content of Crude PTO
PTB AS
as NACL
u Salts may vary widely in ratio of metal ions, though

common averages are – Na: 70-75%, Mg: 15-20%, Ca: 10%.
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Notes u Mg is most prolific producer of HCL with Ca and Na in

__________________ descending order
__________________
u Small quantities of HCL may substantially enhance
__________________
corrosion of sulphur compounds
__________________
__________________ Methods for Determination of Salt Content
__________________
1. IP 77/72 Extraction with water KCNS/Ag No 3
__________________ titration
__________________
2. ASTM D3230 Conductivity measurement based on
__________________
calibration with Na, Ca, Mg chlorides
__________________
standard solutions in mixed alcohol.
Sediment and Water

— Sediment has no relationship with salt but both might
increase with connate water
– Sediment Fine particles of sand clay,

volcanic ash, drilling mud, rust,
iron sulphide, metals and scale
– Damaging Effects Plugging Abrasion and residual

product contamination
– Water causes irregular behaviour in distillation.
Sediment in crude oil is measured by the following methods:
BS & W ASTM D 96
Sediment by extraction ASTM D 4007
Water content DEAN & STARK
ASTM D 4006
– Sediment in crude is determined for custody transfer

purposes
– Lower the sediments and water, higher the reliability

of the unit. It is also a major pointer for corrosive
materials in crude.
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Asphaltenes, Carbon Residue and Ash Content Activity 2 E
Significance of TAN & KUOP.
Asphaltenes __________________
u Are polynuclear condensed aromatic hydrocarbons __________________

having high molecular weight __________________
__________________
u These are insoluble in heptane and soluble in Benzene/
__________________
Toluene
__________________
u Asphaltenes and carbon residue indicate the extent to
__________________
which heavy hydrocarbons are present in crude oil.
__________________
Ash Content __________________

__________________
u Metallic constituents concentrate in the ash of the crude
oil
Carbon Residue
It’s a carbonacous residue formed after evaporation
and pyrolysis of the sample. The residue is coke and
determined by
– Conradson residue method ASTM D 189
– Ramsbottom carbon residue ASTM D 624
– Micro-carbon residue method ASTM D 4630
Viscosity
It is a measure of resistance to flow and is an important
parameter for effective desalting. It is also highly dependant
on temperature.
High viscosity crudes need high temperatures for effective

desalting. There is a limit for temperature in desalters
operation.
KUOP
It is a measure of parafinity vis-à-vis aromaticity of crude.
High KUOP is desired for high conversion in FCC, aromatic

molecules cannot be cracked in FCC. They will simply take
a ride through the plant.
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Activity 2 F TAN
What are various crudes
processed in Indian Refineries? TAN is actually Total Acid Number.
Where are Indigenous crude
It is a measure of Naphthenic Acid (NA) contents in crude.
found? What is the sulphur content
of Indian crudes? This leads to corrosion in various sections of the unit. Over
__________________
1,500 known NA species are present in crude.
__________________ All napthenic acids are not corrosive. Latest research

__________________
indicates that TAN is not a complete Corrosion Index.
__________________ TAN with 2.5 may corrode at higher rate than TAN with
__________________ say 6 !
__________________ Detailed metallurgical reviews and monitoring mechanisms
__________________ must be put in place.
__________________
Selection of Crude Oil
__________________
__________________ Technology trends in petroleum refining are driven by the
external forces of product demand, product specifications
(including environmental consideration), feed stock quality
and availability. Crude oil will gradually become heavier and
higher in sulphur content. Refineries, of late, have been
sincerely attempting to produce fuels to comply with stricter
environmental regulations particularly gasoline and diesel
and are in the process of reducing the sulphur levels in
distillates and fuel oil. Attention is now also being paid to
reduce lead and benzene levels in gasoline. Various gasoline
and diesel specifications applicable worldwide are given in
the later part of this chapter.
Crude processed in India are:
1. Indigenous crude oil sources
a. Bombay high and satellite fields
b. North Gujarat and Ankaleshwar crude
c. Assam crudes
d. KG Basin-Rava crude
e. Cauvery Basin crude
All the above crudes are low sulphur =<0.5% wt, low
metal content, poor potential to yield LOBS and
bitumen, and some are waxy in character.
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2. Imported crudes are sourced mostly from: Activity 2 G
What straight run fractions are
a. Gulf Region obtained in Atmospheric
Distillation? And in Vacuum
b. Nigeria Distillation?
c. Malaysia __________________
__________________
d. Australia
__________________
The above crudes are specially selected for production of __________________
Bitumen/LOBS/ATF, beside fuel products.
__________________
These crudes are having varying range of sulphur from low __________________
of high. __________________
Comparison of Crudes __________________

__________________
Comparison of Indian crudes and typical Middle-east crude
__________________
mix for yield and key properties of straight run cuts:-
1. Gases upto 20ºC 4. GAS OIL 250–370ºC
2. Naphtha I.B.P.- 140ºc 5. Vacuum GAS OIL 370–530ºC,
3. KEROSENE 140-250ºC 6. Short Residue 530º, C+.
1 1-2 AROW 5.8% VOL. 0.4 3.8

AROM. 16% Vol NAPH 40.6%
NAPH. 52% VOL 4.4 AROM: 6.6%
2
V.O.N.O. 24.9
COTANE NO. 15.0 VOL
73.7 SMOKE PT. 23
10-1 OCTANE No.
mm AROM. 1:1 %
67.5
VOL F.P.T.-54ºC
SMOKE POINT SMOKE POINT
14mm 27mm
3 Arom. 36% 17.6 DIESEL INDEX 57 19.2 AROM. 15% VOL. 22.3
VOL. POUR POINT +3 F.P.T.48ºC
E.P.T.<60ºC
DIESEL INDEX
DIESEL INDEX KUOP 12.10 67
POUR +POINT 23.9
33 KIN VISC. AT 31.2
POUR POINT 27.1 100º C +6ºC
4
9ºC 8.120 SI
KUOP 12-70
KIN. VISC. AT 18.8
KUOP II-61 ºAPI 13.58 100ºC
KIN. VISC. AT POUR POINT 34.7 405 0St
5 96.9ºC +48
7 0St 27.2 API 16.5
KIN. VISC. AT
100ºC 150(27 0SI CCR 9.92% WI.
POUR POINT + 6.3
CCR 14.77% Wt.
6 ºAPI 3.8 68ºC
N.9
ASSAM CRUDE NORTH GUJARAT GANDHAR+ANKLE-

MIX ºAPI 29.85 CRUDE MIX SWAR (60. 40 VOLT
SULPHUR 0.24% ºAPI 26.83 CRUDE MIX
Wr. POUR POINT SULPHUR 0.17%Wt. ºAPI 46.9
+30ºC WAX POUR POINT+21 SULPHUR 0.041 % Wt.
CONTENT 10.8% WAX CONTENT POUR POINT+27ºC
Wt. 6.8% Wt WAX CONTENT 8.9%
KUOP 11.30 KUOP 12.0 Wt.
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Notes 1.9 2.7 2.1
__________________ ARON 21.3% ARON 4% VOL. AROM 7.3% VOL

VOL. NAPH. 25% OCTANE 10.7
18.6 30.4
OCTANE No. 53.8
__________________ VOL OCTANE NO.61.9
NO. 69-6 SMOKE POINT
__________________ 26mm
SMOKE POINT AROM. 18.6%
__________________ 17mm VOL. F.P.T.56ºC
AROM. 26.9% 20.9 SMOKE POINT 24.7 16.1
__________________ VOL. F. PT. -49ºC 27mm Arom. 16% DIESEL INDEX
Vol,. F. PT57ºC 58
DIESEL INDEX POUR +POINT
__________________ 9ºC
56 DIESEL INDEX 18.1
POUR POINT 24.0 58 21.8 KUOP 11-94
__________________ +3ºC POUR POINT KIN. VISC. AT
12ºC 100ºC
__________________
KUOP 12.37 KIN 5.98 0St 22.5
__________________ VISC. AT 98.9ºC KUOP 12.31 KIN
28.4 15.7
API 7.43
5.36 0St VISC. AT 100ºC
CCR 19.85% Wt.
__________________ 4.83 0St
POUR POINT +
ºAPI 9.51 54ºC
CCR 19.2% Wt. API 16.35, CCR KIN. VISC. AT 30.5
6.2 4.7 100ºC
POUR POINT 10.4 % Wt POUR
+72ºC POINT+ 60ºC 903.650St
BOMBAY HIGH ºAPI NARIMANAM Kuwait+Lt. IRANIAN

39.35 SULPHER CRUDE FOMAN (56: 36: 6 VOL. )
0.17% Wt. POUR ºAPI 47.08 ºAPI 31.1
POINT+ 30ºC WAX SULPHUR 0.085% SULPHUR 2.28% Wt.
CONTENT 10.6% Wt. POUR POINT 0 POUR POIN T(30ºC
Wt. KUOP 11.70 WAX CONTENT WAX CONTENT 1.1%
2.8% Wt. KUOP Wt. KUOP II.98
11.98
Selection of Crude(s) for a Refinery

Based on product demand, type of products, processing
schemes of refineries, metallurgy of existing plant and
equipment, crudes are selected after evaluating detailed
crude Assay Data. Mostly, a mixture of crudes is selected
for a refinery to optimise the cost and meeting products
quality specifications.
Review Questions
1. Describe different characteristics of crudes dealt with
in this unit, their significance and typical values/ units
of measurement.
2. Draw a comparison of indigenous crudes with Typical

Middle East Crude(s) vis-à-vis important specifications
of Petroleum Products.
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3. From which Indian crudes, can you produce Notes
__________________
a. ATF
__________________
b. Bitumen __________________
__________________
c. Lubes
__________________
d. Micro-crystalline wax __________________
e. Good Quality Calcined Petroleum Coke __________________

__________________
__________________
__________________
23
Unit 3 Notes
__________________
__________________
Specifications of Petroleum __________________
Products and Related Tests __________________

__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
Objectives
__________________
__________________
y Understand the specifications of various petroleum products, their
significance and their determination/tests.
y Appreciate crucial specification of HSD & MS from Environmental

Pollution Standpoint & Strategies for meeting stringent norms for
future Euro III/IV, Bharat III/IV.
Specifications
What are Specifications?
Any material which is intended for use in a particular

application should have certain characteristics so that it is
suitable for use in that application. These characteristics are
quantified to make them absolute and also to remove any
ambiguity in the interpretation. These quantified
characteristics are called “specifications”.
Some important tests conducted on petroleum products

and included in specifications:
Flash Point RON Color
Pour Point MON BMCI
Distillation AKI Bromine Number
Copper Corrosion Cetane Number Benzene Content
Silver Corrosion Cetane Index Density
Sulphur Smoke Point Sediment
Viscosity Aniline Point Water
Potential Gum Carbon Residue Weathering Test
Existent Gum Vapour Pressure
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Notes Significance of Tests

__________________
__________________ Flash Point
__________________ It is the minimum temperature at which the sample gives
__________________ sufficient vapour which forms an explosive mixture with air
__________________ giving a flash when a flame is applied to it under conditions
__________________ of the test method.
__________________ Flash point is associated with safety during storage and
__________________ application in some respects. When a product like kerosene
__________________ is stored either at home or at a commercial location, it forms
__________________ vapour above it depending upon the ambient temperature.
If the vapour so formed is sufficient to form an explosive
mixture with air, there would be explosions when a small
naked flame is exposed to it. Each country has it own
legislation with respect to flash point depending upon the
climatic conditions of the country.
Pour Point
When heavy petroleum oils containing wax are allowed
to settle (like in storage tanks), wax separates out from
them making the oil immobile. If the oil does not move,
it cannot be pumped. The temperature at which the
oil becomes immobile (does not move) is termed as
pour point when tested under the conditions of the test
methods.
Distillation
The volatility of an oil is indicated by its distillation
characteristics. Unlike pure compounds, petroleum oils are
mixtures of several hydrocarbons and so will have a boiling
range instead of boiling point. The oil should have suitable
boiling range (volatility) so that it can be used in a particular
application. For example, Motor Gasoline which is used in
spark ignition internal combustion engines, has the following
specifications for distillation:
Recovery upto 70o C 10 to 45% Min
Recovery upto 100o C 40 to 70% Min
Recovery upto 180o C 90% v Min
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UNIT 3 Specifications of Petroleum Products & Related Tests 25
Since the application is in a spark ignition engine, the Notes
fuel should easily vaporise to a sufficient degree so that __________________

when a spark is applied it can ignite. The specification for __________________
recovery at 70 o C is laid to meet this requirement. The __________________
maximum limit of 45% is laid to prevent some other __________________
undesirable effects such as vapour lock. This quality is called __________________
“easy start”. __________________
The specification for recovery at 100oC is set to give power __________________

to engine and take load. __________________
__________________
The specification for recovery at 180oC and final boiling point
__________________
are set to prevent crank case oil dilution and unburnt
hydrocarbon in tail gases (air pollution).
Copper Corrosion
The fuel product comes on contact with metal parts such as
transfer pipe from storage tank, storage tank itself, the
burner in a kerosene stove, stove body itself, storage and
transportation equipment like pumps, storage vessels etc.
If the product is corrosive, it will corrode these parts and
reduces their life. Copper corrosion test indicates whether
the product is corrosive to copper containing alloys or not.
This test is applicable to all fuels.
Silver Corrosion
This test is done for Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF)–Jet A1 Type
Some aircrafts of civil aviation and defence use a silver lining

in the fuel transfer lines. In order to protect this lining, the
fuel should not be corrosive to silver. Hence this test is done
for ATF. This is a requirement for Indian region only. Western
countries and USA do not use this test any more.
Sulphur
Sulphur, besides being corrosive to the fuel systems, is a
pollutant to the air and affects life. Global efforts are being
made to minimise the sulphur content in motor gasoline, high
speed diesel and fuel oils.
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Notes Viscosity
__________________
Viscosity is the resistance to flow. The unit of absolute or
__________________
dynamic viscosity is Poise and that of kinematic viscosity is
__________________
Stoke. Viscosity is an important property for lube oils
__________________
because it gives the lubricating property to the oil. This is
__________________ required to prevent wear and tear in the moving parts of a
__________________ machine on account of metal to metal contact. For fuel oils,
__________________ it gives flow properties which are needed for pump selection
__________________ for transporting.
__________________
Viscosity is measured in several ways. The most common
__________________
are Kinematic Viscosity measured in centi-stokes and Saybolt
Universal Viscosity measured in seconds.
Potential Gum
This test is applicable to motor gasoline which may contain
unsaturated hydrocarbons (olefins). Olefins are oxidised by
atmospheric oxygen to a gummy material which sticks to
the carburetor jet of the vehicle or inlet valve leading to valve
sticking which in turn results in the malfunction of the
engine. This type of gum is characterised by Potential Gum
test. It does not show the exact amount of gum that would
form on storage but gives a directional indication. The unit
of measurement is mg per liter.
Existent Gum
This test is applicable to motor gasoline.
If motor gasoline contains any soluble solid residue, the

residue gets deposited in the carburetor and other parts
after the gasoline is vaporised. Such deposit may clog the
jet and prevent fuel flow due to which the engine stops. That
is why this test is done on MS. The specification is 40 mg per
litre max.
One point should be noted. Some solid material is added to

