PE-406 Petroleum Refinery Engineering (notes by maisam abbas)

Department of Petroleum Engineering- NED University of Engineering and Technology

REFINERY PROCESS & OPERATIONS:

Crude oil in its natural state has no value to consumers and must be transformed
into products that can be used in the marketplace. Various physical and chemical
methods are used in refining processes.
Refining begins with distillation by boiling crude into separate fractions or cuts.
All crude oils undergo separation processes through distillation, and so it is
common to express the capacity of a refinery in terms of its distillation capacity.
Two measures are commonly used: barrels per stream day (BPSD) and barrels per
calendar day (BPCD).
A barrel per stream day is the maximum number of barrels of input that a
distillation facility can process when running at full capacity under optimal crude
and product slate conditions with no allowance for downtime.
A barrel per calendar day is the amount of input that a distillation facility can
process under usual operating conditions, making allowances for the types and
grades of products to be manufactured, environmental constraints, and unscheduled
and scheduled downtime due to maintenance, repairs, and shutdown.
Capacity expressed in BPSD is a few percentage points higher than BPCD
capacity.
Petroleum refining processes and operations are classified into five basic types:
1. Distillation is the separation of crude oil in atmospheric and vacuum
distillation columns into groups of hydrocarbon compounds based on
molecular size and boiling-point ranges.
2. Conversion processes change the size or structure of hydrocarbon molecules
by
 Decomposition: Breaking down large molecules into smaller molecules
with lower boiling points through cracking and related processes.
 Unification: Building small molecules into larger molecules through
alkylation, polymerization, and related processes.
 Reforming: Rearranging molecules into different geometric structures in
isomerization, catalytic reforming, and related processes.
PE-406 Petroleum Refinery Engineering (notes by maisam abbas)
Department of Petroleum Engineering- NED University of Engineering and Technology

3. Treatment processes prepare hydrocarbon streams for additional processing

and to prepare finished products using chemical or physical separation.
Processes include desalting, hydrodesulfurization, solvent refining, sweetening,
solvent extraction, and dewaxing.
4. Blending is the process of mixing and combining hydrocarbon fractions,
additives, and other components to produce finished products with specific
performance properties.
5. Other refining operations include light-ends recovery, sour-water stripping,
solid waste and wastewater treatment, process-water treatment and
cooling, storage and handling, product movement, hydrogen production,
acid and tail gas treatment, and sulfur recovery.
(See Sir Notes for Diagram of Basic Flow)
Conceptually, a process refinery can be viewed upon as a combination of both
physical and chemical processes or unit operations and unit processes respectively.
Physical Separation Processes:
 Distillation
 Solvent Deasphalting
 Solvent extraction
 Solvent dewaxing
Chemical Conversion Processes:
1. Catalytic:
 Reforming
 Hydrotreating
 Hydrocracking
 Alkylation
 Isomerization
2. Treatment:
 Delayed Coking
 Flexi-coking
 Visbreaker
PE-406 Petroleum Refinery Engineering (notes by maisam abbas)
Department of Petroleum Engineering- NED University of Engineering and Technology

REFINERY FEEDSTOCKS:
A refinery feedstock is product or a combination of products derived from crude
oil and destined for further processing other than blending in the refining industry.
It is transformed into one or more components and/or finished products. (feedstock
means any raw material from crude oil).
 Basic Raw materials for refineries is crude oil itself.
Other feedstocks may include Gilsonite, a solid asphalt of low melting point, oil
sands; unconsolidated or consolidation formation’s oil and natural gas liquid
(NGL).
The basic raw material for refineries is petroleum or crude oil, even though in
some areas synthetic crude oils from other sources (Gilsonite, oil sands, etc.) and
natural gas liquids are included in the refinery feedstocks. The chemical
compositions of crude oils are surprisingly uniform even though their physical
characteristics vary widely. Since 1980, crude oils charged to U.S. refineries have
become heavier (lower °API, higher sp. gr.) and have higher sulfur contents. Both
of these properties require more severe and more costly processing. In 1980, the
average gravity was 33.8°API (sp. gr. 0.856) and the sulfur content, 0.89 wt%. By
2004, the gravity had decreased to 30.5°API (sp. gr. 0.874) and the sulfur content
had increased to 1.42 wt%.
CRUDE OIL PROPERTIES:
 API gravity
 Sulphur Content
 Pour Point
 Carbon Residue
 Characterization Factor
 Nitrogen Content
 Metal Content, ppm
 Total Acid Number (TAN)

