Petroleum Refining Distillation

Each reaction will present its own mystery and problem, but most can be solved using the inspection method used here. 

An essential part of petroleum refining is distillation. Distillation is a process used to separate the components in a mixture by their volatilities in a boiling liquid mixture. Typically, distillation is part of a much larger chemical or refining process. 

During some operations, the vapor appears to pulse upward one to three trays at a time. It is also possible to see one or two dry trays in the column while the other sections have a good liquid level above the tray. If the column is being pushed too hard, the upper trays may flood and cause problems In the lower section of the column. It is also possible to see the transfer of heat energy in the condenser as fluid passes in opposite directions. In a glass distillation bench-top operation, it is easy to observe occurrences and record data that are not visible on a large-scale operation. 

Bottom flask and temperature indicator Bottom flask heating mantle 

Overhead condenser and cooling water Overhead flask 

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In petroleum refining, distillation may take place in two stages ... 

Some very perceptive insights into the differences between petroleum refining distillation and that in the chemical industry are offered by Tolliver and Waggoner in an extensive literature review. 

The principal direct appHcation of furfural is as a selective solvent. It is used for separating saturated from unsaturated compounds in petroleum refining, for the extractive distillation of butadiene and other hydrocarbons in the manufacture of synthetic mbber and for the production of... 

Petroleum refining, also called petroleum processing, is the recovery and/or generation of usable or salable fractions and products from cmde oil, either by distillation or by chemical reaction of the cmde oil constituents under the effects of heat and pressure. Synthetic cmde oil, produced from tar sand (oil sand) bitumen, and heavier oils are also used as feedstocks in some refineries. Heavy oil conversion (1), as practiced in many refineries, does not fall into the category of synthetic fuels (syncmde) production. In terms of Hquid fuels from coal and other carbonaceous feedstocks, such as oil shale (qv), the concept of a synthetic fuels industry has diminished over the past several years as being uneconomical in light of current petroleum prices. 

Alkali Treatment. Caustic washing is the treatment of materials, usually products from petroleum refining, with solutions of caustic soda. The process consists of mixing a water solution of lye (sodium hydroxide or caustic soda) with a petroleum fraction. The treatment is carried out as soon as possible after the petroleum fraction is distilled, since contact with air forms free sulfur, which is corrosive and difficult to remove. The lye reacts either with any hydrogen sulfide present to form sodium sulfide, which is soluble in water, or with mercaptans, foUowed by oxidation, to form the less nocuous disulfides. 

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. 

Ethyleneamines are used in certain petroleum refining operations as well. Eor example, an EDA solution of sodium 2-aminoethoxide is used to extract thiols from straight-mn petroleum distillates (314) a combination of substituted phenol and AEP are used as an antioxidant to control fouling during processing of a hydrocarbon (315) AEP is used to separate alkenes from thermally cracked petroleum products (316) and TEPA is used to separate carbon disulfide from a pyrolysis fraction from ethylene production (317). EDA and DETA are used in the preparation and reprocessing of certain... 

In the chemical engineering domain, neural nets have been appHed to a variety of problems. Examples include diagnosis (66,67), process modeling (68,69), process control (70,71), and data interpretation (72,73). Industrial appHcation areas include distillation column operation (74), fluidized-bed combustion (75), petroleum refining (76), and composites manufacture (77). 

Because of the time and expense involved in conducting laboratoiy distillation tests of all three basic types, it has become increasingly common to use empirical correlations to estimate the other two distillation curves when either the ASTM, TBP, or EFN- curve is available. Preferred correlations given in the API Technical Data Book—Petroleum Refining (op. dt.) are based on the work of Edmister and Pollock [Chem. Eng. Prog., 44, 905 (1948)], Edmister and Okamoto [Pet. Refiner, 38(8), 117 (1959) 38(9), 271 (1959)], Maxwell Data Book on... 

There are many types, and only the most important can be mentioned here. [See also Hunter, in Dunstan (ed.). Science of Petroleum, vol. 3, Oxford, New York, 1938, pp. 1779-1797.] They are used fairly extensively in treating petroleum distillates, in vegetable-oil, refining, in extraction of phenol-bearing coke-oven liquors, in some met extractions, and the like. Kalichevsky and Kobe (Petroleum Refining... 

Fair, J. R., Design Steam Distillation Reboilers, Hydrocarbon Processing and Petroleum Refiner, February 1963. 

Natural gas and crude distillates such as naphtha from petroleum refining are used as feedstocks to manufacture a wide range of petrochemicals that are in turn used in the manufacture of consumer goods. Basic petrochemicals are... 

