Petroleum Refining

Petroleum is the most important substance consumed in modern society. It provides not only fuel and energy for transportation but is also used in plastics, paint, fertilizer, insecticide, medicine, and elsewhere. The exact composition of petroleum varies widely from source to source, but the percentage of chemical elements changes over fairly narrow limits. Hydrogen and […]

Assay of Crude Oils (Petroleum Refining)

It is important to determine the physical and chemical characterizations of crude oil through a crude oil assay, since they are used in different areas in the petroleum refining industry. The most common applications of petroleum assays are: • To provide extensive detailed experimental data for refiners to establish the compatibility of a crude oil […]

Separation Processes

Crude Oil Pretreatment: Desalting Desalting is the first separation process that takes place at the front end of a petroleum refinery (i.e., prior to atmospheric distillation; Figure 1.5). Its primary objective is to prevent corrosion and fouling of downstream lines and equipment by reducing the oil’s salt content significantly. Desalting is normally considered a part […]

Upgrading of Distillates

The main objective of a petroleum refinery is the production of fuels (e.g., gasoline, diesel). Straight-run distillates cannot be used directly as fuels since they possess high amounts of impurities and octane and cetane numbers that are not appropriate for gasoline and diesel engines. These straight-run distillates need treatment to make them suitable for fuel […]

Upgrading of Heavy Feeds Part 1 (Petroleum Refining)

Heavy feeds are characterized by low API gravity and high amounts of impurities. In general, it is known that the lower the API gravity, the higher the impurities content. Such properties make the processing of heavy feeds different from that used for light distillates, causing several problems: • Permanent catalyst deactivation in catalytic cracking and […]

Upgrading of Heavy Feeds Part 2 (Petroleum Refining)

Hydrovisbreaking Processing 1. hycar This is one type of noncatalytic process, based on visbreaking and involving treatment with hydrogen at mild conditions. This process is completed in three reactors: • Visbreaking. This reactor carries out a moderate thermal cracking process in the presence of hydrogen. Hydrogen leads to more stable products than those obtained with […]

Description of Reactors (Petroleum Refining)

Multiphase catalytic packed-bed reactors (PBRs) operate in two modes: (1) trickle operation, with a continuous gas phase and a distributed liquid phase, and the main mass transfer resistance located in the gas, and (2) bubble operation, with a distributed gas and a continuous liquid phase, and the main mass transfer resistance located in the liquid […]

Deviation From an Ideal Flow Pattern Part 1 (Petroleum Refining)

Ideal Flow Reactors Plug – flow and perfectly mixed patterns are the two ideal extremes in which continuous reactors commonly lie (Figure 2.5). The ideality of these two flow patterns allows simple mathematical description of the reactors, and reliable and easy treatment of experimental data since radial and axial mass and heat dispersion terms in […]

Deviation From an Ideal Flow Pattern Part 2 (Petroleum Refining)

Wetting Effects As mentioned before, the second condition for an ideal reactor is that all catalyst particles must contribute equally to the overall conversion. In TBR, each catalyst particle should therefore be surrounded by a flowing film of liquid. The flux of liquid and gas should be the same in any part of the bed […]

Kinetic Modeling Approaches Part 1 (Petroleum Refining)

Various approaches to kinetic modeling of reactions that take place in the petroleum refining industry have been reported in the literature. On the one hand, kinetic studies considering each compound and all the possible reactions are complex due to the huge number of hydrocarbons involved. However, they permit a mechanistic description based on detailed knowledge […]