1. API Gravity:
The density of petroleum oils is expressed in the United States in terms of API
gravity rather than specific gravity; it is related to specific gravity in such a fashion
PE-406 Petroleum Refinery Engineering (notes by maisam abbas)
Department of Petroleum Engineering- NED University of Engineering and Technology

that an increase in API gravity corresponds to a decrease in specific gravity. The

gravity of crude oil determines its price commercially. It is generally expressed as
API gravity defined as:
141.5
API O = − 131.5
S. G
where SG is the specific gravity defined as the density of the crude oil relative to
the density of water both at 15.6 °C (60 °F).
Specific gravity and API gravity refer to the weight per unit volume at 15.6 °C (60
°F) as compared to water at 60 °F.
Crude oils can generally be classified according to gravity as shown as:
 Light Crude oil: >31.1 °API
 Medium Crude oil: 31.1 °API to 22.3 °API
 Heavy Crude oil: 22.3 °API to 10 °API
 Extra Heavy Crude oil: <10 °API
The API gravity is also measured for various petroleum fractions. One of the
standard tests is ASTM D1298.
Print page 58 till 60 of James Gary for rest.
COMPOSITION OF CRUDE OIL:
From Paraffins to Aromatics => print page 62 till 65 of James Gary.
 Styrene:
PE-406 Petroleum Refinery Engineering (notes by maisam abbas)
Department of Petroleum Engineering- NED University of Engineering and Technology
PE-406 Petroleum Refinery Engineering (notes by maisam abbas)
Department of Petroleum Engineering- NED University of Engineering and Technology
PE-406 Petroleum Refinery Engineering (notes by maisam abbas)
Department of Petroleum Engineering- NED University of Engineering and Technology
PE-406 Petroleum Refinery Engineering (notes by maisam abbas)
Department of Petroleum Engineering- NED University of Engineering and Technology

PRODUCT ANALYSIS:
PE-406 Petroleum Refinery Engineering (notes by maisam abbas)
Department of Petroleum Engineering- NED University of Engineering and Technology

LEARN THIS TABLE IN THE FORM ABOVE, OR IN COLUMN FORM

SUCH AS:
PRODUCT NO OF CARBON BOILING POINT
ATOMS
PE-406 Petroleum Refinery Engineering (notes by maisam abbas)
Department of Petroleum Engineering- NED University of Engineering and Technology

NATURAL GAS LIQUIDS:

Natural gas liquids are hydrocarbons; a hydrocarbon is a molecule composed

exclusively of carbon and hydrogen. As a hydrocarbon, NGLs belong in the same
family of molecules as natural gas and crude oil. Examples of NGLs include
ethane, propane, butane, isobutane and pentane.

Natural gas liquids (NGL) are components of natural gas that are separated from
the gas state in the form of liquids. This separation occurs in a field facility or in a
gas processing plant through absorption, condensation or other method. Natural
gas liquids are classified based on their vapor pressure, as low (condensate),
intermediate (natural gas) and high vapor pressure (liquified petroleum gas, LPG).

Examples of NGLs include propane, butane, isobutane, pentane, hexane and

heptane; but not methane and ethane. Since their hydrocarbons need refrigeration
to be liquified, hence we use the term NGL.

REFLUX RATIO: it is the ratio between boil up rate and the takeoff rate. In other
words, it is the ratio between the amount of reflux that goes back down the
distillation column, and the amount of reflux that is collected in the receiver
(distillate).
PE-406 Petroleum Refinery Engineering (notes by maisam abbas)
Department of Petroleum Engineering- NED University of Engineering and Technology

ANTI-KNOCK INDEX:

In the United States the "octane" rating of a gasoline is based on the anti-knock
index (AKI). This reflects the tendency of the fuel to burn in a controlled manner.
The greater the tendency to burn in a controlled manner, the less the amount of
engine knocking and the greater the engine's efficiency.

VISCOSITY INDEX:

The viscosity index VI is an arbitrary, unitless measure of the change of viscosity

with temperature, mostly used to characterize the viscosity-temperature behavior
of lubricating oils. The lower the VI, the more the viscosity is affected by change
in temperature.

KINEMATIC VISCOSITY: a quantity representing the dynamic viscosity of a

fluid per unit density.

RETENTION TIME: it is a measure of time taken for a solute to pass through a

chromatography column. It is calculated as the time from injection to detection.

RESIN: It is a solid, or highly viscous substance. It is of synthetic origin or

derived from plant source, and is typically converted to polymers.
PE-406 Petroleum Refinery Engineering (notes by maisam abbas)
Department of Petroleum Engineering- NED University of Engineering and Technology

We referred Cetane number here because it is only applied to Diesel (not on

kerosene, gasoline); and since diesel fuel is to be dealt next, we studied it earlier.
PE-406 Petroleum Refinery Engineering (notes by maisam abbas)
Department of Petroleum Engineering- NED University of Engineering and Technology

Thus, the quality of diesel fuels is expressed by Cetane Number.