MS deliberately for some purposes. Example: Dye to identify
the MS from others. These type of residues are excluded
from the specification.
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Octane Number Notes
__________________
It is defined as the per cent volume of iso octane in a mixture
__________________
of iso octane and normal heptane that gives the same
__________________
knocking as that of the fuel when tested under defined
conditions. __________________
__________________
Iso octane is assigned a value of 100 and normal heptane 0
__________________
octane number.
__________________
Normal paraffins have the lowest octane number. Next comes __________________
napthenes followed by iso paraffins, olefins and aromatics __________________
for the same carbon number. However, this is only a general
__________________
rule and may differ in the case of iso paraffins. Some of them
have lower octane numbers than corresponding napthenes
and some other higher octane number depending upon the
branching of the iso paraffin. Similarly Octane numbers of
olefins may also differ slightly as given below:
l n-Hexane 24.8
l Cyclohexane 83
l 2,2 Dimethy 1 Butane 91.8
l 2-Methyl Pentane 73.4
l Hexene-2 90
l Benzene >100
l N-Heptane 0
l Methyl Cyclohexane 75
l 2,3 Dimethyl Pentane 88
l 2 Methyl Hexene-1 92
l Toluene 107
Octane numbers are not truly additive. When used singly,

the hydrocarbons behave in some way and when used in a
mixture, they behave in another way. For example, Toluene
has a RON 107 when it is a single component system. But
when it is mixed with other hydrocarbons, it behaves as if
its octane number is > 120.
Some schools of thought say that in multi-component

systems, like naptha, octane number is additive on weight
percent basis. Some others believe that it is additive on mol.
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Notes per cent basis. In effect, there are always some exceptions
__________________ and some deviations.
__________________
Research Octane Number and Motor Octane Number.
__________________
__________________ These are determined under different conditions of the test.
__________________
Test Condition RON MON
__________________
Engine speed 600 RPM 900 RPM
__________________
__________________ Spark advance 13 o Variable
__________________ Mixture Temp -- 300 o F
__________________
In Take Air Temp 125o F 100 o F
AKI (Anti Knock Index)

It is defined as the average of RON and MON.
AKI = (RON + MON)/2
Anti Knock Index is regarded as more critical for engine

performance than RON alone.
Cetane Number
This test is applicable to diesel fuels which use ignition by
compression.
Cetane number is defined as the per cent volume of n-cetane

in a mixture of n-Cetane and alpha methyl naphthalene that
would give the same knocking as that of the fuel under test.
n-Cetane is assigned a value of 100 and alpha methyl

naphthalene a value of 0.
Alpha methyl naphthalene has some storage stability

problem. It turns red when exposed to air. So, although it is
a primary fuel, a secondary fuel for routine use is also stated
in the test method. This is hepta Methyl Nonane (HMN).
Another consideration for using HMN is its easier
availability.
This test has reverse characteristics of octane number.
Here, normal paraffins have highest cetane number followed

by naphthenes, iso paraffins, olefins and aromatics in general
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but the order may vary depending upon the chain length of Notes
iso paraffins. __________________
__________________
Cetane Index
__________________
It is an alternative to cetane number. It is nearly equal to __________________
cetane number but not an actually determined value required __________________
cetane engine. Cetane index is not applicable to fuels
__________________
containing cetane improves.
__________________
Smoke Point __________________
__________________
Smoke point is defined as the maximum length of the flame
which does not give smoke when tested under prescribed __________________
conditions using the prescribed apparatus.
Smoke point shows the hydrocarbon nature of the fuel.

Paraffins have high smoke points followed by naphthenes
and then by aromatics.
The test is applicable primarily to kerosene. The main

purpose of kerosene is for use in lantern. If the kerosene
gives smoke when it burns, it gives less light. As the flame
size increases the light given out would also be more. But if
the kerosene starts giving smoke, the height of the flame
has no meaning. So the higher the flame without smoke, the
better.
Smoke point is related to hydrogen content of the fuel. The

higher the hydrogen content, the higher will be the smoke
point. Paraffins contain highest hydrogen content for the
same carbon number. So the smoke point of paraffins is
highest.
The specification of smoke point for kerosene in our country

is 18 mm minimum.
Aniline Point
Aniline point is the minimum temperature at which equal
volumes of sample and aniline are miscible.
Aniline point gives the hydrocarbon nature of the oil.

Aromatic hydrocarbons have lower aniline points and
paraffinic hydrocarbons have higher aniline points.
Naphthenic hydrocarbons have intermediate aniline points.
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Notes Aniline point in combination with density /specific gravity/

__________________ API gravity gives a quick idea of some important properties
__________________ like Diesel Index, Aniline-Gravity Product which are
__________________ important properties for diesel and ATF. Aniline gravity
__________________ product is an alternative to calorific value.
__________________
Carbon Residue
__________________
__________________ Every oil, when it burns, forms a carbon deposit which is
__________________ very difficult to burn. This carbon deposits on burner tips
__________________
chocking the orifices due to which the flow of oil stops and
burner tip needs to be cleaned. If this carbon deposit is more,
__________________
the burner tips have to be cleaned more frequently.
Carbon residue test gives an indication of the amount

of carbon that would form when the oil is pyrolysed and
burned.
There are two methods to determine carbon residue:
1. Ramsbottom Carbon Residue (RCR)
2. Conradson Carbon Residue (CCR)
Vapor Pressure
This is an indirect method of estimating most extreme low
temperatures under which initial vaporisation can be
expected to take place. It can be considered as a semi
quantitative measure of the amount of most volatile material
present in the product. It can also be used as a means of
predicting the maximum pressures which may be
experienced at fuel tank temperatures.
Colour
Two types of tests are applicable to petroleum products
1) Saybolt colour and 2) ASTM Color. The former is
applicable to white oils like kerosene, naphtha, MTO etc and
the other is applicable to diesel, vacuum distillates etc. The
colour gives an indication of the degree of refining or
contamination with foreign bodies.
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BMCI (Bureau of Mines Correlation Index) Notes
__________________
BMCI is an indication of predominant nature of
__________________
Hydrocarbons in a product.
__________________
All normal paraffins have BMCI zero or less than zero. __________________
A high BMCI indicates predominantly Aromatic nature. __________________

__________________
A low BMCI indicates predominantly paraffinic nature.
__________________
Intermediate BMCI indicates mixtures of both and also __________________
naphthenic nature. __________________
__________________
BMCI more than 100 indicates presence of condensed rings.
BMCI of some hydrocarbons

Hydrocarbon BMCI
N Paraffins 0 or < 0
Iso Paraffins < 15
Cyclohexane 50
Benzene 99
BMCI is a calculated value form density and 50% boiling

point. It is defined as,
BMCI – (48640 / K) + (473.7 * G) – 456.8
Where,
o
K = 50% Boiling Point in K
0
G = Specific Gravity @ 20 / 4o C
There are graphical correlations between BMCI and

Viscosity and Density also which are nearly equal to the
calculated value.
Bromine Number
Bromine number is defined as the grams of bromine that
react with 100 grams of the sample.
Bromine number gives the olefinity of the sample.

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Notes Olefins react with bromine giving additional products. Each

__________________ double bond absorbs two atoms of bromine.
__________________
Example:
__________________
__________________ CH3CH2CH2CH2CH = CH2+Br2 CH3CH2CH2CH2CHBRCH2Br
__________________
Benzene Content
__________________
__________________ This test is applicable to motor gasoline.
__________________ Benzene is carcinogenic (causes cancer). Its limit in MS is
__________________ recognised by all countries. The specification for benzene in
__________________ India is 5%v for general supplies and 1% v max for supplies
to NCR.
Density
Petroleum products are liquids. They are sold on a
volume basis but the custody transfers are effected on
weight basis. Density is required for mass balance calculation
and is also useful for several correlations which indicate the
hydrocarbon nature and other properties.
Some of such correlations are, BMCI, Kuop, VGC.
Weathering Test
This test is applicable to LPG. It indicates the amount of
non vaporisable matter in LPG.
Specifications of Petroleum Products

LPG (IS 4796)
Test Unit Specification

Density kg / M3 Report
o
Volatility (95% Ev Temp) C +2 Max
o
Vapor Pressure @ 38 C kg / cm2 7 Max
o
Copper Corrosion @ 38 C 1 Max
Sulphur %w 0.05 Max
Odor -- Identifiable
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Motor Gasoline (IS 2796 - 2000) Activity 3 A
Test Unit Method Requirement

What are different Petroleum
Products?
Color -- Visual Orange
Density @ 15 C
o
kg / M3 P:16 710 770 __________________
Distillation __________________
o
Recover @ 70 C % v P : 18 10 45
o
__________________
Recovery @ 100 C % v 40 70
Recovery @ 180 C % v
o
90 min
__________________
o
Final Boiling Point C 215 max __________________
Research Octane Number P:27 88 min
__________________
Anti Knock Index P:26 & P:27 84 min
__________________
Existent Gum gm/M3 P:29 40 max
(Solvent washed) __________________
Potential Gum gm/M3 p:147 50 max __________________
Sulphur %w P:34 0.1 max
__________________
Lead as Pb gm/1 ASTM D 5059 0.013
Reid Vapor Pressure KPa P:39 35-60
VLI Summer Winter --- 750 max
950 max
Benzene %v ASTMD 3606 5 max
1max for NCR
Cu Corrosion P:15 1
o
@ 50 C for 3 Hrs
Water Tolerance
Summer 10
Winter 0
Oxygenates % v ASTM D 4815-89 15 max
NB: 1) MFA containing Phosphorus compounds should not be used
2) Potential Gum before doping MFA
PC Naphtha
Appearance Visual Clear and Bright

Color Visual Colourless
Density @ 15 C kg/M3 P:16 To Report
Distillation IBP C P:18 28 min
FBP C 160
Total Paraffins %w ASTM D 5443 74 min
Normal Paraffins %w ASTMD 5443 36 min
Iso/Nor Paraffin Ratio 1.05 max
n C6 %w To Report
nC7 %w To Report
Contd...
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Activity 3 B Aromatics %w 10 max

What are the key specifications of Olefins %w P:23 1 max
Motor Spirit, LPG, HSD,
Petrochemical Naphtha, ATF? Total Sulphur ppm w P:34 B 100 – 250
How do these affect performance? Mercaptan Sulphur ppm w P:109 150 max
__________________ Reid Vapor Pressure Kpa P:39 To Report
__________________ @ 38ºC
__________________ Chlorides ppm w ASTMD 4929 5 max
__________________ Lead ppb w P:82 100 max
Arsenic and Mercury ICP To Report

__________________
__________________ Superior Kerosene (IS 1459 - 1974)
__________________
__________________
Acidity (Inorganic) mgKOH/gm P:2 Nil
__________________
Burning Quality
__________________ Char value mg/kg Oil P:5 20 max
Bloom on chimney not darker than grey
Color (Saybolt) Undyed Units P:14 +10
Dyed Blue
Copper Corrosion
@ 50 o C for 3 Hrs P:15 Not worse than 1
Density @ 15 o C kg/M3 P:16 To Report
Distillation
o
Recovery @ 200 C %v P:18 20 min
o
Final Boiling Point C 300 max
o
Flash Point Abel C P:20 35 min
Smoke Point mm P:31 18 min
Total Sulphur %w P:34 0.25 max
Aviation Turbine Fuel (IS 1571 - 1992)

Appearance -- Visual Bright, Free from solid

matter and visually
undissolved water.
Acidity Total mg KOH/gm P:113 0.015 max
Aromatics %v P:23 25 max
Olefins %v P:23 5.0 max
Total sulphur %w P:34B 0.30 max
Mercaptan sulphur %w P:109 0.003
Contd...
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Distillation Notes
10 % v Recovered at degree C P:18 205 max __________________

50 % v Recorded at degree C P:18 Report __________________
90 % Recovered at degree C P:18 Report __________________
Final Boiling Point degree C P:18 300 max __________________
Flash Point degree C P:20B 38 min __________________
Density @ 15 C kg/M3 P:16 0.775 to 0.840 __________________
Freezing Point degree C P:11 Minus 47 max
__________________
Kinematic Viscosity
__________________
@ Minus 20 C cST P:25 8.0 max
__________________
Aniline Gravity Product --- P:3 4800
__________________
Smoke point mm ISO 3014 25 min
Naphthalenes %v ISO 3014 3.0 max
Copper Corrosion
% 100 degree C for 2 Hrs --- P:15 1 max
Silver Corrosion @ 50
degree C for 4 Hours --- IP 227 1 max
Thermal Stability
Pressure Differential mm P:97 25 max
Tube Rating Visual Visual 3 max No Peacock
Or abnormal color
deposits
Existent Gum mg/100 ml P:29 7 max
MSEP --- P:142 85 min
Electrical Conductivity ps/M IP 274 50 to 450
Lubricity mm ASTMD 5001 Report
High Speed Diesel (IS 1460 2000)

Acidity Inorganic mg KOH/Gm P:2 Nil

Acidity Total mg KOH / Gm P:2 0.2 max
Aah %w P:4 0.01
RCR %w P:8 0.3 (on 10 % residue)
Cetane Number OR --- P:9 48 min
Cetane Index --- ASTMD 4737 46 min
Pour Point --- P:10 3 Winter
Copper Corrosion
@ 100 degree C for 3 Hrs - - - P;15 1 max
Density @ 15 degree C kg/M3 P:16 820-860
Contd...
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Notes Distillation
__________________ Recovery at 350 degree C % v P:18 85 min
__________________ Recovery at 370 degree C % v P:18 95 min
__________________ Flash Point degree C P:20 35 min
__________________ Kin Viscosity @ 40 deg C cST P:25 2.0 to 5.0
__________________ Sediments %w P:30 0.05
__________________ Total Sulphur %w P:33 0.25

Water Content %v P:40 0.05 max
__________________
CFPP deg C P:110 6 Winter
__________________
18 Summer
__________________
Total Sediments mg/100 ml UOP 413 1.5 max
__________________
Lubricity HFRR Scardia
Micron at 60o C, 400 Proposed
Light Diesel Oil (IS 1460 - 2000)

Test Unit Method Requirement PSS
Acidity Inorganic mg KOH/Gm P:2 Nil ---

Ash %w P:4 0.02 max 0.005 max
RCR on whole sample %w P:8 1.5 max 0.3 max
Pour Point deg C P:10 12 Summer 0 max
21 Winter 0 max
Copper Corrosion
@ 100 deg C for 3 Hrs --- P:15 2 max 1b
Flash Point (PMCC) deg C P:21 66 min 66 min
Kin Vis @ 40 deg C cST P:25 2.5 to 15.7 2.5 to 5.0
Sediments %w P:30 0.1 Max 0.05 max
Density @ 15 deg C kg / M3 P:16 Report 910 max
Total Sulphur %w P:33 1.8 max 0.35 max
Water content %v P:40 0.25 max 0.05 max
Petroleum Coke (IS 8402 - 1994)

