THE REFINING PROCESS/ CRUDE OIL DISTILLATION

PE-406

CRUDE OIL REFINERY PROCESS:

The typical fuels refinery has as a goal the conversion of as much of the barrel of
crude oil into transportation fuels as is economically practical. Although refineries
produce many profitable products, the high-volume profitable products are the
transportation fuels like gasoline, diesel and turbine (jet) fuels, and the light
heating oils, No. 1 and No. 2. These transportation fuels have boiling points
between 0 and 345°C (30 to 650°F).
Light heating oils are not properly transportation fuels but the hydrocarbon
components are interchangeable with those of diesel and jet fuels, only the
additives are different.
Although products such as lubricating oils, refrigeration and transformer oils, and
petrochemical feedstocks are profitable, they amount to less than 5 percent of the
total crude oil charged to U.S. refineries.

The processing equipment indicated is for processing crude oils of average

gravities and sulfur contents. Crude oils with low API gravities (high specific
gravities) and high sulfur contents require additional hydrotreating equipment.
THE REFINING PROCESS/ CRUDE OIL DISTILLATION
PE-406

PROCESS:
Generally, crude petroleum is heated and changed into a gas. The hot gases are
passed into the bottom of a distillation column and become cooler as they move up
the height of the column. As the gases cool below their boiling point, they
condense into a liquid. The liquids are then drawn off the distilling column at
specific heights, ranging from heavy resids at the bottom, raw diesel fuels in the
mid-sections, and raw gasoline at the top. These raw fractions are then processed
further to make several different finished products.
1. In the crude unit, crude oil is heated in excess of 700oF then routed into the
bottom section of the distilling tower. As the vapors rise in the distilling
tower, they cool and condense onto trays, which carry them to the next stage
of the process. At this point, the crude oil has been broken into feedstocks,
which are materials used as raw ingredients for making gasoline, diesel, and
other refined products or chemicals.
2. The heaviest residual oil that does not vaporize is pumped to a coking unit
where it is heated further. In this process, vapors are produced and
petroleum coke, a coal-like substance, is removed and can be used for power
generation, or as a raw material to produce ammonia.
3. Lower-valued feedstocks called ‘gas-oils’ created in the first step are
pumped to a fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCU). This unit uses both heat
and catalyst to break down the longer heavy gas oil molecules into lighter,
higher valued molecules of gasoline and diesel fuel, leaving a small amount
of fuel oil behind to be sold as a byproduct.
4. Some light feedstocks created in the coking and FCC units are sent to the
Alkylation Unit where they are catalytically combined into a high-octane
clean burning gasoline blendstock.
5. The reformer unit uses heat and catalyst to increase the octane of the
gasoline stock from the crude unit.
6. Desulfurization Units use high pressure, heat and catalysts to remove sulfur
and nitrogen impurities from gasoline and diesel blendstocks, making them
cleaner burning and more environmentally friendly fuels.
THE REFINING PROCESS/ CRUDE OIL DISTILLATION
PE-406

Although all fractions of petroleum find uses, the greatest demand is for gasoline.
One barrel of crude petroleum contains only 30-40% gasoline. Transportation
demands require that over 50% of the crude oil be "converted" into gasoline. To
meet this demand some petroleum fractions must be converted to gasoline. This
may be done by cracking — breaking down large molecules of heavy heating oil
and resids; reforming — changing molecular structures of low quality gasoline
molecules; and isomerization — rearranging the atoms in a molecule so that the
product has the same chemical formula but has a different structure, such as
converting normal butane to isobutene.
THE REFINING PROCESS/ CRUDE OIL DISTILLATION
PE-406

Generally, the simplest refineries consist of crude, vacuum, reforming and some
hydrotreating capacity. The next level of complexity adds cat cracking and some
additional hydrotreating. The most complex refineries add coking, more
hydrotreating and hydrocracking.
Refining separates crude oil into components used for a variety of purposes, from
high-performance fuels to plastics.

Refining Process Definitions

Coker Unit: processes vacuum resid, which is heated to over 900° F and put into the
coke drums, where it undergoes thermal cracking as the oil decomposes under the
extreme heat. Products include butane and lighter material, naphtha for Reforming,
turbine and diesel fuel, gas oil for Cat Cracking, and fuel grade petroleum coke.

Reformer Unit: using heat, catalyst and moderate pressure, the reformer changes the
molecular structure of crude and coker naphthas to produce a high octane primary
gasoline blend stock called reformate.

Alkylation Unit: uses acid catalyst to combine small molecules into larger ones
collectively called alkylate, which has a high octane and is the cleanest burning of the
gasoline blendstocks.

Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit: uses heat and catalyst to break or “crack” large gas oil
molecules into a range of smaller ones, specifically gasoline, low quality diesel stocks,
and a residual oil called slurry (fuel oil).

Desulfurization Unit: a device used to remove sulfur from petroleum oil.

Hydrotreating: removes impurities by using hydrogen to bind with sulfur and nitrogen.

Hydrocracking: breaks or “cracks” diesel stock material into gasoline blending stocks
using heat, catalyst and hydrogen under very high pressure.

Isomerization: rearranges the atoms in a molecule so that the product has the same
chemical formula but has a different structure, such as converting normal butane to
isobutane.