This section describes the major industrial processes within the petroleum refining industry, ineluding the materials and equipment used, and the processes employed. The section is necessary for an understanding of the interrelationships between the industrial processes, the types of air emissions, and control and pollution prevention approaehes. Deseriptions of eommonly used production processes, assoeiated raw materials, by-produets produeed are first deseribed. Petroleum refining is the physieal, thermal, and chemical separation of erude oil into its major distillation fraetions, which are then further proeessed through a series of separation and eonversion steps into finished petroleum produets. The primary products of the industry fall into three major categories ... 

Andrew Sloley s Distillation and Petroleum Refining Technology Industrial distillation and refining technology resources as well as links to related sites. hlW //(S)slole. home.mndsprins. com. 

Distillation may be defined as the separation of the constituents of a liquid mixture by partial vaporization of the mixture, followed by separate recovery of the vapor and liquid residue. Since crude petroleum is the most complex mixture of liquids found in nature, it is not surprising that distillation is one of the most important processes in modem petroleum refining. 

Modern petroleum refining involves more than distillation, however, and includes two major additional operations ... 

Naphtha is a generic term normally used in the petroleum refining industry for the overhead liquid fraction obtained from atmospheric distillation units. The approximate boiling range of light straight-run naphtha (LSR) is 35-90°C, while it is about 80-200°C for heavy straight-run naphtha (HSR). ... 

Petroleum refining begins by fractional distillation of crude oil into three principal cuts according to boiling point (bp) straight-run gasoline (bp 30-200 °C), kerosene (bp 175-300 °C), and heating oil, or diesel fuel (bp 275-400 °C). Further distillation under reduced pressure then yields... 

Petroleum refining Primary distillation process Sludges containing hydrocarbons... 

Hydrodenitrogenation (HDN) is an important process in petroleum refining. It removes nitrogen from oil distillates, so that less NOx pollutes the air when oil is burned and poisoning of the subsequent refining catalysts is reduced when the oil is processed further. Although HDN has been studied intensively and different reaction mechanisms, catalytic active sites, and functions of the catalytic components have been proposed, there are stiU many questions to be answered in order to better mderstand the reaction and the catalyst (1-4). 

Waste-derived fuels from refining processes Fuels produced by refining oil-bearing hazardous wastes with normal process streams at petroleum refining facilities are exempt if such wastes resulted from normal petroleum refining, production, and transportation practices. For these wastes to be considered as refined, they must be inserted into a part of the process designed to remove contaminants. This would typically mean insertion prior to distillation. 

Any chemical derived from petroleum, the main refining processes being fractional distillation, catalytic cracking and platforming (reforming the constituents with the aid of a platinum catalyst). Since sulphur may be recovered from petroleum refining and since SBR, furnace black and processing oils are all petrochemicals it is... 

Schrauwen, F. J. M. 2004. Shell Middle Distillate Synthesis (SMDS) process. In Handbook of petroleum refining processes, ed. R. A. Meyers, 15.25—40. New York McGraw-Hill. 

TTH [Tieftemperaturhydrierung German, meaning low-temperature hydrogenation] A petroleum refining process for converting tars and middle distillates into lower-boiling... 

They are not found to any extent in natural products, but are produced in the destructive distillation of complex natural substances, such as coal, and are formed in large amounts in petroleum refining, particularly in the cracking process. The first member of the series is ethylene, C2H4. The dienes contain two double bonds between pairs of carbon atoms in the molecule. They are related to the complex hydrocarbons in natural rubber and are important in the manufacture of synthetic rubber and plastics. The most important members of this series are butadiene, C4H5 and isoprene, CsHg. 

Residua are the dark-colored nearly solid or solid products of petroleum refining that are produced by atmospheric and vacuum distillation (Figure 11.1 Chapter 3). Asphalt is usually produced from a residuum and is a dark brown to black cementitious material obtained from petroleum processing that contains very high-molecular-weight molecular polar species called asphaltenes that are soluble in carbon disulfide, pyridine, aromatic hydrocarbons, and chlorinated hydrocarbons (Chapter 3) (Gruse and Stevens, 1960 Guthrie, 1967 Broome and Wadelin, 1973 Weissermel and Arpe, 1978 Hoffman, 1983 Austin, 1984 Chenier, 1992 Hoffman and McKetta, 1993). 

Refining the process(es) by which petroleum is distilled and/or converted by application of a physical and chemical processes to form a variety of products are generated. 

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