Test Unit Method Requirement PSS
Moisture as Received %w P: 132 10 max 8 max
Moisture after
Initial drying %w P: 132 2.0 max ---
Ash on Dry basis %w P: 126 0.45 max 1.0 Max
Volatile Matter %w P: 134 11 max 8 max
Contd...
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Density (Dry) kg/ M3 P: 133 Report 560 min Notes
Fixed Carbon
__________________
(On Dry Basis) %w Calculation 85 min 88 min __________________
Total Sulphur %w P: 33 2.5 max 7.0 max __________________

Trace metals __________________
Silicon as Si ppm w UOP 389 Report 150 max __________________
Iron as Fe ppm w 150 max __________________
Vanadium as V ppm w 1600 max __________________
Nickel as Ni ppm w 400 max __________________
Hardgrove Grindability
__________________
Index ASTMD 4097 50 MIN
__________________
GCV Kcal/ Kg --- 8000 min………….
Properties of Petroleum Products and their

Significance
Gasoline
Effect of Chemical Composition on Gasoline Quality
Octane number is the most important property of motor
gasoline. Composition of motor gasoline profoundly affects
its performance in the engine and equally controls its
behaviour under storage and handling.These are described
below:
Paraffins (Cn H2n+2)

– Thermally and chemically most stable compounds.
– Have poor octane number
– Increasing the chain length reduces the octane number
– Knock resistance increases with branching
– Adding methyl groups (CH3) to the side chain in the

central position increases the knock resistance
Olefins (Cn H2n)

– Oxidation and thermal stability is poor in general
– More knock resistance than their corresponding

saturated compounds.
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Notes Cycloparaffins (CnH2n)

__________________
– Poorer knock resistance than corresponding aromatics
__________________
__________________ – Lengthening of side chain decreases knock resistance
__________________
– Branching of side chain is beneficial.
__________________
__________________ Aromatics (CnH2n-6CnH2n-12 etc)
__________________
– Aromatics have excellent knock resistance qualities.
__________________
__________________ Properties of Gasoline and Oxygenated Compounds
__________________ Property Methanol Ethanol Isopropyl Tertiary MTBE Gasline
Alcohol Butyl Alcohol
Chem. CH30H C2H5OH C3H70H C4H90H C4H9OCH3 C8H15 (Av.)
Formulae
Mol. Wt. 32 46 60 74 88 111

Oxygen 50 35 27 22 18 0
Cont. % mass
B.P.ºC 65 78.3 82.2 82.8 55 30-20

Stoichio- 6.4 9.0 10.3 11.1 11.7 14.6
Meteric A/F
Lat. Heat of 3300 2600 2100 1700 900 800

Vap. Btu/Gal (11.8) (9.3) (7.5) (6.1) (3.2) (2.9)
(J/lit)
Net Heat 21 28 32 35 35 43
comb. MJ/Kg
Solubi- ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ 4.8 Trace

Solubility in
water, g/100g
water
RON 107 108 112 113 116 87-93
MON
- - - - 101 82-87
Gasoline Properties Needed for Acceptable Performance

Fuel Performance Required Property Controlled for Automotive Gasoline
Handling and Storage Volatility Vapour Pressure Contamination
(Water/Sediments/Gum)
Copper Corrosion
Combustion Octane Number Volatility/Distillation Range Gravity
Engine Cleanliness Hydrocarbon Compostion

Sulphur
Existent Gum
Oxidation Stability
Combustion and Knock

Before combustion, air and fuel is heated up in combustion
chamber, there is an induction period before normal hot
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flame occurs. During this induction period, oxidation of fuel Notes
takes place with the formation of intermediate products such __________________

as peroxides, aldehydes and peracids. Formation of __________________
peroxides, aldehydes and peracids prevents knock due to __________________
their ability to dissociate and promote such type of __________________
intermediate reactions. __________________
__________________
Knocking Tendency
__________________
High Anti-knock Value: Aromatics, Isoparaffins (highly __________________
branched) __________________
Intermediate Anti-knock Value: Mixed parffins e.g. __________________

isoparaffins with little branching, Naphthenes.
Low Anti-knock Value: Paraffins
Combustion Chamber Deposits

Deposits are formed by
– Incomplete Combustion
– Partial Oxidation
– Cracking
– Condensation and Polymerisation of fuel and

lubricants
– May contain nonvolatile reaction products of

additives
Deposits can lead to:
– Pre-ignition
Peak pressure and temperature will increase due to

apparent increase in compression ratio and poor heat
transfer due to heat insulation effect.
– Loss of power due to reduction in volumetric efficiency
– Exhaust valve corrosion
– Spark plug fouling

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Notes Volatility
__________________
__________________
Volatility of gasoline is its tendency to pass from liquid to
vapour phase. Volatility influences:
__________________
__________________ – Ease of starting
__________________
– Rate of warm up and acceleration
__________________
__________________ – Tendency to vapour lock
__________________ – Carburettor icing
__________________
__________________
– Crankase dilation
– Fuel economy
Ease of Starting
For a cold engine start, enough gasoline in the intake air
must be evaporated. Ease of starting depends on:
y Fuel volatility
y Engine design
y Cranking speed
y Engine oil viscosity
Warm Up and Acceleration

It depends on:
1. Fuel volatility and ambient temperature
2. Provision for thermostatical controlled hot spots. Warm

up is mainly a cold weather problem.
Vapour Lock and Percolation

Vapour lock is a function of :
1. Volatility characteristics of fuel
2. Fuel requirement of engine at the moment
3. Ability of fuel pump to handle the vapour

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4. The temperature and pressure in the fuel system Notes
__________________
5. The temperature of ambient air, underbonet
__________________
temperature and barometric pressure.
__________________
Measurement of Volatility __________________
__________________
1. ASTM D-86 Distillation
__________________
Significant temperatures are __________________
– Initial boiling point __________________

__________________
– Temperature corresponding to 10% Vol.
__________________
– FBP
– Non-volatile residue left in the flask.
2. Reid vapour pressure (RVP)
Controls the volatility due to lighter ends.

TYPICAL VALUES OF VAPOUR PRESSURES
(RVP)
2
K g /c m PSI KPa
P ro p a n e 1 4 .1 200 1 3 8 2 .8
B u ta n e 5 .6 80 5 4 9 .2
M o to r G a s o lin e 0 .7 10 6 8 .6
3. Vapour lock index (VLI)

10 RVP+ E 70
Gives better indication of vapor locking.
Carburetor Icing
It occurs due to following:
– Stoppage of the fuel flow due to clogging of the jetice
– Formation of ice on the walls of carburetor ventenary

which causes the engine to stall due to over-rich fuel/
air mixture
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Activity 3 C – High volatility of fuel

How is gum formed in motor spirit,
what is its impact and how is it – Cold and humid climate are favorable for icing.
overcome?
__________________ Remedial Measures
__________________ – Control of fuel volatility
__________________
– Providing heating of carburetor body or the intake air,
__________________
particularly during warm up period
__________________
__________________ – Providing greater throttle opening during starting
__________________
– By incorporation of anti-icing agents
__________________
l Anti-freeze type
__________________
__________________ l Surface active agents
Oxidation Stability
Gum formation takes place in storage due to oxidation/
polymerisation reaction undergone by the unsaturated
hydrocarbons and it accelerates at higher temperatures.
Gum is a rubber like resinous material and is insoluble in

later stage of formation. Sulphur and nitrogen compounds
also take part in these reactions
Gum formation is influenced by storage conditions,

temperature, access of air and light, and catalysts
particularly traces of copper.
Impact of Gum Formation

y May cause intake valve sticking due to deposition of
Gum, and may lead to valve burning
y May cause malfunctioning of carburetor float or impair

the functioning of throttle
y Deposits formed in the intake may restrict engine

breathing and reduce the efficiency of hot spots resulting
in increased warm up period
y It can lead to increased sludge and varnish deposits in

the engine.
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Sulphur Compounds and Corrosiveness: Notes
__________________
Most of the sulphur compounds are removed in the
__________________
manufacturing processes. If these H2S and COS are mainly
__________________
corrosive and RSH is distinctively unpleasant.
__________________
Sulphur, on oxidation, forms oxides of sulphur which react __________________
with water to form sulphuric acid. __________________
A direct result of leakage of unburnt fuel can be corrosion of __________________
engine parts. __________________

__________________
Stringent specifications are required to be followed due to
__________________
environmental considerations.
Automotive industry requirement for meeting Euro III/

IV emission standards for Motor Gasoline.
RON MON
89 79 to continue for old cars
91 81 to be widely available
93 83 to continue for high CR cars
Benzene content 1% Max
Aromatics 40% Max
Olefins 25% Max
Lead Content 0.005% Max
Sulphur Content 0.05% Max
Oxygen Content 2.70 Max
Diesel Fuels
BIS Grades of Diesel Fuels
There are three grades of diesel:
– High Speed Diesel (HSD)
– Light Diesel Oil (LDO)
– Marine Diesel (MD)

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Notes HSD Blending Components (Typical)

__________________ B0ILING RANGE ºC CETANE NUMBER
__________________
Heavy SR Naphtha 148-204 28-42
__________________ Kerosine 204-260 45-50
__________________ LT. SR Gas Oil 250-315 45-50
__________________ Heavy Gas Oil 315-350 50-55
LT. Cycle Oil 204-343 15-20

__________________
Hydro Cracker Go 204-343 50-60
__________________
Coker Kerosene 204-340 15-20
__________________
__________________ FUEL Performance Requirements
__________________
Performance Property Control characteristics
Handling & Storage - Volatility - Flash Points

- Flow - Viscosity
- Corrosive constituents - Water & sediments
- Contaminants - Copper corrosion
- Cloud/Pour pt.
- CFPP
Combustion - Ignition Delay - Cetane Number

- Volatility - Distillation Range
- Heat content - Gravity
- Cloud & Pour Point
Cleanliness During - Heavier constituents Carbon Residue on 10%, Bottom Ash

Use Content, Sulphur Content, Stability
- Metals
Exhaust Emission Standards
- Corrosive constituents
Effect of Diesel Fuel Hydrocarbon Type Composition on its

Quality
Paraffins
– Have the best combustion characteristics and highest
cetane numbers
– With molecular weight of n-parrafins, cetane number
increases
– Isoparaffins have lower cetane numbers than the
paraffins of same carbon numbers. With branching
cetane number is lowered.
Olefins
– Olefins have lower cetane numbers than paraffins of
corresponding structures and follow similar rules of
branching
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– Presence of olefins gives rise to poor oxidation Notes
stability. __________________
__________________
Naphthenes
__________________
– Naphthenes follow olefins in cetane quality but are a __________________
good deal higher than aromatics. __________________
__________________
Aromatics
__________________
– Impart lowest cetane number and most important factor __________________
controlling the cetane number of cracked gas oil __________________
– Aromatics ring condensation and the side chain __________________

branching on rings that cause molecular configuration
of lowest cetane numbers.
Ignition Quality
This is the most important property that controls combustion
process. It is measured as a cetane number which is a
measure of ignition delay and is controlled by
– Fuel composition and characteristics
– Engine design
– Fuel and air inlet temperature
– Degree of atomisation.
As a result of abnormal ignition delay, large quantities of oil

are gathered in the combustion chamber. Spontaneous
burning and detonation of this surplus fuel in combustion
chamber causes rough ignition which is termed as diesel
knock or cetane knocking.
Cetane Improver Additives

Base Diesel Cetane No. 44
Additive dozes 1.5% Increase in CN
Isoproyle Nitrate 17
n – Amyl Nitrate 23
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Notes Cyclohexyl Nitrate 22

__________________
Octyl Nitrate 19
__________________
__________________ Flow Properties
__________________
__________________
Viscosity
__________________ u Viscosity of diesel fuel has an effect on handling of the
__________________ fuel by pump and injector system.
__________________
u High viscosities can cause
__________________
__________________
– Poor atomisation
– Large droplets
– High spray jet penetration
u Low viscosity results in a spray which is too soft and

thus does not penetrate sufficiently. As a result
combustion is impaired and power economy is
decreased.
u Lubricating oil properties of such fuels are usually poor
u HSD viscosity range is generally 2.0 to 5.0 cst.
u Heavy distillates, when used as diesel fuel, are generally

preheated.
Cloud Point
u Congealing wax settles out and blocks fuel system line
and filters.
u The temperature at which precipitation occurs depends

on the composition and boiling range of the fuel.
u Cloud point indicates the temperature at which waxes

start precipitating.
Cold Filter Plugging Point (CFPP)

u Cloud point being a static test does not truly represent
actual running conditions.
u CFPP is defined as highest temperature expressed as

a multiple of 1 o C at which the fuel when cooled
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under prescribed conditions will not flow through a Notes
filter or requires more than 60 sec for 20 ml to pass __________________
through. __________________
__________________
Pour Point
__________________
u Pour point gives a useful guide to the lowest __________________
temperature at which the fuel can be cooled with setting. __________________
__________________
Cleanliness in Use
__________________
Carbon Residue __________________
__________________
u Gives some indication of coke forming / deposit forming
tendencies in the engine.
u Deposits are mainly carbonaceous matter, ash,

resins etc.
u Type of deposits is also an important factor. Hard

abrasive deposits can do more harm than soft fluffy
deposits.
u The test can also be used to detect contamination by

heavy residues.
u Maintenance life and period of over-haul mainly

depends on deposit control.
Ash Content
u Indicates the presence of small quantities of metallic
soap or volatile porphyrines.
u Unburned metallic constituents have abrasive action

and cause wear by adversely affecting the nature of
deposits.
Water and Sediments

u These may come into the fuel through contamination
during storage and handling.
u They can cause clogging of filters.
u Sediments cause wear and create deposits both in the

injection system and engine itself.
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Notes Sediment and Gum Forming Reactions (Diesel Fuel

__________________ Stability)
__________________
1. Oxidative Gum Reactions
__________________
__________________ Alkenee + Oxygen ….. Gum
__________________ Reaction time ….. Weeks to months
__________________
2. Acid – Base Reactions
__________________
__________________ Organic acid + Basic Nitrogen …… Sediments
__________________ Reaction Time …… Hours to weeks
__________________
3. Esterification reactions
Aromatic Hydrocarbons + Hetrocylic Nitrogen +

Benzothiols
Multi-step Process …… Sediments
Reaction Time ….. Weeks to months
These are more predominant in diesel fuel instability.
Corrosive Constituents
Sulphur Content
u Strict emission regulations require stringent sulphur
specifications
u Due to high sulphur, combustion products corrode and

also contribute to deposit formation.
u Low speed diesel engines can tolerate more sulphur,

because
– They are large in size and are stationary
– They are high power output type
– They run under relatively constant speed and load

conditions
– Their operating temperatures, cooling water and

combustion zone temperatures tend to remain at
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an equilibrium rather than to fluctuate between Notes
high and low. __________________

__________________
Tests carried out __________________
u Estimation of sulphur content __________________

__________________
u Copper strip corrosion test.
__________________
Acid value __________________
__________________
u Total and Inorganic
__________________
u Potentiometeric Acid/Base titration __________________
Residual Fuels Oils

