Oil from petroleum

The principal sources of feedstocks in the United States are the decant oils from petroleum refining operations. These are clarified heavy distillates from the catalytic cracking of gas oils. About 95% of U.S. feedstock use is decant oil. Another source of feedstock is ethylene process tars obtained as the heavy byproducts from the production of ethylene by steam cracking of alkanes, naphthas, and gas oils. There is a wide use of these feedstocks in European production. European and Asian operations also use significant quantities of coal tars, creosote oils, and anthracene oils, the distillates from the high temperature coking of coal. European feedstock sources are 50% decant oils and 50% ethylene tars and creosote oils. 

It has been shown by operation in a continuously operating experimental plant that bituminous coal can be hydrogenated at relatively low pressures (about 1500 pounds per square inch) to produce a heavy fuel oil (3, 10). Although now not competitive with such fuel oil from petroleum, the process may be important in remote areas where coal but no petroleum is available. 

Mixtures of gaseous or liquid hydrocarbons which can be vaporized represent the raw materials preferable for the industrial production of carbon black. Since aliphatic hydrocarbons give lower yields than aromatic hydrocarbons, the latter are primarily used. The best yields are given by unsubstituted polynuclear compounds with 3-4 rings. Certain fractions of coal tar oils and petrochemical oils from petroleum refinement or the production of ethylene from naphtha (aromatic concentrates and pyrolysis oils) are materials rich in these compounds. These aromatic oils, which are mixtures of a variety of substances, are the most important feedstocks today. Oil on a petrochemical basis is predominant. A typical petrochemical oil consists of 10-15% monocyclic, 50-60% bicyclic, 25-35% tricyclic, and 5-10% tetracyclic aroma tes. 

In addition to coal gasification, the formation of coal slurries is another new use of coal. A slurry is a suspension of fine particles in a liquid. Coal must be pulverized and mixed with water to form a slurry. The resulting slurry can be handled, stored, and burned in ways similar to those used for residual oil, a heavy fuel oil from petroleum accounting for 13% of U.S. petroleum imports. One hope is that coal slurries might replace solid coal and residual oil as fuels for electricity-generating power plants. However, the water needed for slurries might place an unacceptable burden on water resources, especially in the western states. 

Table 11.8 contrasts the compositional differences between white mineral oils from petroleum sources and synthetic white oil, the latter being 100% branched... 

INAN, S., Yalcin, M. N. Mann, U. 1998. Expulsion of oil from petroleum source rocks, inferences from pyrolysis of samples of unconventional grain size. In Horsfield, B., Radke, M., Schaefer, R. G. Wilkes, H. (eds) Advances in Organic Geochemistry 1997. Organic Geochemistry, 29,45-61. 

Refers to the removal of oil from petroleum wax a refinery process usually involving filtering or pressing a chilled mixture of slack wax and a solvent that is miscible in the oil, to lower the oil content of the wax. 

Crude petroleum can be used as feedstock, but the most common feedstock is heavy residual oil from petroleum refining processes, which has liad the more... 

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