Floating Petroleum Refineries

The Japanese, who are veiy concerned about air pollution, are investigating floating petroleum refineries. These plants would take on crude oil and produce liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), naphtha, kerosene, and heavy oil while en route to Japan. A conventional tanker would accompany this ship. Both ships would load up with crude and after the refinery ship had processed its own load it would be transferred on the high seas to the tanker, which would transfer its crude to the floating refinery. By the time they reached their destination all the crude would be processed. 17 Any air pollution would occur on the high seas and not directly affect man. 

Interna] Floating-Head Exchanger (Fig, 11-36a) The internal floating-head design is used extensively in petroleum-refinery service, but in recent years there has been a dechne in usage. 

Steam distillation is used when normal distillation is not an option, due to thermal sensitivities. By adding water or steam, the boiling points of compounds can be depressed, allowing them to evaporate at lower temperatures. After distillation the vapours are condensed and typically yield two phases water and organics. These can then be easily separated on the basis of their different densities. On a simple level, this can be seen every day in fresh black coffee, where small amounts of organic, water-immiscible oils float on the surface. Steam distillation is employed on an industrial scale in the manufacture of essential oils (e.g. lavender, eucalyptus and fruit oils) that are used in the food and flavour industries. In this area, the use of water is highly desirable as a natural solvent. Steam distillation is also used in petroleum refineries and petrochemical plants, where it is commonly referred to as steam stripping . 

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