Changes in quality of fuel oils in Indian refineries are
due to:
u Frequent changes in crude quality and blend ratios
u Intake of more of heavy crudes
u Introduction of various secondary conversion processes

for maximisation of middle distillates.
Components of Residual Fuel Oils

u Long residue
u Short residue
u Heavy cycle oil, clarified oil from FCC
u Hydrocracker bottoms
u Visbroken products
u TAR from thermal conversion process
u Slop
Uses
u Steam boilers
u Industrial applications requiring heat
u Gas turbines
u Diesel engines
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Activity 3 D Summary of Fireside Problems Related to Fuel Quality

Effect of metals in furnace oil?
__________________ Problems Causes Solutions
__________________ Plugging of fuel lines Oxidation of the fuel to Addition of inhibitors and
strainer and burner tips produce acid and sludge sludge dispersants
__________________
Fuel system corrosion Acidic, sulphur Application of corrosion
__________________ compounds, water, sludge inhibitors
__________________ High temperature fouling & Na, V in fuel form low - magnesium additives
corrosion melting point sulphated
__________________ ash - reduce excess air
- combination of both
__________________
__________________
Effect of Sulphur
__________________
__________________ u Raises dew point of fuel gases
u Increases formation of sulphur deposits in boiler

passages, economiser, air–preheater and chimney
u Reduces efficiency by reducing permissible temperature
u Accelerates formation of gum and sediments during

storage
u Corrosion of process and plant equipment
u Sulphur pick by product.
Effect of Metals
u Vanadium is a major metallic impurity in residual fuel
oil. Causes corrosion in high temperature zone.
u Sodium is recognised as a potential corrosion problem.
u In combustion,
Na converts to Na2O + Na2SO4
V converts to V2O5 + V2O4

® Na2 V2O5, Na2 V2O4 5V2O5
(Low melting ash deposits)
u Other ash deposits are SiO2, AI2O3, Fe2O3
NaAIO2 has high melting point (3272 oF). It causes metal

spalling or breaking off of pieces of refractory due to its high
thermal expansion.
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Review Questions Notes
__________________
1. What is the significance of following tests and to what
__________________
petroleum product these are related:
__________________
- Flash point __________________
- Distillation __________________
__________________
- Smoke point
__________________
- Octane number
__________________
- Cetane number __________________
- Viscosity __________________
- Silver corrosion
- BMCI
- Weathering test
- Copper corrosion
- Vapour pressure
2. What specifications for Motor Spirit and HSD are

related to environmental pollution? What are the limits
for these specifications for Euro III / IV standards?
3. What strategies are being adopted to improve these

specifications to desired ones from the present values?
What would be the impact on cost of production? (Refer
Bibliography)
4. What streams of Process Plants in a Refinery are

utilised to produce HSD, MS, LPG and PC Naphtha?
(Refer Unit 4 & Bibliography).
53
Unit 4 Notes
__________________
Integrated Refinery and

__________________
__________________
Petrochemical Plants __________________

__________________
__________________
__________________
Objectives __________________
After studying the unit, the learner will be able to: __________________
__________________
y Understand the functioning of various process plants in a refinery
and their integration with one another.
y Give insight into the feeds composition of various process plants

for production of finished products.
y Give an overview of various off-site facilities in a Refinery.
Now a days, to minimise processing cost and optimise product

distribution, emphasis is laid on the following:
1. Economies of scale – Minimum 9-12 MMTPA refining

capacity.
2. Refining and petrochemical plants are integrated.
3. Feedstock flexibility – To utilise low cost crudes.
4. Supply chain optimisation from crude to products,

provides faster delivery and at lower cost.
A typical integrated refinery and petrochemical plant set

up is shown in attached block flow diagram. (Fig. 4.1)
Crude is normally received by tankers or pipelines into crude

tanks and allowed to settle for separation of water and
sludge. Then it is taken to Crude Distillation Unit (CDU)
which operates at atmospheric pressure for fractionation
into Gas, LPG, Naphtha, ATF, Kerosene, MTO, Diesel, Jute
Batching Oil (JBO) and Reduced Crude Oil (RCO). RCO is
fractionated in Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU) to get VGO
and raw lube cuts. The raw streams from CDU are treated
in Merox, Hydrotreatment, Reforming, Isomerisation and
Fluid Catalytic Cracking plants to obtain components of
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Notes
__________________
Naphtha
__________________
Kerosen
Kerosene
__________________
Petro
Gasolene
__________________ Diesel
__________________
LPG
__________________ CRUDE CRUDE CDU/
TANKS VDU FCC Aro Paraxylene
__________________
Propylene
PP Polypropelene
__________________ Coker
MPP Power
__________________ Sulfur
__________________
FIGURE 4.1 INTEGRATED REFINERY AND PETROCHEMICAL BLOCK
DIAGRAM
finished saleable products. VGO is treated in FCCU to get

LPG, Propylene, Petrochemical feedstocks and components
for motor spirit and diesel. Raw lube cuts are treated for
removal of aromatics and wax and are hydrotreated to get
lube oil base stock. The short residue obtained from VDU
fractionator bottom is partly treated in coker unit to get
lighter value added products alongwith raw petroleum coke.
Vacuum residue can also be treated to extract out
Deasphalted Oil (DAO) and the residue left is asphalt. DAO
is treated in aromatic extraction unit, dewaxing unit and
hydrofinishing unit to obtain bright stock which is used for
Lube oils and grease manufacture. Asphalt and vacuum
residue can also be utilised for production of bitumen or as
fuel for furnaces and boilers. From FCCU, olefins, propylene,
various aromatics and naphthas are obtained which are used
as raw materials for polypropylene and aromatic
petrochemical plant. The Raw Petroleum Coke (RPC) is used
for generation of power and calcined petroleum coke. Sulphur
present in crude and various streams is converted to H 2S
during processing. In Sulphur plant, it is converted to
elemental sulphur which is sold as by-product. This also helps
in environmental protection. Hydrogen plant is installed to
produce hydrogen for meeting the requirement of various
Hydrotreatment processes.
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UNIT 4 Integrated Refinery and Petrochemical Plants 55
Crude Distillation Notes
__________________
Brief process descriptions have been provided (please refer
__________________
block flow diagram of CDU, VDU and SGU). This part has
__________________
three main sections.
__________________
1. Desalting
__________________
2. Distillation-Atmospheric & Vacuum __________________
__________________
3. Saturated Gas Concentration Unit (SGU)
__________________
Lean Gas
Other streams
from other limits
LPG to Marox
__________________
S
G
C Naptha to
__________________
Hydrotreater
Atm LK/ATF
F
u osp
Crude in Desalter heri
r
Flash n c HK
Drum a Col.
c
e Diesel
Preheat 1 Water in Brine Out Preheat 2 Preheat 3
JBO
LVGO
V
Fumace a HVGO
c. TO FCC Lube
C distillates
o
l. Vacuum
Residue to
Belayed Coker/
Bitumen.
FIGURE 4.2 BLOCK FLOW DIAGRAM OF CDU/VDU/SGU
FIGURE 4.3 CRUDE AND VACCUM DISTILLATION UNIT IN A REFINERY

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Notes Desalting
__________________
The crude oil is contaminated with various impurities–
__________________
mainly salts of Ca, Mg, Na, CI, SO4, etc. These salts, however,
__________________ in small proportions in crude, can cause severe corrosion in
__________________ crude units, particularly in the overhead section. Several
__________________ refineries worldwide have faced emergency shutdowns or
__________________ have had to release hydrocarbons due to corrosion and
__________________
material failures. Hence, it is important to remove the salts
from crude prior to distillation. The desalters are designed
__________________
for 99% salt removal and reach less than 1 ptb (part per
__________________
thousand barrels) in desalted crude.
__________________
Crude oil received from tank farm is heated from 30 to 140-
150ºC in cold preheat trains. This is done by recovering heat
from outgoing products streams from the unit. This prepares
crude for efficient desalting. Then it is passed through a
desalter after being mixed with de-emulsifier and water
thru a mixer valve. In the desalter, crude passes through
high electric field. The salt dissolved in water settles at the
bottom as brine and desalted crude with less than one parts
per thousand barrel comes out from the top of the vessel.
Separation of water containing salt is enhanced by de-
emulsifier. Desalters remove salts, sludge and mud from
crude to avoid corrosion and fouling in exchangers columns
and downstream equipment.
Distillation Atmospheric & Vacuum

The desalted crude is then heated from 140º to 190º C at 25
Kg/a2 pressure by heating with a heavier hot stream. Then
it is taken to the flash drum. From the top we get lighter
components which directly go to the crude column. The
flashed crude is passed through hot preheat exchangers and
further heated from 190°C to 250–260°C. The purpose of hot
preheat train is to recover heat from pump arounds to reduce
furnace duty. Furnace provides required heat for
fractionation in atmospheric column and crude is heated upto
385°C.
The heated crude is fractionated in atmospheric distillation

column of CDU. The fractions below 165°C are withdrawn
as column overheads and sent to SGU. Here mainly gases,
LPG and FRN are separated. Heavies boiling at more than
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386º C are reheated under vacuum condition (to avoid Notes
cracking) and fractionated in vacuum column of VDU. __________________
__________________
Besides the straight run products such as LPG, Naphtha,
LK, HK and Diesel, the other distillation products are __________________
intermediates viz. (1) Gas Oil (HAGO+LVGO+HVGO) which __________________

become feedstock for FCC after treatment in VGOHT and __________________
(2) VR which becomes feedstock for delayed coker. The LPG __________________
is sent to LPG Merox unit for treatment before sending to __________________
RTF. The FRN is directly sent to the HNUU in the aromatics
__________________
complex. The Light Kero (LK) fraction is routed as SKO to
__________________
RTF directly or via Kero Merox unit as ATF. The Heavy Kero
(HK) fraction is blended with diesel fraction. The diesel __________________
fractions can be routed to DHT or RTF as required.
Saturated Gas Concentration (SGU)

The overhead liquid and gases from CDU, reformer and
hydrotreaters of petro-chemical complex are passed through
this plant to separate into following fractions:
1. Gases (C 1+C 2 ) for burning into furnaces or as

petrochemical feedstock after H2S is removed in Amine
Treating Unit.
2. LPG (C 3+C 4) for domestic and industrial use after

removal of Mercaptanes in Merox Unit.
3. Naptha (C 5 to 165ºC) for sending to fertilizer or

petrochemicals plants as feedstock.
The typical streams obtained from crude oil by Atmospheric

and Vacuum distillation are given in the following table:
% of crude input Cut range deg C

Fuel Gas 0.01 to 0.03% < C2s
LPG 1.0 to 1.5% C3–C4s
FRN 11 to 14% C5s to 16s
LK / ATF 10 to 11% 165 – 227
HK 6 to 7% 227 – 270
Diesel 16 to 17% 270 – 370
HAGO 2.5 to 3.0% 370 – 392
RCO (Atm. Residue) <392
LVGO 2.5 to 3.5%
HVGO 21 to 22%
VR 23 to 26%
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Notes Product specifications and significance of the same is

__________________ given in Unit 3
__________________
Operating issues which need attention are:
__________________
1. Crude mix and product yield pattern
__________________
__________________ 2. Corrosion impact on various equipment should be
__________________ known.
__________________ 3. Health of equipment and run length of unit is vital.
__________________
4. Operating parameters such as pressure, temperature,
__________________
flows.
__________________
5. Quality control of crude and products.
6. Health, safety and environment (HSE) aspects.
7. Energy conservation
8. knowledge and skills of operating crews.
Diesel Hydro-Treatment
The purpose of diesel hydrotreating unit is to:
u Remove sulphur and nitrogen
u Convert olefins/aromatics to saturated compounds.
u Remove contaminants like oxygenates and

organomettalic compounds.
The catalysts used in this plant are oxides of Ni and Mo/Co

& Mo impregnated on alumina base.
Salient Features
u 98% desulphurisation and 70% denitrification (VGO
hydrotreater).
u Produce low sulphur, colour stable diesel.
u Reduce aromatics and nitrogen in diesel.
u Improve Diesel cetane no.
The feed to the unit consists of a mixture of SR diesel

and heavy kerosene from the Crude Unit, light coker
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gas oil, HCO from the Delayed Coking Unit and LCO from
Notes
FCCU
__________________
Diesel Hydrotreater __________________
__________________
Make up H2 __________________
Offgas to
Ovhd. SGCU
condensor __________________
Recycle gas __________________
Diesel
__________________
__________________
Diesel
VGO
VGO __________________
Product
LN
separator __________________
LN
Stripper
Hydrotreater To waste
water system
FIGURE 4.4 HYDROTREATER BLOCK-FLOW DIAGRAM
Brief Description of the diesel hydro-treater follows.
The feed is pumped through cold and hot feed-reactor

effluent exchangers and then with recycled gas streams
through the combined feed heater. The combined feed heater
heats the feed up to the reactor inlet temperature. The
reactor consists of one vessel with two beds of catalysts,
consisting of one inert and three different types of catalysts.
Recycled gas is added as a quench between the beds to quench
the top bed heat of reaction. The reactor effluent is cooled
through a series of heat exchangers where it, in turn, heats
up the fresh feed, the stripper feed, the recycled gas and
then provides heat for generation of HP, MP and LP steam.
A wash water stream is then injected into the reactor effluent

before final cooling in the air-product condenser. From the
product condenser, the reactor effluent enters the separator.
The separator is a horizontal vessel with a water boot that
separates the recycled gas from the stripper feed and the
wash water from the stripper feed. The recycle gas goes
through a recycled gas water cooler and knockout drum to
remove heavier hydrocarbon components before entering the
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Notes recycled gas scrubber. This scrubber is used to remove H2S

__________________ from the recycled gas by bringing it in contact with a liquid
__________________ stream of lean amine. The top of the vessel contains a water
__________________ wash section to pick up any entrained amine. The recycled
__________________ gas exits from the top of the recycle gas scrubber, and is
__________________ then mixed with makeup gas hydrogen before entering the
__________________ recycle gas compressor. The stripper feed is heated in a
__________________ series of exchangers where it in turn cools the stripper
__________________ bottoms, reactor effluent, before entering the stripper
__________________ column.
__________________ The stripper is used to remove H2S from the diesel product,
and also to separate unstabilised naphtha from the diesel
product. Both the net off gas and the unstabilised naphtha
liquid that are produced are routed to the Saturated Gas
Concentration Unit. The stripper bottom is cooled through
a series of exchangers, then further cooled by air and water
before entering the diesel product coalescer and the salt
drier which removes water prior to routing to the diesel
product blending system.
VGO Hydro-treatment
This is similar to diesel hydro-treater and is used for

preparing feed for FCC.
FIGURE 4.5 HYDRO-TREATER/ HYDRO-CRACKER IN A REFINERY

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Hydrogen Production and Management Notes
__________________
Hydrogen Production Plant __________________
Hydrogen is produced commercially using following __________________
technologies: __________________
__________________
(i) Partial oxidisation
__________________
(ii) Coal gasification __________________
__________________
(iii) Electrolysis of water
__________________
(iv) Steam hydrocarbon reforming __________________
(v) Platforming – as a by-product.
Refer hydrogen plant block flow diagram
Steam
HP BFW HP steam export
Recycle H2 Generator
Refinery Product
fuel gas Feed gas Feed Steam H2
Shift & gas Gas
compr. purification reformer cooling purification
Natural gas
LPG
Waste gas
Main pumping section Refinery general
fuel gas
Naphtha
(future)
FIGURE 4.6 HYDROGEN PLANT BLOCK FLOW DIAGRAM
Hydrogen Feed
Feed for hydrogen production plant — (i) Refinery fuel gas,
(ii) saturated LPG, (iii) Natural gas, (iv) Light Naphtha.
Process Description
Feed (Refinery Fuel Gas, or Natural Gas or LPG or Hydro-
treated Light Naphtha) is first mixed with recycle hydrogen
and passed through pre-treatment section. The function of
pre-treatment section is to remove sulphur in feed by
hydrogenation, in the form of H2S, and removal of chloride
by sodium aluminate, the catalyst used is CoMo or NaMo.
H2S is absorbed in Zno bed.
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Notes If sulphur is <200 ppm, then single stage pre-treatment is

__________________ adopted. For sulphur >200 ppm, double stage pre-treatment
__________________ is used.
__________________
The De-sulphurised feed is pre-heated with steam and
__________________
passed through Nickle Catalyst packed in Vertical narrow
__________________
tubes mounted in the reformer furnance. This process is
__________________
endothermic and heat is supplied by fuel firing. Following
__________________
reactions take place:
__________________
__________________ Steam Reforming
__________________
CH4 + H2O l 3H2 + CO
CO + H2O l H2 + CO2
Water Gas Shift
CO + H2O l H2 + CO2
Steam is added in excess to promote above reactions.

