Solvent petroleum refining industry

Solvent extraction may also be used to reduce asphaltenes and metals from heavy fractions and residues before using them in catalytic cracking. The organic solvent separates the resids into demetallized oil with lower metal and asphaltene content than the feed, and asphalt with high metal content. Figure 3-2 shows the IFP deasphalting process and Table 3-2 shows the analysis of feed before and after solvent treatment. Solvent extraction is used extensively in the petroleum refining industry. Each process uses its selective solvent, but, the basic principle is the same as above. 

Solvent Extraction Performance in Petroleum Refining Industry (Lube Oil Refining Subcategory) Using Extractor (Spray Column Contactor and Stripping Column) and Solvent (Isobutylene)... 

The second part of this handbook (Chapters 14-25) is devoted more to the industrial use of solvents. Formulating with solvents applied in a broad range of industrial areas such as biotechnology, dry cleaning, electronic industry, food industry, paints and coatings, petroleum refining industry, pharmaceutical industry, textile industry, to mention only a few, is extensively described in Chapter 14. Standard and special mefriods of solvent detection and solvent analysis as well as the problem of residual solvents in various products, particularly in pharmaceutical ones, are the topics of Chapters 15 and 16. 

Tables 14.20.1 and 14.20.2 give solvent releases and transfers data for the petroleum refining industry. Transfers are small fraction of releases which means that most wastes are processed on-site.

Table 14.20.1. Reported solvent releases from the petroleum refining industry in 1995 [Data from Ref. 2]...

The US petroleum refining industry generates sales of over 730 billion with only about 143 plants. It employs 62,000 people. About 90% of the produets used in US are fuels of whieh 43% is gasoline. Figure 13.20.1 illustrates how the produets breakdown. The proeess is described in detail in Chapter 3. Emissions of hydrocarbons to the atmosphere occur at almost every stage of the production process. Solvents are produced in various processes and they are also used to extract aromatics Irom lube oil feedstock, deasphalting of lubricating base stocks, sulfur recovery from gas stream, production of solvent additives for motor fuels such as methyl tert-butyl ether and tert-amyl methyl ether, and various... 

Chlorinated ethanes are chemical compounds of the general structure C2HxCl x(X 5) and are widely used in the industrial world as solvents, chemical intermediates, cleaning fluids, fumigants, and for numerous other purposes including uses in petroleum-refining. Likewise,.the chemicals in the class of compounds known as polychlorinated biphenyls Cl (2< < 10) (PCBs) have... 

Current occupational exposure to 1,2-dichloroethane in North America occurs predominantly during the manufacture of other chemicals, such as vinyl chloride, where 1,2-dichloroethane is used as an intermediate. In a 1982 National Occupational Exposure Survey by the United States National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), 28% of employees working with adhesives and solvents were exposed to 1,2-dichloroethane, while between 5 and 9% of workers were exposed to the substance in the medicinals and botanicals, biological products, petroleum refining and organic chemicals industries, and in museums and art galleries (United States Department of Labor, 1989). 

Sulfur dioxide is used for refrigeration and also serves as raw material for the production of sulfuric acid. It is also used as a bleaching agent in the textile and food industries. It is an effective disinfectant and is employed as such for wooden kegs and barrels and brewery apparatus and for the prevention of mold in the drying of fruits. Sulfur dioxide efficiently controls fermentation in the making of wine. It is used in the sulfite process for paper pulp, as a liquid solvent in petroleum refining, and as a raw material in many plants in place of sulfites, bisulfites, or hydrosulfites. 

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