OIL REFINERY

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OIL REFINERY 

Oil refining is an industrial process in which Crude oil is process or refined to make useful products, i.e Gasoline, diesel, kerosene etc .   

Oil refining is an extensive process and requires multiple process units, joining this units is complex piping system carrying different fluids.

CRUDE OIL

Crude oil is the Raw material for all the petroleum products we see around us, it is a complex combination of different hydrocarbons (both light end and heavy end ).

The Hydrocarbons in crude are mostly alkanes, napthenes (cyclo alkanes) and various other aromatic hydrocarbons.

• Alkanes, known also has paraffin, are saturated hydrocarbons with straight or branched chains which only contain carbon and hydrogen and have the formula Cn H2n+2. 

• Cyclo Alkanes, also known as napthenes, are saturated hydrocarbons which have one or more carbon rings to which hydrogen atoms are attached according to the formula Cn H2n.

• Aromatic Hydrocarbons are unsaturated hydrocarbons which have one or more benzene rings, to which hydrogen atoms are attached with the formula Cn Hn. 

Crude petroleum is a liquid with varying physical and chemical properties, following are the properties that are of concern in oil refinery.

Specific gravity , API gravity , acid number , Pour point, kinematic viscosity , sediment wt%, water wt% , salt NaCl, Total Sulfur, Hydrogen sulfide, Nitrogen,Carbon , hydrogen, Characterization factor, Gross Heating Value (BTU/lb), Net heating value (BTU/lb), iron , vanadium, sodium ,copper, arsenic, nickel, mercury, lead, molybdenum.

On the above factors some unit operation varies

General Products of Refinery

LPG  

Is obtained From hydro stabilizer and platformate stabilizer overheads

Naphtha

Naphta has two types Light naphtha containing C5 to C8 & heavy naphtha contains C6 to C10

Boiling temperature are 40°C to 90°C "Light virgin naphtha: and 90°C to 140°C for  "heavy virgin naphtha"

It is obtained From splitter

Gasoline   

Gasoline is obtained from hydro stabilizer, Contains hydrocarbons in the C4- C10 range and its boiling range is from 100 to 150°C  

HSD

It is obtained from the middle trays of distillation column , temperature ranges between 250°C and 280°C at atmospheric pressure.

High speed diesel specifically ranges from; C15 to C21

Kerosene 

It is one of the middle ranged products obtained from splitter and has boiling temperature ranging between 170°C to 200°C

Carbon ranges between C12C19 It contains around 20% of aromatics

Jet Oil

It is obtained by blending kerosene.

Contains carbon between C8-C16 range It is also called narrow cut kerosene and obtained in between 140°C to 250°C