Hydrogen gas produced is purified by pressure swing
adsorption (PSA) method.
PSA Cycle
One PSA cycle is built up of 2 basic phases:
Adsorption and Regeneration
Regeneration of PSA Bed

The regeneration phase is a chain of sub-phases consisting
of:
l High to low pressure transition: Expansion
l Provide purge and dump
l Purging at low pressure
l Low to high pressure transition back to adsorption

pressure: Repressurization.
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Hydrogen Management Notes
__________________
Hydrogen gas in the refinery comes from
__________________
(i) Hydrogen production plant – as described above __________________
__________________
(ii) Catalytic reformers
__________________
- in the refinery __________________
- in the integrated petro-chemical plant __________________

__________________
The hydrogen from both the sources is supplied to various
__________________
consumers like hydro-treatment plants etc. through high
__________________
pressure compressors and the excess gas is led to refinery
fuel gas system.
Need of hydrogen is increasing day after day for treating

the products like motor spirit, HSD, fuel oils and feeds for
FCC and other plants for bringing down sulphur.
Merox (Mercaptan Oxidation) Treatment

Process Description
Merox is the abbreviation of Mercaptan Oxidation. In this
process mercaptan is separated from hydrocarbon by
washing with caustic solution. The separated merceptan is
oxidised into disulfide form which can be disposed of in slop
stream. Organic sulphur from LPG, ATF/Kerosene and
Gasoline are removed by this process.
Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) from LPG is removed by extraction

with regenerated lean Amine in Amine Treating Unit (A TU).
Treated LPG is passed through reactor and mixed with
caustic solution containing merox catalyst. Then it passes
through extractor to remove mercaptan. Then, it is washed
with water to remove caustic. Treated sweet LPG free of
H2S and Mercaptan is sent to storage.
In case of ATF/Kerosene and Gasoline treatment, first it is

mixed with caustic, air and catalyst and then passed to
reactor to convert mercaptanes to Disulfides, which is
separated from caustic and product in caustic sulphur.
Caustic in recycled. Sweetened product is stored in
intermediate tanks before blending into finished product.
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Notes Following reactions take place

__________________
Mercaptan gets converted into disulfides
__________________
__________________ 4RSH + O2 2RSSR + 2H2O
__________________
Caustic Regeneration
__________________
RSH + NaOH NaSR+ H2O
__________________
(oil phase) Aqueous (Sodium Mercaptide soluble in
__________________ phase Aqueous phase)
__________________
Catalyst
__________________
4NaSR+02+2H2O 2RSSR+4NaOH
__________________
(Aqueous Phase) 45ºC (oil Phase)
The purpose of caustic in Merox process is:
u To transfer the mercaptane, or the thiol portion of the

mercaptane, to the aqueous phase.
u To supply the alkaline environment needed for the

reaction to proceed in the desired direction.
FIGURE 4.7 MEROX TREATMENT PROCESS BLOCK FLOW DIAGRAM
This process is used for treating LPG, Gasoline and ATF.
Sulphur Recovery Plant

The objective of sulphur recovery plant is to convert H2S to
elemental sulphur.
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Sulphur recovery is required because of: Notes
__________________
l Increasing demand for environmental friendly fuels.
__________________
l Increased used of high sulphur and heavier crudes in __________________
future.
__________________
l Tightening of emission standards by government/ __________________
Regulatory bodies. __________________
Salient features of sulphur plant are: __________________

__________________
l Minimum sulphur recovery level of 98.7%
__________________
l Ammonia destruction capability __________________
l Turndown capability 25%
Process Description
Refer sulphur plant block flow diagram (Figure 4..8)
Acid gasses from Amin Recovery Unit (ARU) and sour gasses
from sour water stripper are heated in pre-treater and burnt
in presence of regulated quantity of air from CLAUS Air
Blower in CLAUS Reaction Funance. The product from claus
reaction funance is passed thru 1st and 2nd pass condensers.
. Acid gases
from ARU
Thermal reactor Claus reactor CBA reactor
Air
Condenser 1 Condenser 2 Condenser 3 To tail gas

incinerato
Sour gases
from WWSU Liquid sulfur To sulphur
degassing pit granulation unit
Air
FIGURE 4.8 SULPHUR PLANT BLOCK FLOW DIAGRAM
The sulphur condensed is routed to Liquid Sulphur

Degassing Pit. The unreacted vapour is passed thru claus
reactor. The vapour from the claus reactor outlet is passed
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Notes thru 1st and 2nd pass condensers. The condensed sulphur is
__________________ taken to Liquid Sulphur Degassing Pit. The uncondensed
__________________ vapour is passed through Cold Bed Adsorption (CBA)
__________________ Reactors 1st and 2nd passes. The outlet vapour is passed
__________________ thru 1st and 2nd pass of CBA condenser. The condensed
sulphur is routed to liquid sulphur degassing pit and the
__________________
remaining gases are taken to tail gas incinerator for burning
__________________
and releasing thru high stack. Sulphur after Degassing is
__________________
taken to granulation unit from where it goes for despatch to
__________________ market. The off-gases from sulphur degassing pit is recycled
__________________ to CBA section for recovery of sulphur.
__________________
What is Claus Reaction?
“When two molecules of Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S) react with
one molecule of Sulphur Dioxide (SO 2) to give elemental
sulphur in the presence of Alumina Catalyst, the reaction is
called Claus Reaction”
2H2S + SO2 3/nSn + 2H2O
n=No. of atoms in Sulphur molecule.
u 1/3rd of total H2S in feed gas is burned to SO2, this SO2

reacts with remaining H2S to give elemental Sulphur
in Claus Reactor
H2S+3/20 2àSO2+H2O
2H2S + SO2à3/n Sn+2H2O
Overall Reaction 3H2S + 3/2 O2à3/nSn + 3H2O
Process Variables
Air to Acid Gas Ratio H2S/SO2 Ratio = 2:1
u Claus Reactor Outlet Temp 344ºC
Incinerator Temperature 650+ –50ºC
Amine Treating Unit (ATU)

The purpose of this process unit is to remove H2S from fuel
gases to meet environmental requirements.
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Process Description Notes
__________________
Refer figure 4.9 simplified block flow diagram
__________________
The fuel gas containing H2S is introduced in Middle section __________________
of Amine Absorber Column where Lean Methyl Diethanol is __________________
introduced near top section. By counter current flow H2S is
__________________
absorbed in Amine and sweet fuel gas (FG) free of H2S comes
__________________
out from column top. The rich Amine from bottom of the
__________________
absorber column is taken to Flash Drum where any fuel gas
carried over is separated out. The rich Amine is then pumped __________________
through heater where it is heated by the hot lean amine __________________
stream coming from bottom of Amine stripper. In the __________________
stripper, Amine Acid Gas from top of the column is routed
to sulphur recovery plant along with sour gases from other
process units. The lean Amine from bottom of the stripper
exchanges heat with Rich Amine and then pumped to storage
tank through cooler for recycling to Amine Absorber.
Absorption Sweet FG
Section
Lean Amine
Regeneration
Abs Stpr Section
FG
Lean Amine Header
Rich Amine Header

Amine Storage Section
FIGURE 4.9 SIMPLIFIED BLOCK DIAGRAM – ATU
Process Chemistry
The circulating amine is 35% MDEA solution,
Hydrogen sulfide H2S OR HSH is a weak acid and ionizes in

water to form hydrogen ions and sulfide ions.
HSH H+ + SH–
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Notes Ethanol amines or weak bases ionize in water to form amine

__________________ as hydroxyl ions
__________________
(CH 2OHCH 2)2NCH 3+H 20 CH2OHCH2)2NHCH3+OH
__________________
__________________ When H2S dissolves into the solution containing the amine
__________________ ions, it will react to form a weakly bonded salt of the acid
and the base.
__________________
__________________ (CH2OHCH 2)2 NCH 3+SH (CH2OHCH2)2NSCH3
__________________
The sulfide ion is absorbed by the amine solution. Overall
__________________
__________________ (CH 2OHCH 2) 2NCH 3+H 2S (CH2OHCH2)2NSCH3
Delayed Coking
Coker Unit
The purpose of coking unit is to produce valuable distillates
and Petroleum coke (by-product) by upgrading heavy residual
stocks from vacuum distillation and other process units
generating heavy stock. This unit is also known as delayed
coker. Slops from various other process units which do not
find proper home can also be processed in coker to get
valuable products. The feed to this unit is subjected to severe
thermal cracking thereby producing refinery fuel gas, coker
gasoline, coker kerosene, coker gas oil, coker furnace oil,
residual furnace oil and coke.
Process Description
Refer block flow diagram of coker
Feed is preheated by exchanging heat with hot streams.

Thereafter, it is heated to 250ºC in convection section of the
furnace before it enters the bottom section of fractionator
column. The hot cracked hydrocarbon vapours from coke
chambers top via a separator enters the zone of above-
mentioned fractionator column. The heavy hydrocarbon
fractions in these vapours condense in lower section of the
column and are withdrawn from bottom along with primary
feed by secondary feed pump.
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Heavy cycle gas oil
Notes
LLP Flare Light cycle gas oil
To HNUU __________________
HP flare
To LNUU __________________
Vacuum
Residue
tank Unsat gas Unsat __________________
conc. unit LPG To LPG
Coker Merox unit spheres __________________
FG __________________
distribution To flare
system __________________
Coker consumption
To light slop oil tank

__________________
FO Rich
tank To heavy slop oil tank __________________
amine Lean amine
__________________
Amine treating
__________________
Coke
handling To ETP
system
FIGURE 4.10 COKER BLOCK FLOW DIAGRAM
The secondary feed is heated in the remaining part of

the convection section and full radiation section of the
furnace to around 500ºC and enters the coke chambers
where final cracking takes place. The vapours from top of
the coke chambers is quenched with cold vacuum distillates
before it enters the separator. The liquid product
accumulated at separator bottom is pumped out as Residual
Fuel Oil (RFO).
The vapour is routed to bottom of fractionator as mentioned

earlier. From the fractionator, products withdrawn are Light
Kerosene (LK), Heavy Kerosene (HK), gas oil and coking
fuel oil (CFO). Fractionator vapour top is condensed in over
head condenser to produce gas and coker gasoline and coker
naphtha (light coker naphtha and heavy coker naphtha). The
petroleum coke is accumulated in coke-chamber, is cooled
by steam and water and thereafter removed by hydraulic
de-coking method which cuts the hard coke with high
pressure water jets. The coke is removed by grab crane. After
crushing and sizing, it is transported to store yard or sent to
coke calcination plant.
Facilities are also provided in the plant to produce LPG and

release fuel gases to fuel gas system.
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Notes Advantages of Delayed Coker

__________________
u Minimum investment for given value addition
__________________
u Zero fuel oil generation
__________________
__________________ u Coke can be used as fuel for power plant.
__________________ u No catalyst cost.
__________________
u Capability to process refinery slops and sludge.
__________________
__________________ Mechanism of Coking
__________________
Cracking is a phenomenon by which large oil molecules are
__________________ thermally decomposed into smaller lower-boiling molecules:
at the same time some of these molecules, which are reactive,
combine with one another to give even larger molecules than
those in the original stock. The more stable molecules leave
the system as cracked Naphta, Kero, Diesel (LCGO), Gas oil
(HCGO) etc. and the reactive once polymerise, forming
cracked fuel oil and coke.
Fluidised Catalytic Cracking (FCC)

Fluid Catalytic Cracking has developed into a major
upgrading process in the oil refining industry for conversion
of heavy fuel oil into more valuable products ranging from
light olefins to LPG, naphtha and middle distillates. The
attractiveness of FCC process is to its flexibility to process
wide range of feedstocks from a variety of crudes and its
favourable economics of operation. The objective is to
maximise Olefins, LPG, C7 – C9 aromatics, high throughput
and minimise LCO and bottoms.
Hot regenerated catalyst is mixed at the bottom of reactor

with raw feed and steam. After pre-acceleration, it is brought
in to contact with the staged feeds supplied as finely
atomised droplets. Feed instantaneously vaporises and
travels up the riser with the catalyst where conversion
reaction takes place. At the top of reactor, the vapour is
disengaged from catalyst. The vapour is sent to main
fractionating column. In this column, mainly LPG, Gasoline,
middle distillates and decanted oil are obtained. The spent
catalyst is steam stripped to remove hydrocarbon vapour and
then sent to two stage regenerators for burning coke before
it is recycled to reactor alongwith makeup catalyst to reactor.
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Air is injected in catalyst regenerator for burning coke. Water Notes
generated in the system leaves with flue gas from Power __________________
Recovery Train. Flue gases are sent to CO boiler and __________________
thereafter to a clean up system to remove particulates, SOx
__________________
and NOx. ZSM additive is added to catalyst to increase LPG
__________________
yield.
__________________
Residues are also used as feedstock in RFCC.
__________________
FCC
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
FIGURE 4.11 FCC UNIT BLOCK FLOW DIAGRAM
Petrochemical Process Plants

Aromatics Plant
The aromatics complex is a fully integrated facility for
the production of paraxylene and orthoxylene, comprising
of platformer primarily to produce feed for main
plants.
Aromatics complex processes special cut naptha to produce

paraxylene and orthoxylene as the major products and some
other by-products which include Benzene, Light Reformate,
LPG, H2, Fuel Gas and heavies.
The Paraxylene plant consists of the following units. (Refer

figure 4.12 Aromatics Complex Block Diagram Flow).
Heavy Naphtha Unionfining Unit (HNUU)

