How oil refining works?

Fractional Distillation
The various components of crude oil have different sizes, weights and boiling temperatures;
so, the first step is to separate these components. Because they have different boiling
temperatures, they can be separated easily by a process called fractional distillation. The
steps of fractional distillation are as follows:
1. You heat the mixture of two or more substances (liquids) with different boiling points
to a high temperature. Heating is usually done with high pressure steam to
temperatures of about 1112 degrees Fahrenheit / 600 degrees Celsius.
2. The mixture boils, forming vapor (gases); most substances go into the vapor phase.
3. The vapor enters the bottom of a long column (fractional distillation column) that is
filled with trays or plates. The trays have many holes or bubble caps (like a loosened
cap on a soda bottle) in them to allow the vapor to pass through. They increase the
contact time between the vapor and the liquids in the column and help to collect
liquids that form at various heights in the column. There is a temperature difference
across the column (hot at the bottom, cool at the top).
4. The vapor rises in the column.
5. As the vapor rises through the trays in the column, it cools.
6. When a substance in the vapor reaches a height where the temperature of the column
is equal to that substance's boiling point, it will condense to form a liquid. (The
substance with the lowest boiling point will condense at the highest point in the
column; substances with higher boiling points will condense lower in the column.).
7. The trays collect the various liquid fractions.
8. The collected liquid fractions may pass to condensers, which cool them further, and
then go to storage tanks, or they may go to other areas for further chemical processing
Fractional distillation is useful for separating a mixture of substances with narrow differences
in boiling points, and is the most important step in the refining process.
The oil refining process starts with a fractional distillation column. On the right, you can see
several chemical processors that are described in the next section.
Very few of the components come out of the fractional distillation column ready for market.
Many of them must be chemically processed to make other fractions. For example, only 40%
of distilled crude oil is gasoline; however, gasoline is one of the major products made by oil
companies. Rather than continually distilling large quantities of crude oil, oil companies
chemically process some other fractions from the distillation column to make gasoline; this
processing increases the yield of gasoline from each barrel of crude oil.

In the next section, we'll look at how we chemically process one fraction into another.
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Distillation of oil refining

Crude oil, also called petroleum, is a complex mixture of carbon and hydrogen
(hydrocarbons), which exist as a liquid in the earth's crust. Crude oil has many compositions,
some is black, thick and tar like, while other crude oils are lighter in color and thinner. The
carbon and hydrogen in crude oil are thought to have originated from the remains of
microscopic marine organisms that were deposited at the bottom of seas and oceans and was
transformed at high temperature and pressure into crude oil and natural gas.
This oil and gas migrates upward through the porous rock, as it is less dense than the water
which fills the pores. The oil and gas is trapped by a layer of impermeable rock through
which they can't flow. Several different types of oil and gas "traps" exist; a common dome
formed by folded sedimentary rocks. Crude oil is obtained by drilling a hole into the reservoir
rock (sandstone, limestone etc.) and pumping it out.
Petroleum refining is the process of separating the many compounds present in crude

petroleum. This process is called fractional distillation where the crude oil is heated; the
various of the compounds boil at different temperatures and change to gases; and are later
recondensed back into liquids. Fossil Fuels
The principle which is used is that the longer the carbon chain, the higher the
temperature at which the compounds will boil.
Boiling Points and Hydrocarbons
The crude petroleum is heated and changed into a gas. The gases are passed through a
distillation column which becomes cooler as the height increases. See the figure on the left.
When a compound in the gaseous state cools below its boiling point, it condenses into a
liquid. The liquids may be drawn off the distilling column at various heights.
Although all fractions of petroleum find uses, the greatest demand is for
gasoline. One barrel of crude petroleum contains only 25-35% 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; "reforming" - changing molecular structures of low quality
gasoline molecules; or "polymerization" - forming longer molecules from smaller
ones. Conversion Oil Refining
For example if decane is heated to about 500 C the covalent carbon-carbon
bonds begin to break during the cracking process. Many kinds of compounds
including alkenes are made during the cracking process. Alkenes are formed
because there are not enough hydrogens to saturate all bonding positions after
the carbon-carbon bonds are broken.

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Conversion Oil Refining

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Catalytic Cracking: breaking down large molecules of heavy heating oil into smaller
gasoline molecules.
The most widely used conversion method is called catalytic cracking because it uses heat and
pressure to "crack" heavy hydrocarbon molecules into lighter ones. The cracking reaction is
very endothermic, and requires a large amount of heat. Another problem is that reaction
quickly fouls the Silica (SiO2) and alumina (Al2O3) catalyst by forming coke on its surface.
Many kinds of compounds including alkenes are made during the cracking process. Alkenes
are formed because there are not enough hydrogens to saturate all bonding positions after the
carbon-carbon bonds are broken.
Hydroprocessing applies the same principles but uses a different catalyst, slightly lower
temperatures, much greater pressure and hydrogen to obtain chemical reactions of breaking
down large molecules of heavy heating oil into smaller gasoline molecules. It also converts
aromatics to cyclic alkanes, olefins to alkanes.
Hydroprocessing first involves the addition of hydrogen atoms to molecules without actually
breaking the molecule into smaller pieces at temperatures of about 325 degrees Celsius and
pressures of about 50 atmospheres. Many catalysts will work, including; nickel, palladium,
platinum, cobalt, and iron. Then hydrocracking breaks longer molecules into smaller ones at
temperatures over 350 degrees Celsius and pressures up to 200 atmospheres. In both cases,
very long residence times (about an hour) are required because of the slow nature of the
reactions.
Alkylation or "polymerization" - forming longer molecules from smaller ones. Another
process is isomerization where straight chain molecules are made into higher octane branched
molecules.
The reaction requires an acid catalyst (sulfuric acid, H2SO4 or hydrofluoric acid, HF) at low
temperatures (1-40 degrees Celsius) and low pressures (1-10 atmospheres). The acid

composition is usually kept at about 50% making the mixture very corrosive.
Catalytic Reforming uses heat, moderate pressure and fixed bed catalysts to
turn naphtha, short carbon chain molecule fraction, into high-octane gasoline
components - mainly aromatics. Because the reactions which produce higher
octane compounds (aliphatic in this case) are endothermic (absorb heat)
additional heaters are installed between reactors to keep the reactants at the
proper temperature. The catalyst is a platinum (Pt) metal on an alumina (Al 2O3)
base.

Distillation column/tower
Distillation system
-the feed is stored in the tank. During operation a pump is used to move the feed
from tank to a preheater. In the preheater the mixture is heated under pressure t
just below its boiling point. The pressure in the tower is lower in the pressure in
the preheater. So when the feed enters the tower it starts to boil. The vapors
from the boiling liquid which primarily contained the lighter components in the
feed rise in the tower. The remaining liquid which consists primarily of the
heavier components in the feed moves down the tower and collected in the
bottom. Some of this liquid is drawn off as the bottoms product and some of its
routed to a device called reboiler. Which is connected to the bottom of the
tower. The reboiler is usually a heat exchanger that designed to vaporize the
lighter components that remain in the liquid the bottom of the tower. Vapors
from reboiler or in some cases a mixture of vapors and liquid reenter the tower.
The vapors then rise up in the tower. These vapors and the heat they contain
are often referred to as boiler up. The hot boiler up provides heat that needed for
the distillation process to take place in the tower . the vapors that rise up the

tower are routed to a condenser. The purpose of the condenser is to cool and
condense the vapors into liquid. From the condenser the liquidflows into a
receiver or accumulator. The receiver provides the reservoir for the liquid . part
of the liquid from the receiver is pumped back into the top of the tower in part of
it is drawn off the towers overhead product.