PE-406 Petroleum Refinery Engineering (notes by maisam abbas)
Department of Petroleum Engineering- NED University of Engineering and Technology
PE-406 Petroleum Refinery Engineering (notes by maisam abbas)
Department of Petroleum Engineering- NED University of Engineering and Technology

PRINT PAGE 25 TILL 27 FOR OTHER PROPERTIES OF MA FAHIM, AL

SAHHAF, FUNDAMENTALS BOOK. (becoz sir included it in his notes)
Print page 27 till 30 of al sahhaf book. Sir told us to read by ourselves.
PE-406 Petroleum Refinery Engineering (notes by maisam abbas)
Department of Petroleum Engineering- NED University of Engineering and Technology

DESALTING OF CRUDE OILS:

Crude oil contains water, inorganic salts, suspended solids, and water-soluble trace
metals. First step in the refining process is to remove salt and solids to reduce
corrosion, plugging, and fouling of equipment and to prevent poisoning of the
catalysts in processing units. Contaminants must be removed by desalting
(preceded by dehydration).
All the crudes contain water or moisture and salt to some varying percentage.
Desalting is the removal of mineral salts from the crude on a desalter in the form of
brine. Crudes must be dehydrated to remove the salts. Removal is very much
effective in the form of brine.
Chlorides of calcium and magnesium play an important role to cause corrosion.
The salt in presence of steam at 150-200 °C easily hydrolyses, generating
hydrochloric vapors and causing corrosion in equipment during processing.
Due to deposition of these salts, heat transfer and normal flow of the oil is reduced
in heat exchangers and furnaces.
We have 3 methods:
 Chemical desalting
 Mechanical desalting
 Electrical desalting
Electrical desalting method is preferred, as it is more cheap and effective. At the
oilfields, salt is removed by settling process or by chemicals or by combination of
PE-406 Petroleum Refinery Engineering (notes by maisam abbas)
Department of Petroleum Engineering- NED University of Engineering and Technology

these processes.

Na2CO3 and NaOH chemicals are generally used for desalting of crude oil.
PE-406 Petroleum Refinery Engineering (notes by maisam abbas)
Department of Petroleum Engineering- NED University of Engineering and Technology

ELECTRIC DESALTING METHOD:

The main (primary) purpose of using desalter is to remove the salts typically
calcium, magnesium and sodium to minimize corrosion . Among the different type
of desalting , electric desalting is better in performance than other types. It requires
less cost and less time and is effective. This mechanism is called electrostatic water
separation. Desalting and dehydration is achieved simultaneously with a
spectacular removal of more than 90% of salt from raw crude oil in just less than
an hour. Electric desalting is a combination process to remove inorganic salts and
other impurities from the crude oil.
The principle in the electric desalting method is simple; under a charged electric
field the polar molecules orient. A potential of 20,000 to 30000 volts is applied
between the electrodes through which the crude oil is passed. Water presents in the
form of emulsion also coalesces and agglomerates in to stream entrapping all the
salts in this process. Brine collects at the bottom of the desalter, which crude floats
above and forms a separate stream.
The salt in the crude in the form of dissolved or suspended salt crystals in water are
emulsified with crude oil. De-emulsifiers break emulsion into brine and crude oil.
(crystals are emulsified with crude oil)
EMULSION:
An emulsion is a mixture of two or more liquids that are normally immiscible.
PE-406 Petroleum Refinery Engineering (notes by maisam abbas)
Department of Petroleum Engineering- NED University of Engineering and Technology

Performance of electric desalting system depends on the following key parameters:

 crude oil properties
 desalting temperature 40-120 °C
 pressure 4-6 bar
 pH 5-7
Power consumption is very low; only 0.01 KWhr per barrel.
There are 2 kinds of desalting approaches:
 1 stage desalting
 2 stage desalting
Let’s deal with each desalting methods efficiency;
1. Single stage desalting (90 to 95 %)- used for 10 lb/1000 bbl NaCl content.
2. Two stage desalting (99%)- used for >20 lb/1000 bbl.
3. Three stage desalting- used where residue are catalytically processed.
For single-stage desalting units, 90 to 95% efficiencies are obtained, and two-stage
processes achieve 99% or better efficiency.
Electric field can be AC or DC; about 90% of desalters use AC field separation
only.
PE-406 Petroleum Refinery Engineering (notes by maisam abbas)
Department of Petroleum Engineering- NED University of Engineering and Technology