The function of this hydrotreating unit is to treat the feed
naphtha and remove impurities like heavy metals, sulfur,
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Notes nitrogen and olefins, which are poison for Platformer

__________________ catalyst.
__________________
Platformer Unit
__________________
__________________ The platformer unit processes hydrotreated naphtha from
__________________ the Heavy Naptha Unifining unit, stripper column bottoms,
__________________ for the production of aromatics for downstream unit
__________________
processing and separation. Major reactions taking place in
platforming unit are as follows:
__________________
__________________ 1. Dehydrogenation of naphthenes
__________________
2. Hydrocracking of paraffins
3. Isomerisation
4. Dehydrocyclisation of paraffins
The spent catalyst is regenerated continuously in situ, which

takes place in Cyclemax CCR.
Xylene Fractionation Unit

Xylene fractionation unit includes a xylene column and
associated equipments to fractionate “Isomar” Deheptaniser
bottoms and “Tatoray” Toluene column bottoms into an
overhead product that is suitable as feedstock to the Parex
process unit. The column is designed to both recover
Orthoxylene into the bottom product or to minimise the loss
of Orthoxylene into the bottom products Xylene rich
overhead vapor are used as heating medium in Raffinate &
Extract . Column Reboilers & also to generate MP Steam.
Orthoxylene Fractionation Unit

This unit includes an orthoxylene column and associated
equipments for the production of a high purity orthoxylene
product and a heavy aromatic column and associated
equipments for the production of a C9-C1O aromatic
overhead stream to be used as feed to the “Tatoray unit”, a
sidecut stream with a 215°C endpoint for use as a gasoline
blending component and a heavy aromatic bottom stream to
be used as fuel oil.
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Parex Process Unit Notes
__________________
The process is selective adsorption of Paraxylene (PX)
__________________
on molecular sieve and subsequent desorption of PX by
__________________
a suitable desorbent. The molecular sieve is basically
__________________
Y type zeolite (alumina silica) which preferentially
adsorbs PX. __________________
__________________
Toulene column bottoms and C8 isomerates from Isomar
__________________
section are fed to the xylene fractionation column. The
__________________
overhead product of the xylene columns are feed to the parex
__________________
unit.
__________________
Feed and desorbent goes to the Parex adsorbent chambers
via rotary valve. PX gets adsorbed on the molecular
sieve and subsequently desorbed. Two streams come out
of the chambers known as raffinate stream and extract
stream.
Raffinate stream is fed to the raffinate column. Its side cut

product which is mixed xylenes lean in paraxylene, is fed to
isomer unit while the bottom product desorbent is recycled
back to Parex adsorbent chambers.
The extract stream consist of PX, Toluene and Desorbent.

PX and Toluene are separated as overhead products
in extract column (feed to finishing column) while the
bottom product Desorbent is recycled to Parex absorbent
chambers.
PX and Toluene are separated in a finishing column.

Paraxylene is withdrawn from bottom and overhead product
Toluene is recycled back to Tatoray unit.
Isomer is a catalytic isomerisation process to efficiently

convert a mixture of C8 aromatics to a near equilibrium mix
that favours PX and OX production from metaxylene and
ethyl benzene.
The Tatoray unit includes reformer splitter column, two

parallel reactor trans, stripper, benzene are toluene column.
Objective of the units is to maximise xylene production by
transalkylation of C7 and C9 aromatics.
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Notes
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
FIGURE 4.12 AROMATCS COMPLEX BLOCK FLOW DIAGRAM

__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
Polypropylene
It is designed to produce homo, random and impact
copolymer. The main raw materials are propylene and
hydrogen. (Refer Figure 4.13 Propylene Block Flow Diagram)
The plant consists of:
1. Purification Section: For propylene “to remove

impurities like Sulphur, CO, CO 2 , O 2 ' purification
section for hydrogen and nitrogen gas before supplying
them to reaction area. Impurities like CO, CO2 from H2
and O2 from N2 are removed.
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Notes
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
FIGURE 4.13 POLYPROPYLENE BLOCK FLOW DIAGRAM
2. Reaction Section: Here polymerisation reaction of

purified propylene takes place in fluidised bed reactor
in the presence of slurry catalyst (TiC14, supported on
MgCl2 in slurry form in mineral oil); co-catalyst Triethyl
Aluminium, purified hydrogen and selectivity control
agent Peraethoxy Ethyl Benzoate or N-Proypl
Trimethoxy Silane in the reactor.
3. Pelleting Section: Polypropylene (PP) resin is

transferred from reactor to product receiver using
dense phase conveying system. The conveying gas which
is a mix of hydrocarbon and nitrogen is separated from
the resin in disengaging section of product receiver. The
unreacted monomers are purged with light recycles and
sent for recovery to vent recovery system. PP requires
the incorporation of a variety of additives to aid its
processing and achieve the end use properties. The
polymer is fed into the melt pump to develop necessary
pressure for extrusion through the die plate. The
Polymer strands are palletised in underwater pelletiser
and the pellets are carried by pellet water system to
agglomerate remover where chunks and clusters are
removed. The pellets are then dried, classified
and conveyed to the blending silos from where they are
bagged.
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Notes 4. Vent Recovery Section: This system is designed to

__________________ recover monomer, polymer and nitrogen. All waste
__________________ flammable gases are vented to the HP or LP flare header,
__________________ which are passed through knockout pot and burnt at
__________________ flare stack burning tip.
__________________
Typical Refinery and Petrochemicals complex Product
__________________
Pattern
__________________
Propylene 2.0%
__________________ LPG 7.0%
__________________ Gasoline 8.0%
__________________ Naphtha 8.5%
Reformate (Petrochemicals feed) 9.5%
HSD/SK/ATF 48.0%
Coke 8.0%
Sulphur 1.5%
Fuel and Loss 7.5%
Typical Refinery Product Pattern

Input % of Crude
Crude Oil 100.0
Products
LPG 2.1
Net Naphtha 5.0
MS 11.2
Others --
Light Distillates 18.3
ATF 2.6
SKO 9.0
HSD 35.1
LDO 16.0
Others 1.1
Middle Distillates 63.7
LSHS for sale 3.3
Others 7.9
Heavy Ends 11.6
Total Prods 93.6
Gross F&L 6.8
Total 100.0
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Typical Yield Pattern of FCC Notes
__________________
Feed: 100% __________________
Low ‘S’ VGO 53.7 __________________
CGO 20.3 __________________
DWO 9.0 __________________
VR 17.0 __________________
Output __________________
Gas 3.9 __________________
H2S 0.5 __________________
LPG 12.7 __________________
Gasoline 12.5
TCO 53.4
CLO 8.6
Coke 7.9
Loss 0.5
Total 100.0
Typical Yield Pattern of Delayed Coking Unit
Input = RCO 100%
Output:
LPG 2.5
Cok. Gasoline 4.5
Cok. Kero-I (LK) 22.5
Cok. Kero-II (HK) --
Cok. Gas Oil (CGO) 24.5
CFO 14.5
RFO 6.5
RPC 16.3
GAS 6.3
Loss 2.4
Total 100.0
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Notes Typical Yield Pattern of Hydro-treater

__________________
Input:
__________________
VGO 100.0
__________________
H2 2.0
__________________
Total 102.0
__________________
Output
__________________
H2S 1.2
__________________
GAS 1.3
__________________
LPG 3.0
__________________
LT. Naphtha 11.5
__________________
Hy. Naphtha 4.0
SKO/ATF 27.0
HSD 43.8
Bottoms 10.0
Loss 0.2
Total 102.0
Offsite Facilities and its Management

In a Refinery, 80% to 90% area is covered by offsite facilities.
Traditionally, more attention used to be given to process
units. However, with Refinery margin shrinking, stringent
safety, Health and Environmental stipulations, and
increased customer expectations, now more and more
emphasis is given for improved profitability through:
l Improved operations
l Advanced process control system
l Good inventory management
l Optimisation of storage facilities & other offsites.
Major offsite functions in a Refinery are:
1. Crude oil receipt

Normally crude oil is received in land locked refineries
through crude pipelines from the production source. Before
bringing the crude from oil fields, gas, water and sludge are
removed by settling and processing through desalters. In
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coastal refineries, crude oil is received through tankers. Notes
Depending on the capacity of the refinery, crude tankage __________________
available, draft available at receiving oil jetty, size of crude __________________
oil tanker varies from small to very large. Quantity of crude __________________
received in the refinery is monitored by measuring dip of __________________
receiving tank and flow metre readings installed on crude
__________________
pipeline. India imports almost 70% of its crude oil
__________________
requirement. Due to strategic reasons, crude oil storage is
__________________
being increased from 15 days to 45 days of the refinery
capacity. __________________
__________________
2. Crude preparation for feeding to distillation units __________________
Though in the oil field, major quantity of sludge, water and

associated salts are removed before bringing crude to
refineries, yet some quantities of sludge and water still are
received in the refinery tanks. This is removed by allowing
the crude to settle in the tanks and draining from bottom to
the effluent treatment system. The final removal of water
associated with salts and sludge takes place in desalter in
the crude distillation unit. Unless crude preparation is done
properly, the unit performance will be affected adversely
due to fouling of pipes, exchangers, furnace tube corrosion,
corrosion of various equipments and upsets in plant
operation. This will also lead to increased fuel consumption
and loss in the units.
3. Receiving rundown streams from various units

From crude distillation unit and other secondary units, we
get various products streams, most of which are to be treated
in secondary processing units and blended in required
proportion to produce finished products which are then
dispatched to the market. Except LPG and Naptha, all other
products are blends of various streams from different units.
Depending on the capacity of refinery, number of products
marketed, types of crude oil processed, complexity of the
refinery, the tankages provided for receipt of rundown
streams varies. Facilities for water draining and
reprocessing of offspec. streams are provided. Flexibility is
also provided for alternative routing of streams incase there
is change in demand in product pattern. Light and heavy
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Notes slop tanks are also provided to receive offspec. Streams

__________________ during start up, shutdown, emergencies and upsets in the
__________________ plants. The same are reprocessed in the units in a regulated
__________________ manner during normal run. By on-line blending and utilising
__________________ advanced process control, the tankage for receiving rundown
streams can be minimised. Pump stations are provided for
__________________
transfer of products.
__________________
__________________ 4. Blending the rundown streams
__________________
Various straight run streams and secondary processing units
__________________
streams are mixed in suitable proportion for the production
__________________
of finished marketable petroleum products. The mixture is
circulated in the tank to make it of uniform quality. After
settling in tank for draining any water and testing the sample
in the laboratory to ensure that it meets quality
specifications, it is dispatched to market. Storage facility at
various locations particularly for MS, SKO and HSD is being
augmented. It is proposed to provide 35 days storage
capacity based on 75% utilisation factor.
5. Co-ordination with laboratory

After blending of various streams and circulation in tank,
samples of products are sent to the laboratory for testing.
Once the product meets the quality specification as per BIS
or customers requirement, then the certificate of quality is
issued by the laboratory. Thereafter, product is despatched
to market.
6. Despatch of finished products:

The certified products are stored in finished product tanks
before dispatch.
Petroleum products are evacuated from the refinery by

following modes:
1. Pipelines
2. Rail
3. Road
4. Coastal
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1. Pipelines: Out of the above dispatch modes of Notes
petroleum products, maximum dispatch takes place __________________
through pipelines (60 - 70%). Pipeline systems have __________________
following in-built advantages over other means of __________________
transportation available for petroleum products: __________________
1. It is the second cheapest mode of transport next to __________________

large capacity tankers. __________________
__________________
2. With advanced control system and proper
__________________
operation, it is possible that the products reach
their destination in a "refinery-good" condition. __________________
This is so even in respect of sensitive quality control __________________

products such as ATF, Naptha etc.
3. Minimum transit loss
4. Planned product movement
5. Flexibility in operation independent of other

transportation systems. During floods and natural
calamities, it is not affected.
2. Rail: Tank wagons are the second bulk carrier specially

constructed for this purpose and can take products to
far off places. The wagons for transporting heavy
products such as FO, LSHS etc, are provided with steam
coils for heating the product before unloading at the
destination.
3. Road: The third mode of transportation is tank lorries

or tank trucks, which are used to supply product to
nearby locations by road. Steam coils are provided to
heat the product before unloading in case of tank trucks
for Bitumen, LSHS, FO, etc.
4. Coastal: Tankers of various capacities are used for

dispatch of product from coastal refineries. For short
distance and small quantity of coastal product
movement, barges are used. The large capacity tankers
are the cheapest mode of transport.
The products movement of the refinery gets adversely

affected due to failure/breakdown of transport system.
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Notes Flexibility to a small extent exists to switch over from

__________________ one mode to other mode. However, refinery builds up
__________________ stock in its tanks during such emergencies, to an extent
__________________ beyond which through-put of process units is cut thus
__________________ affecting the production.
__________________
7. Flare management
__________________
__________________ To take care of emergency release of gaseous hydrocarbon,
__________________
flare headers are provided for collecting off gases from
process units and offsite areas. After seperating the
__________________
entrained liquid, the gas is burnt at high point to avoid
__________________
hazard and pollution. Three categories of flare systems are
provided:
a. High pressure flare
b. Low pressure flare
c. H2S flare
8. Refinery water supply

The following important water supply systems exist in the
refinery.
1. Fresh water supply system: This provides utility

water supply, make up to the circulating water system,
make-up to fire water supply system and make up to
drinking water treatment system.
2. Fire water supply system: Throughout the process

units and offsites areas, the fire water supply pipeline
network is laid in the form of ring. Firewater tanks are
provided in offsites area to have an immediate supply
source for fighting any major fire. In critical areas, long
distance throw nozzles are provided.
3. Recirculating hot and cold water system: For cooling

of hot products, this system is provided. It is having
chemical treatment system to avoid scaling and
corrosion in related pipelines and equipment. Cooling
Towers are also provided in the system where water is
cooled by evaporation before recirculation. Blow-down
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in the form of leakage and manual draining is provided Notes
to avoid build up of salt concentration. Make up water __________________
is taken from fresh water system. In some of the coastal __________________
refineries, once through cooling water system is used __________________
and sea water is utilised for the cooling of products. __________________
4. Captive power plant: To provide uninterrupted power __________________

and steam supply for running the pumps, compressors __________________
and other equipment, captive power plant is provided __________________
in the refinery. For meeting any emergency, alternative __________________
source of power supply from outside is also lined up. __________________
Superheated and saturated steam at various pressures
__________________
are also supplied for process units and offsites area from
this system. Steam is used for heating, stripping in
columns, atomisation of fuel oil before burning in
furnace, fire-fighting, driving steam turbines and power
generation. Fresh water is used in DM plant before
utilising in boilers for steam generation. To ensure
supply of steam and power to critical plants/equipment
in emergencies, load shedding scheme exists.
5. Fuel oil and fuel gas system: For providing fuel supply
to process units furnaces, and boilers in captive power
plant, this system is provided. In fuel gas, mostly
methane, ethane and purged gases from hydrogen units
are used. The supply system is maintained at constant
pressure. For fuel oil, varying range of fuels from LDO
to Asphalts are used. Storage tanks, blending facilities
and pumping system are provided for supply of fuel oil
to furnaces and boilers.
6. Hydrogen, Nitrogen and air supply systems:

Hydrogen is generated in Hydrogen plant or catalytic
reformer unit. It is utilised in hydro-treatment units. It
is a very hazardous gas to handle as the flame can not
be seen.
Nitrogen is used for catalyst regeneration, blanketing

tanks from atmospheric oxygen in the case of lubes and
other products which form explosive mixture when
coming in contact with air, and maintaining inert
atmosphere in the process unit equipment. Nitrogen is
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Notes produced in generators installed in the refinery or is

__________________ purchased from outside. Air is used for utility purposes,
__________________ catalyst regeneration, decoking of furnace tubes and
__________________ instrumentation etc. It is taken from atmosphere and
__________________ compressed before using.
__________________
Review Questions for Offsites
__________________
__________________ 1. What are the important offsite facilities in a refinery?
__________________
2. How do these facilities affect the proper functioning of
__________________ the refinery? Explain each facility wise, specially their
__________________ impact whenever there is a failure.
Review Questions for all Process Plants

1. Explain briefly in your own works.
i. The function of each process plant (11 plants)
ii. Feed composition
iii. Yield pattern.
iv. Critical parameters for optimal operation
2. Which components of various process streams in

different process plants (% wise) are utilized for the
prouction of LPG, MS, HSD, ATF, Furnace Oil, PC
Naphtha and Fertilizer Naphtha.
85
Unit 5 Activity 5 A
Describe the scenario of
availability of sweet & sour crudes
Future Refining Scenario in the next two decades.

