Petroleum industry and gasoline production

As time, passes and the petroleum industry and society develops, the demand for refinery products skyrockets, and product specifications continually tighten. New processes are developed to improve gasoline octane. Petrochemical... 

Petroleum Industry Gas chromatography is ideally suited for the analysis of petroleum products, including gasoline, diesel fuel, and oil. A typical chromatogram for the analysis of unleaded gasoline is shown in Figure 12.25d. 

The market value of natural gas Hquids is highly volatile and historically has been weakly related to the world price of cmde oil. During the 1980s, the market value of natural gas Hquids ranged from approximately 60% of the price of cmde to 73% (12). In this 10-year interval, several fluctuations occurred in the natural gas Hquid market. Because of the variabiHty of the natural gas Hquid market, the NGL recovery plants need to have flexibiHty. Natural gas Hquid products compete in the following markets ethane propane a Hquefted petroleum gas (LPG) a C-3/C-4 mix and / -butane all compete as petrochemical feedstocks. Propane and LPG are also used as industrial and domestic fuels, whereas 2-butane and natural gasoline, consisting of C-5 and heavier hydrocarbons, are used as refinery feedstocks. 

A number of other words that have traditionally been used in the petroleum industry are difficult to define precisely. These refer pardy to specific hoiling ranges, but also to certain intended uses. Thus, gasoline boils lower than naphtha, and kerosenes generally higher, but these terms are applied to products that ate intended as fuels, rather than as solvents. 

Although 600 m of water is used to make a metric ton of fertilizer, 150—240 m to make a tonne of steel, 480 m to make a tonne of gasoline, and 1000 m to make a tonne of acetate fiber, Htde if any is required chemically in any of these processes. Recycling can reduce industrial requirements by a factor of 10—50. Much of this water, particularly that for cooling, and often that for washing, can be saline. Some petroleum refiners have used salt water to remove heat (water s principal role in gasoline production), and some have actually produced table salt by evaporation in cooling towers. 

The United States is unique among the major countries in that supply and demand has determined price structures in the petroleum industry. Today, even though the products are much better than fifty years ago, the before-tax retail prices of gasolines, diesel fuels, and heating oils are much less on a constant-value dollar basis than they ever have been before. Even with the federal and state taxes included, the retail prices on a constant-value dollar basis... 

The main use of naphtha in the petroleum industry is in gasoline production. Light naphtha is normally blended with reformed gasoline (from catalytic reforming units) to increase its volatility and to reduce the aromatic content of the product gasoline. 

The growth of petroleum consumption has been quite substantial as a result of increasing demand for its distillation products. As examples, mention may be made of use of gasoline as a motor fuel, of light oil for diesel engines, of distillate and residual oils for industrial and domestic heating. 

Lead has been widely used in the storage battery industry, the petroleum industry, pigment manufacturing, insecticide production, the ceramics industry, and the metal products industry. Most of the airborne lead that has been identified comes from combustion of gasoline [33,79] and removal of lead paint [34]. 

By far the major product of this industry is the gasoline fraction from petroleum. Fig. 7.2 demonstrates this, since U.S. shipments of gasoline were down in 1986 as well. Gasoline in Fig. 7.2 follows a curve similar to Petroleum and Coal Products Manufacturing in Fig. 7.1. Other products such as Jet fuel, kerosene, and fuel oils contribute substantially less to the total value of petroleum. 

RhUIDIZEd cracking of petroleum fractions is still the main process for large-scale gasoline production even 40 years after its introduction. Worldwide cracking-catalyst sales in 1987 amounted to about 457 million and represented 48% of the total catalyst sales to the petroleum industry. 

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