Oil refinery is an organized and co-ordinated arrangements of various industrial processes where
crude oil is processed and refined into more useful products, mainly fuels.
Refinery
• Oil refinery is an organized and co-ordinated arrangements of various industrial processes where crude oil is processed and refined into more useful products, mainly fuels.
• Each refinery is uniquely designed to process specific crude oil/s into selected products.
• Certain Refineries are integrated with Petrochemical Complex to produce various value added product like Polyester , Linear Alkali Benzene etc.
As Refinery is based on processing Crude oil ,we shall first describe the pattern of Crude Oil .
• Crude oils are formed by the action of geological processes on the remains of ancient marine life.
• It is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons and over 16,000 compounds have been identified in one sample.
• Composition varies widely:
• By geographical location
• Mix of individual wells
• Variance of wells with time
Crude oil contains almost all known hydrocarbons and non- hydrocarbons. As it is drawn from the earth, it also contains impurities like water, mud and salts which get associated during its production and transportation.
• Crude oil is a complex mix of organic liquid containing following elements/compounds:
• Carbon – 84%
• Hydrogen – 14%
• Sulfur – 1 to 3% ( sulfides, disulfides, elemental sulfur)
• Nitrogen – < 1% (basic compounds with amine grs)
• Oxygen – < 1% (Phenols, ketones, carboxylic acids)
• Metals – < 1% ( like Ni, V, Cu, Ar etc.)
• Salts – < 1% (NaCl, MgCl2, MgCl2, CaCl2 etc.)
Hydrocarbons in crude oil
• Paraffin ( CnH2n+2)
• Naphthenes ( CnH2n)
• Aromatics (C6H5X)
• Others Hydrocarbons( Alkenes CnH2n/Alkynes CnH2n-2)
• Non Hydrocarbons (Compounds of S, N& O)
Based on % of different components present in the crude oil, various process of a refinery (configuration) is selected.
BASIC REFINERY CONFIGURATION
Common Refinery Units
• CDU
• VDU
• DHDS/DHDT
• HCU
• HGU
• FCC
• CCU
• CRU
• Merox
• DCU
• Visbraker
• Isomerisation
Typical flow sheet of Refinery
Basic process in Refinery
• DISTILLATION
• CRACKING
• TREATING
• REFORMING
Products of Refinery
• Products from Refinery can be broadly divided into three grs:
• Light distillates (LPG, Gasoline, Naptha)
• Middle distillates (Kerosene, diesel)
• Heavy distillates & Residue ( (fuel oil, lubricating oils, wax, tar, coke).
• This classification is based on the way crude oil is distilled