__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
Objectives __________________
__________________
y Understand Future Refining Scenario in terms of availability of
crudes, stringent specifications of various petroleum products, __________________
dwindling refinery margins etc.
__________________
y Strategies for overcoming various challenges.
Keeping in view environmental considerations, cost

optimisation, energy conservation and product quality
requirement, it is envisaged that future refineries will have
to face many challenges – they will be highly complex,
integrated, diversified and fully automated.
Worldwide availability of sweet and light crude is

decreasing, therefore, future refineries will have to be ready
to process heavy and sour crudes. This will call for superior
metallurgy in the plants and pre and post treatment of oil
products leading to higher capital and operating costs. To
improve profitability and meet statutory requirements,
following actions need to be taken:
u Distillates yield improvement
u Production of high value products
u Energy optimisation
u Hydrocarbon loss minimisation
u Effective environmental management
u Product quality upgradation
u Product inventory reduction

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Activity 5 B Besides conventional process units, future refineries will also

What do you understand from have:
Integration of Refinery with petro-
chemicals/ fertilizers, power u Quality related units:
plants? How does it improve the
Bottom Lines? – Facilities for benzene management
__________________
– DHDS (Diesel Hydro-desulphurisation)
__________________
__________________ – Fuel oil HDS (Hydro-desulphurisation)
__________________
– Hydrotreatment.
__________________
u Environment management related units:
__________________
__________________ – Tail gas treatment
__________________
– High efficiency SRUs (Sulphur Recovery Units)
__________________
__________________ – Bottom of the barrel upgradation related unit
– Computerised integrated refinery
– Energy efficient processes
– Diversified and integrated refinery with power

plant, petrochemicals and fertilizers
u Synergy in power with fertilizer co-production
– Efficient utilisation of low value refinery residue

for production of power. Power plant supplies
power and steam required in refinery.
– Co-production of value added fertilizer.
– No additional raw material handling and common

fire fighting facilities.
– Overall economics considerably enhanced
– Already under way in the USA, the Netherlands

and Italy.
u Refinery of 21st century
– Operate with fewer & highly educated people
– Few operators grouped in a central blast proof

control room like the cockpit of modern aeroplanes.
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UNIT 5 Future Refining Scenario 87
– Possible employment of robots Notes
__________________
– Computerised system supervising operations
__________________
automatically
__________________
– On-line analysers and blending __________________
– Computerised performance monitoring __________________

__________________
– Automated dispatch and offsites operations
__________________
– Flexible work hours __________________
__________________
In the new refineries, following technology gaps and to be
__________________
covered:
u Reduction of ‘S’ (sulphur) from MS, HSD and FO.
u Reduction of FO production and increase in distillate

production to 85%+.
u Plant/ equipment should require less space.
Review Questions
1. What modifications would be needed in refinery process
plants for
- Changing over from sweet crude to sour crude
- Technological improvements/additions for meeting

future more stringent specifications of HSD and
MS. So as to conform to Emission norms.
- To increase/improve profitability.
2. What do you understand from flexibility of Refinery

operations in the competitive environment?
89
Unit 6 Note
__________________
__________________
Advances in Petroleum __________________
Refining __________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
Objectives
__________________
__________________
y Understand in a generic fashion advances in refining process
technologies
- For making eco-friendly products
- For value addition to improve the bottomline
- For best practices in refining operations
- For energy optimization
Various issues faced by the refining industry have led to

many major developments in this area. The challenges are:
1. Crude oil is becoming heavier and higher in sulphur and

metal content.
2. Reduced growth in fuel oil demand.
3. Rapid growth in light/middle distillates.
4. Stringent environmental regulation for cleaner

products/processes and demand for quality products.
5. Declining refining margins
6. Improved engine design/automobiles need better quality

fuel and lubricating oils.
Advances in refining technology can be broadly divided into

the following categories.
1. Improved and integrated refining
u Production of better quality products

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Activity 6 A u Residuation in residues/heavier ends

What are known/proven
improvements as on date, in u Management of power and utilities.
Refining Process Technologies?
__________________
2. Value addition
__________________ u Petrochemicals production
__________________
u Better quality and increased lube oil production
__________________
__________________ u Power generation from heavier petroleum products
__________________
u Speciality chemicals production.
__________________
Improvements are taking place in many areas. Some of them
__________________
are listed below:
__________________
__________________ u Distillation
u Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC), Resid Fluid Catalytic

cracking (RFCC).
u Delayed coking – Needle coke manufacturing,

Visbreaker–Soaker Technology.
u Hydro processing
– Hydro treatment of various streams including

residues.
– Hydro cracking
u Super Oil Cracking (SOC) of heavy distillates to get 90%

conversion to distillates.
u Mobil distillate Dewaxing (MDDW) to upgrade

heavy fuel oil to high quality distillate and gas yield of
93- 95%.
u Isomerisation
u Catalytic Reforming
u Alkylation
u Etherification
u Power generation by petroleum residue and coke by

using Gasification Combined Cycle (GCC) technology.
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UNIT 6 Advances in Petroleum Refining 91
In this process alongwith power, steam and H2 can be Notes
produced which are required in the refinery. __________________
__________________
u More and more use of information technology.
__________________
u Modelling simulation are being used for: __________________
– Information Gathering, Decision Making and __________________
Business Profitability. __________________

__________________
– Accurate process models for different processes
__________________
(e.g., FCC, Hydrocracking, Cat Reforming, etc) are
__________________
being developed and increasingly used for
optimization, trouble shooting, design and optimal __________________
control and technology development.
– Typical application of information technology in a

refinery
Guide logistic Refinery Primary

planning planning logistic
management
Refinery Primary Secondary

scheduling logistic logistic
management management
u Significance of process modelling
Trouble
shooting
Reactor Pilot plant

design scale up
Catalyst Modelling
health and Catalyst
monitoring simulation selection &
optimisation
Operator
training Process
optimisation
Feedstock
selection
u Refinery integration and value addition strategies
u Small and medium refineries

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Activity 6 B – Integration with speciality chemicals for value

What are various routes for value addition
addition in Petroleum Refining?
__________________ – Anode grade coke, needle coke production
__________________ – Microcrystalline wax production
__________________
– Alpha-olefins production
__________________
__________________ u Larger refineries
__________________ – Petrochemical integration and speciality products
__________________
– Integration of refining and power generation –
__________________
IGCC Technology
__________________
__________________ – Lubes and fuel integration
u Other major strategies of integration
– Integration with IT
– Process simulation and optimisation
– Advanced control and hierarchical control systems
Review Questions
1. Explain the following processes and relate the same to
the relevant products:
- Isomerization
- Alkylation
- Etherification
- DHDS
- Catalytic reforming
- Catalytic cracking
- Thermal cracking (Refer Bibliography)
2. Explain the known/proven processes of Hydrogen

Generation from heavy residues/petroleum coke/ coal
bed methane?
3. How is IT utilised for improved/on-line performance

monitoring of refineries?
93
Unit 7 i.
Activity 7 A
What should be ideal losses
in any Process Control?
Hydrocarbon Loss __________________
Minimisation
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
Objectives
__________________
y Understand the significance of losses in a refinery and their impact __________________
on profitability
__________________
y Understand sources/areas of losses and measures adopted by
the refineries for their reduction.
During the processing of crude petroleum products, handling

and dispatches from refinery, hydrocarbon losses take place
on various accounts. Efforts are to be made to bring the loss
to a level of less than 0.3% of crude processed. Auditing of
the systems and operations will lead to continuous
improvement.
Following areas need to be monitored/looked into:
A. Apparent losses
i. Measuring devices in storage tanks and custody

transfers for proper accounting
ii. Automating road/rail dispatch facilities.
B. Real losses
i. Vapour recovery from flare and product loading

facilities
ii. Handling of light hydrocarbon slop in process unit

and offsite area in closed blow down system
iii. Conversion of fixed roof tanks to floating roof tanks

for low flash products including diesel and use of
proper type of roof seals.
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Activity 7 B iv. Automatic tank gauging

i. What are international
standards for Refinery v. Use of proper mixers in crude tanks for minimising
Losses? What methods have sludge formation and modern method of removal
been adopted in Indian
refineries to bring down the and recovery of only sludge/oil to reduce loss
losses to International
standard? vi. Minimising slop generation to reduce evaporation
ii. What is BS&W? How is it loss in slop handling system
related with losses in Refining
operations? vii. Close monitoring of BSW in crude processed to
__________________ avoid plant upsets and increased losses.
__________________ viii. Routing of all sour gases to sulphur recovery unit
__________________
ix. Routing of off gases from vacuum column to
__________________
furnaces.
__________________
__________________ Review Questions
__________________
1. What will be the order of magnitude of savings in a six
__________________
million tones per year capacity refinery, if the losses
__________________
are reduced by 0.2%, cost of crude being $ 25/barrel?
__________________
95
Unit 8 i.
Activity 8 A
What strategies have been
adopted to optimize energy
Energy Conservation consumption.

- For old refineries
- For grass-root refineries
__________________
__________________
__________________
Objectives __________________
__________________
__________________
y Appreciate the role of/ urgency for energy conservation and
optimisation of energy consumption in refining industry. __________________
__________________
y Get a generic idea of various strategies adopted for energy
optimisation. __________________
__________________
Conservation of oil and gas has assumed greater importance
in view of the emphasis on demand side management of
energy. Average fuel loss in the refineries in India during
2000–01 was 7-35% which is higher compared to global levels
(of similar configuration).
Energy optimisation for a refinery begins early in the

development and design stage with the establishment of a
set of energy saving guidelines applicable to the project. Some
of the areas given below need to be looked into:
1. Integration of heat – exchange system of the units to

utilize the heat from hot stream of another unit – crude
distillation unit and vacuum distillation units are heat
integrated.
2. Optimisation of heat exchangers train – use of pinch

technology.
3. Direct hot feed from one unit to another unit without

passing through intermediate tanks.
4. Energy efficient processes/equipment such as furnaces,

pumps, exchangers etc. Provision of air preheter in
furnace.
5. Proper insulation of hot products and steam lines.

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Activity 8 B 6. Optimisation of
How do DDCS and advanced
process controls help conserve i. Reflux ratio in distillation process
energy?
ii. Solvent feed ratio in extraction process
__________________
__________________ 7. Use of soaker technology for visbreaking.
__________________
8. Use of microprocessor based control system alongwith
__________________
DDCS (Digital Distributed Control System) and
__________________ advanced process control.
__________________
9. Heat recovery from process streams for heating colder
__________________
process streams/ boiler feed water.
__________________
__________________ 10. Power generation in new refinery will be through
__________________ combined cycle operation integrated with gasification.
11. Steam system – High pressure steam will be cascaded

down to lower level by back pressure turbines either
generating power or coupled with various key process
compressors and pumps. Pressure reduction of steam
through a control valve will be minimised.
12. Minimise leakage through glands/seals of pumps,

compressors and turbines.
13. Low level heat recovery.
14. Soot blowers for convection section of furnaces to

improve heat recovery in furnaces.
15. Steam generation from hot streams.
16. Benchmarking, gap analysis and setting targets.
17. Energy audit for continuous improvement of energy

performance.
Review Questions
1. How does energy consumption at Indian refineries
compare with best run refineries over-seas? Express
this in energy consumption indices like
- EII (Energy Intensity Index)
- NRG Factor in MBTU's per NRGF for fuel + loss

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UNIT 8 Energy Conservation 97
2. Explain the role of house-keeping measures for bringing Notes
down energy consumption resulting in energy __________________
conservation. Enumerate some important measures of __________________
this nature which the refineries/ chemical industries __________________
take. __________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
99
Unit 9 Notes
__________________
__________________
Gross Refining Margin __________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
Objectives
__________________
__________________
y Provide an appreciation for various elements affecting GRM which
in essence is the profitability of a refinery.
y Acquaint with the netback estimation method used for selection

of crude for any refinery.
Gross Refining Margin (GRM) is the differential between

the product realisation and the cost of crude processed to
obtain these products. GRM of a particular refinery will
depend upon various internal and external factors. Some of
these factors are discussed below:
Internal Factors
u The crude mix (low sulphur and high sulphur) processed
by the refinery
u The secondary processing facilities available with the

refinery which affect the product yield of the refinery
u The fuel used and losses incurred in the production

processes.
External Factors
u The international prices of various crudes and products
u The demand and supply balance of various products

refined by the refinery
u The duty structure prevailing in the country relating to

crude and products.
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Activity 9 A Operating Cost of the Refinery

What are various factors which
affect GRM? The operating cost of the refinery includes various elements,
__________________ some of which are as under:
__________________
u Power and fuel: Fuel is used either directly in the
__________________
refining process or to generate power and utilities to be
__________________ used in the refining process. Fuel may be purchased from
__________________ outside suppliers (like natural gas), power from
__________________ electricity board or internal refined products (like
__________________ LSHS, FO or HSD) may be used as fuel.
__________________
u Chemicals and catalysts: During the refining process
__________________
of petroleum products, various chemicals and catalysts
__________________
are used. The purpose of chemicals is mainly to improve
the quality of products so as to meet the desired
specifications. Catalysts are used in various reformers
and other secondary processing facilities.
u Establishment cost: This is related to the manpower

deployed and includes the salary and wages paid to staff,
overtime, bonus etc.
u Repair and maintenance cost: It is incurred in various

mechanical, electrical and civil jobs carried out for the
maintenance of plant and machinery.
u General administrative cost: This cost includes

expenses such as traveling. Printing, insurance and
other related overhead expenditure.
u Depreciation: Operating cost includes depreciation on

plant and machinery, furniture, equipment and other
fixed assets used in the refining process towards general
wear and tear.
Net Margin
The net margin is the difference between gross margin and
operating cost. This is virtually the net profit to the refinery.
Net Margin = Gross margin – Operating cost.

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UNIT 9 Gross Refining Margin 101
For higher profitability, gross margin should be increased Activity 9 B
and operating cost reduced by increased efficiency in refining Explain how netback estimation
method is used for crude selection
operations. Attachment 1 shows a sample calculation for
for a refinery?
gross and net margin for a refinery.
__________________
ATTACHMENT 1: GROSS MARGIN __________________
Rs/Crores __________________
__________________
Realisation of transfer of products 4050
__________________
Cost of crude (inclusive of freight, wharfage, customs duty) 3720 __________________
__________________
Gross margin 330
__________________
Th’put-MMT 3.98 __________________
__________________
GROSS margin Rs/MT 829
Margin – Rs/BBL 112
Margin – US $/BBL US $ 2.30
Less: Operating cost Rs/MT 500
Net margin Rs/MT 329
Net back estimation

In the net back system, the estimated realisation is
calculated on the basis of expected yield from the particular
refinery for a specific crude. For the purpose of procurement
of crude for a particular refinery, net back estimation is used
to evaluate the suitable crude for the refinery. The crude
which is having higher net back to the refinery is normally
procured for it.
Attachment 2 gives a sample netback calculation to select

the best crude out any of seven crudes, considered. All these
7 crudes are sweet (low sulphur) crudes. F.Dos gives the
highest netback of Rs 1054/MT vs TAPIS with lowest netback
of Rs 41/MT.
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Notes ATTACHMENT 2: SAMPLE WORKING OF NETBACK CALCULATIONS

__________________ PROD BRENT F.DOS BON. LT. LABUAN ESCRAVOS TAPIS MIRI
PRICE BL
__________________
CRUDE RS/MT 11987 11361 11714 11994 11987 12859 11994
PRICE
__________________
LPG 14599 7 5 5 4 2 5 4
__________________ NAP 12260 8 0 5 2 5 10 3
MS 14832 12 12 12 12 13 12 12
__________________
SKO 13617 11 11 11 11 11 11 11
__________________ HSD 14361 48 58 54 58 51 53 59
OF 10100 0 0 0 0 0
__________________
L.SHS 10100 1 0 0 0 6 0 0
__________________ RPC 5535 2 1 1 2 6 1 1
SULPHUR 256 1 1 1 1 0 1
__________________
SL. WAX 13851 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
__________________ F&L 0 10 12 11 10 6 8 9
TOTAL 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
DIST% 86.0 86.0 87.0 87.0 82.0 91.0 89.0
CRUDE 11987 11361 11714 11994 11987 12859 11994
VALUE,RS/MT
PROD 12408 12415 12454 12570 12593 12900 12780
VALUE,
RS/MT
LESS IPN 100 100
COST, RS/MT
NET BACK, 421 1054 740 476 606 41 686
RS/MT
Review Questions
1. What are the most crucial factors and which are indeed
controllable, affecting GRM?
2. What are various options for reducing Refining Costs

in competitive world?
103
Unit 10 Notes
__________________
__________________
Oil Accounting __________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
Objectives
__________________
__________________
y Provide a general idea of accounting methods for crude and
petroleum products and its significance.
While the physical handling of crude oil, intermediates and

finished petroleum products is done by operations personnel,
the Oil Accounting Section of the finance department of a
refinery/warehouse is responsible for correct depiction of
the quantitative and financial records pertaining to the crude
oil and petroleum products.
Quantitative accountal and correct payment of duties on

finished petroleum products is the focal area of the oil
accounting section. The following are its key functions.
1. Accounting of Crude Oil Receipts and Duty

Implications Thereon
Crude oil received under bond from port locations and re-
warehoused in a refinery needs to be accounted on FIFO
basis and appropriate customs duty is required to be paid
and accounted for the quantity taken in the process of
refining. This is known as ex-bonding of crude.
2. Accounting of Manufactured Petroleum products and

Those Received for Blending, etc.
The duty liability on petroleum products arises when the

process of manufacture is completed, although the discharge
of duty obligation is allowed to be deferred to the time of
removal from the refinery/onward removal to warehouse.
Hence, tank accountal of receipts and removals is to be
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Notes maintained by taking dip measurements and quality testing

__________________ reports.
__________________
3. Despatch of Finished Petroleum Products
__________________
__________________ Assessment to central excise duties is invoice-based. Whether
__________________ the goods removed are duty-paid or under bond, the excise
duty liability is determined at the time of removal from the
__________________
refinery warehouse. With the invoice being the document in
__________________
support of cenvat credit claim that may accrue to a customer,
__________________
the invoice/application for duty-free removal is the
__________________ cornerstone for correct excise assessment of removals.
__________________
4. Compliance of Excise Procedure and Maintenance of
Records
The excise department tests compliance of law and procedure

primarily through the records maintained by the oil accounts
section of the assessee. For duty-paid goods, the liability
likely to arise during a working day is to be deposited in
advance through treasury challan at the bank and the deposit
credit is to be utilised in accordance with the invoices issued
for the clearances. This is done through the PLA (Personal
Ledger Account). The DSA (Daily Stock Account) is to be
maintained for opening balances, production, dispatch and
closing balances of all certified finished products of the
refinery warehouse. Intimations/declarations are to be
submitted to the range office for any act or action that may
be regarded as having an impact on revenue.
5. Material Balancing, Production Statistics and

Periodical returns and Statements
As the crude oil is processed through a combination of

distillation and blending, intermediary products arise during
the course of manufacture of certified finished petroleum
products. The control over inputs and outputs during this
refining process is achieved through the daily material
balancing done through the quantitative measurement of
tank and line-fill quantities of the crude, intermediaries and
finished products. The production statistics are correlated
to the standard product pattern and the actual distillate yield
for any particular period of time.
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UNIT 10 Oil Accounting 105
Statutory returns as per excise procedure are filed Notes
periodically by the oil accounts section with the range office. __________________
Records, returns, documents, etc prepared by the oil __________________
accounting section are open to inspection by the range office. __________________
Letters, show cause notices, if any, are normally issued __________________
through the oil accounts section.
__________________
Review Questions __________________

__________________
1. Method and system of accounting crude and petroleum __________________
products in a refinery?
__________________
2. How is the excise/customs procedure followed by oil __________________
accounting section?
107
Unit 11 Activity 11 A
What is the present level of custom
and excise duties on crude and
Excise and Custom Petroleum various petroleum products? What

is the rationale for fixing the same?
Products __________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
Objectives
__________________
__________________
y Give an overview of excise and customs procedures/formalities
__________________
as applicable.
__________________
y Provide an appreciation for the manner in which custom and excise
duties affect profitability. __________________
The removal of petroleum products manufactured in

refineries is either to direct customers or through marketing
network (warehouses/ depots/terminals, etc) for sale
therefrom. Products belonging to oil marketing companies
are also dealt through intercompany transactions.
These products are either removed on payment of excise

duty, or under bond without payment of excise duty. In the
latter case, the duty obligation on the manufactured goods
is discharged from the warehouse when it is finally cleared
for sale. In certain cases, the goods are removed under bond
to special industrial undertakings like SEBs, FCI, etc who
are licensed to deal with manufactured excisable goods
without payment of duty.
The products are removed through pipelines, tank wagon

(railways), tank lorries (oil tankers), or barges (through
waterways).
The primary raw material for finished petroleum products

is crude oil, indigenous and imported. Indigenous crude oil
attracts Nil rate of excise duty, whereas imported crude oil
attracts 10% customs duty. Indigenous crude oil is sourced
from Gujarat and Assam oilfields and from offshore oilfields
of India. Imported crude of different varieties as per
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Activity 11 B processing requirement are brought through different ports

When is it desirable to export/ of the country.
import any product based on
custom/excise duties prevailing? While crude oil only attracts the basic customs duty, other
__________________ items of import attract additional duty of customs (equivalent
__________________ to the excise duty attracted for such items under the central
__________________
excise tariff) and special additional duty of customs on
selective basis as notified. The additional duty of customs
__________________
levied under the Customs Tariff Act and the excise duty
__________________
levied under the Central Excise Tariff Act are allowed to be
__________________ set-off as duty credit by the refineries (manufacturer) under
__________________ the Cenvat Credit Scheme of central excise. During discharge
__________________ of excise duty obligations arising on the removal of finished
__________________ petroleum products from the refineries on duty-paid basis,
the refineries use the accumulated cenvat credit in lieu of
__________________
cash payment.
Other than basic excise duty, there is a levy, on selective

basis by notification, of special excise duty, additional duty
of excise (Re. 1 per litre on Motor Spirit commonly known as
petrol and on high speed diesel oil commonly known as
diesel), and recently introduced special additional duty of
excise on MS.
Petroleum products are handled under the Self-

Assessment Scheme of Self Removal Procedure (SRP) of
central excise. The excise assessee is required to take
necessary actions to be within the legal and procedural
requirement of excise and customs law, without physical
supervision of the department. At the refinery/warehouse,
the department is represented by the jurisdictional officer-
in-charge (superintendent) of the Excise Range Office who
has been given power of unified customs and central excise
control over imported crude oil and excisable finished
products of the refinery.
Review Questions
1. In the event of excess refining capacity (with glut in the
market), what level(s) of production should be maintained
to meet domestic demand and export the product?
2. What is the significance of bonded warehouse? How are

crude and products removed and accountal done?
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UNIT 11 Excise and Custom Petroleum Products 109
Bibliography Notes
__________________
1. Advanced Petroleum Refining, Dr. G.N. Sarkar, Khanna
__________________
Publishers, Delhi
__________________
2. Reading Material of Programme on Petroleum Refining __________________
and Petrochemical Technology, Indian Institute of __________________
Petroleum, Dehradun. __________________
3. Reading materials of programme on Refining & __________________

Petrochemicals of various Petroleum Companies. __________________
__________________
4. Petroleum Refining Engineering, W.L. Nelson, Mc.Graw
__________________
Hill.
5. Handbook of Petroleum Refining Process, Robert A.

Meyers
6. A layman's Introduction to Oil Refining - D.G. Crook
7. "Managing Modern Offsite Operation" by Patrick B.

Truesdale and J. Dauglas AMOS
8. Course contents on Refinery Loss Control by Dr. Eric

Robinson and Dr. John Miles at Singapore, 20-21st May,
1996.
References
1. Advanced Petroleum Refining, Dr. G.N. Sarkar, Khanna Publishers,
Delhi
2. Petroleum Refining Engineering, W.L. Nelson, McGraw Hill
3. Modern Petroleum Refining Processes, Dr. B.K. Bhaskar Rao, IIT,
Kharagpur
4. Advances in Petroleum Chemistry and Refining - Kennetha A. Kobe,
John J. Moketta
5. The Chemistry and Technology of Petroleum (Mercel Dekkar), Speight
J.G.
6. Petroleum Monthly Publication, Malaysia
7. Hydrocarbon Processing
8. New Challenges, Technologies Options for Refineries - IOC, R&D Report
No. 96018, March, 1996
9. KBC Petrofine Users Manual
10. A Layman's Introduction to Oil Refining - D.G. Crook
11. Refinery Loss Controls - Course Manual Presented by Dr. Eric Robinson
and Dr. John Miles on 20-21 May 1996 at Singapore.

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Refining

COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMICS STUDIES (CMES)

Course Name: Refining

© UNIVERSITY OF PETROLEUM & ENERGY STUDIES

Unit 1 Growth & Development of Refining Industry in India ................................... 1

Unit 2 Crude Oil and its Characteristics ...................................................................... 7

Unit 3 Specifications of Petroleum Products & Related Tests ................................ 23

Unit 4 Integrated Refinery & Petrochemical Plants ................................................. 53

Unit 5 Future Refining Scenario .................................................................................. 85

Unit 6 Advances in Petroleum Refining ..................................................................... 89

Unit 7 Hydrocarbon Loss Minimization ...................................................................... 93

Unit 8 Energy Conservation ......................................................................................... 95

Unit 9 Gross Refining Margin ...................................................................................... 99

Unit 10 Oil Accounting .................................................................................................. 103

Unit 11 Excise & Custom – Petroleum Products ....................................................... 107

Refining Industry in India __________________

y Know about special features of Indian Refining Industry.

y Get a good idea of various challenges facing the industry in the

With the growth of industry and improvement in the living

First refinery in India started soon after oil production

The Important Milestones

1889 - Oil Production started at Digboi, Assam.

1893 - First Refinery started at Margharita, Assam.

1899 - Assam Oil Company was formed.

1901 - Digboi Refinery was commissioned

1947- 1957 Setting up of three coastal refineries by Multi

Activity 1 A u 2 at Mumbai (Esso & Burmah Shell)

1959 - Indian Oil Company formed for marketing of

1962 - The first refinery in the public sector

1963 - Indian Oil Blending Ltd – A JV between Indian

1964 - IRL was dissolved and merged with Indian Oil

1974 - IOBL became part of IOCL.

1981 - Assets of erstwhile Assam Oil Co. were taken

1998 - Panipat Refinery of IOC commissioned.

commissioned. What are various options for

Notes Refining Capacity in India as in the year 2002

__________________ 1. Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Digboi 0.65 1901

__________________ 2. Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Guwahati 1.00 1962

__________________ 3. Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Barauni 3.30 (6.0) 1964

__________________ 4. Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Koyali 13.5 (18) 1965

__________________ 5. Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Haldia 3.75 (7.5) 1974

__________________ 6. Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Mathura 7.50 1982

__________________ 7. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, Vizag 7.50 1975

__________________ 8. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, Mumbai 5.50 1954

9. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Mumbai 8.90 1955

10. Cochin Refineries Limited, Cochin 7.50 (10.5) 1966

11. Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited, Chennia 6.50 (9.5) 1969

12. Bongaigaon Refineries Limited, Bongaigaon 2.35 1972

13. Madras Refineries Limited (CBR), Nagapatinam 0.50 1994

15. Indian Oil Corporation Limited Panipat 6.00 1998

16. Reliance Petroleum Limited, Jamnagar 27.00 1999

17. Numaligarh Refineries Ltd., Numaligarh 3.00 2000

Total Capacity 112.45

Indian Refining Industry  Emerging Scenario

u Stringent product specifications

u Stringent environmental regulations

u Feedstock quality deterioration

u Deregulation of oil and gas sector

Indian Refining Industry  Special Features

u Prevalence of old as well as modern technologies

u Process technologies to improve quality with respect to: __________________

u Increased emphasis on Process Control/ Automation __________________

u Refineries to be integrated ,compact and flexible with

Indian Refining Industry Emerging Scenario

Indian Refining Industry Special Features