AECH 1103 | Topic 3 (2): Oil Industry

visbreaking, delayed coking, flexicoking

These are the thermal cracking processes.

alkanes, alkenes

Fill in the blanks.

The process of cracking breaks down long-chain carbon chains into ________ and _________.

Energy

Fill in the blank.

The oil and gas industry is a branch of the ___________ Industry.

Upstream Operations (Exploration & Production)

This refers to finding, lifting, and processing oil and gas from subsurface into surface and ready for transportation.

Midstream Operations

This refers to the transportation and storage of crude oil and natural gas from E&P plants for further processing by pipeline, railway, road, or tanker.

Downstream Operations (Refining & Marketing)

This is the further processing of crude oil and natural gas into useful final products of raw materials for other industries.

84% carbon, 14% hydrogen, 1-3% sulfur, and less than 1% nitrogen, oxygen, metals & salts

This is the composition of crude oil.

hydrocarbons, non-hydrocarbons

Fill in the blanks.

Crude oil is classified into ____________ and _______________.

sulfurs, nitrogens, oxygens, metallics

These are under non-hydrocarbons, which compose crude oil.

API Gravity

It is a measure of how heavy or light a petroleum liquid is compared to water.

density, degrees

Fill in the blank.

The __________ of an oil is usually expressed in terms of API gravity, a parameter whose units are _____________ (°API).

SG = density of oil / density of water at 60 °F

density of water at 60 °F = 999 kg/m³

This is the formula to convert the density of oil to SG.

API = (141.5 / SG) −131.5

This is the formula of API Gravity.

inversely

Fill in the blank.

API gravity varies ___________ with ____________.

sulfur

Fill in the blank.

Of all of the hetero-elements in crude oil, ___________ has the most important effects on refining.

sweet (low sulfur), less

Fill in the blanks.

Crude oil is called ____________ if its sulfur level is _______ than a threshold value (e.g., 0.5 wt% (5,000 ppmw)).

sour (high sulfur), above

Fill in the blanks.

Crude oil is _______ if its sulfur level is _______ the threshold value.

• separating crude oils into different fractions (each with a unique boiling range and carbon number distribution)

• processing these fractions into finished products through a sequence of physical and chemical transformations.

Petroleum refineries transform crude oil into finished, refined products by doing the following.

True

True or False.

Many different processes are carried out to produce the required products.

water, inorganic salts, suspended solids, water-soluble trace metals

Fill in the blanks.

Crude oil often contains ________, ____________, ___________, and ___________.

chemical separation, electrostatic separation

These are the two most typical methods of crude oil desalting, and both use hot water as the extraction agent.

Chemical Desalting

This is accomplished by adding hot water with added surfactant to extract the contaminants from the oil; wastewater and contaminants are discharged from the bottom of the settling tank, and the desalted crude is drawn from the top and sent to the crude distillation tower.

Electrical Desalting

This is the application of high-voltage electrostatic charges to concentrate suspended water globules in the bottom of the settling tank.

surfactants

Fill in the blanks.

In electrical desalting, ___________ are added only when the crude has a large amount of suspended solids.

viscosity, surface tension, mixing, separation

Fill in the blanks.

The crude oil feedstock is heated to 65-180°C to reduce _________ and __________ for easier __________ and ___________ of the water.

Ammonia, caustic, acid

Fill in the blanks.

____________ is often used to reduce corrosion and __________ or ________ may be added to adjust the pH of the water wash.

Hydrocarbons should not be heated to very high temperatures (as it will cause highly undesirable decomposition reactions).

This is the major limitation of atmospheric distillation.

lower

Fill in the blank.

Gasoline with a __________ octane number can cause irreversible damage to the engine.

low, high-octane number, catalytic cracking, hydrocracking

Fill in the blanks.

The amount of gasoline obtained from simple distillation is too _______. Therefore, either ______________ compounds have to be added or additional conversion steps such as ___________ and ______________, which convert heavy hydrocarbons into lighter ones, are required.

thermal cracking

Fill in the blank.

When heating a hydrocarbon to a sufficiently high temperature, _______________ takes place.

Thermal, low-value

Fill in the blanks.

______________ processes are flexible, but a disadvantage is that, in principle, large amounts of __________ products are formed.

Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC)

It is a type of secondary unit operation primarily used in producing additional gasoline in the refining process.

Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC)

It is a process that uses a catalyst to create new, smaller molecules from larger molecules to gasoline and distillate fuels.

• high yields of gasoline and distillate material

• high reliability and low operating costs

• operating flexibility to adapt to changes in crude oil quality and refined product requirements

These are the benefits that Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) offers.

Hydrocracking

This is a two-stage process combining catalytic cracking and hydrogenation, wherein heavier feedstock is cracked in the presence of hydrogen to produce more desirable products.

pressure, temperature, catalyst, hydrogen

Fill in the blanks.

Hydrocracking employs high _________, high __________, a __________, and ____________.

feedstocks, catalytic cracking, reforming, polycyclic aromatic, concentrations, sulfur, nitrogen

Fill in the blanks.

Hydrocracking is used for _________ that are difficult to process by either ___________ or _________, since these feedstocks are characterized usually by a high _____________ content and/or high _____________ of the two principal catalyst poisons, _________ and ___________ compounds.

nature, relative rates, hydrogenation, cracking

Fill in the blanks.

Hydrocracking largely depends on the ___________ of the feedstock and the ___________ of the two competing reactions, _____________ and _____________.

aromatic, lighter, pressures, temperatures, hydrogen, catalysts

Fill in the blanks.

In hydrocracking, heavy ___________ feedstock is converted into __________ products under a wide range of very high ___________ and fairly high ____________ in the presence of ___________ and special ____________.

paraffinic, hydrogen, polycyclic aromatic

Fill in the blanks.

In hydrocracking, when the feedstock has a high ___________ content, the primary function of ___________ is to prevent the formation of _______________ compounds.

tar, coke

Fill in the blanks.

Another important role of __________ in the hydrocracking process is to reduce ________ formation and prevent buildup of _________ on the catalyst.

Hydrogenation

This serves to convert sulfur and nitrogen compounds present in the feedstock to hydrogen sulfide and ammonia.

cracking, polymerization, dehydrogenation, isomerization

Fill in the blanks.

Reforming represents the total effect of numerous reactions such as _____________, ________________, _______________, and ____________ taking place simultaneously.

platinum, bimetallic catalyst. rhenium

Fill in the blanks.

Most catalytic processes use ________ as the active catalyst, but sometimes it is combined with a second catalyst (_________) such as _________ or another noble metal.

gasoline, high octane, alkenes, isobutane, catalyst, sulfuric, hydrofluoric

Fill in the blanks.

The aim of alkylation is the production of _________ components with a __________ number from low molecular weight __________ and ___________ in the presence of a _________, either _________ acid or ____________ acid.

Gas-phase molecules are eliminated, and gasoline with a high octane number is formed.

This is the advantage of alkylation.

Alkylate

It is a premium blending stock because it has exceptional antiknock properties and is clean burning.

lower, useful, higher, not useful

Fill in the blanks.

Smaller hydrocarbons has _______ boiling point, so it is ________ for fuels; larger hydrocarbons has ________ boiling point, so it is ________ for fuels.

aliphatics, aromatics, naphthenes

These are under hydrocarbons, which compose crude oil.

• deactivate ("poison") the catalysts that promote desired chemical reactions in certain refining processes

• cause corrosion in refinery equipment

• lead to air emissions of sulfur compounds, which are undesirable and may be subject to stringent regulatory controls.

These are the effects of high sulfur levels in refinery streams.

Petroleum Refineries

These are large, capital-intensive, continuous-flow manufacturing facilities.

threefold:

(i) production of fuels for transportation, power generation, and heating purposes

(ii) production of specialties such as solvents and lube oils

(iii) production of intermediates, especially for the chemical industry

Fill in the blanks.

The goal of oil refining is __________: (i) _____________, (ii) ____________; and (iii) _______________.

desalting, dehydration, distillation

Fill in the blanks.

After __________ and ___________, the crude oil is separated into fractions by _____________.

Desalting & Dehydration

This is the first step in the refining process.

Crude Distillation

The objective of this process is to distill and separate valuable distillates (naphtha, kerosene, diesel) and atmospheric gas oil (AGO) from the crude feedstock according to their volatility.

Vaccum Distillation Unit

The objective of this process is to recover valuable gas oils from reduced crude via vacuum distillation.

Reduce the hydrocarbon partial pressure via vacuum and stripping steam.

This is the primary process technique of a vacuum distillation unit.

Coke

This is a highly undesirable carbonaceous material on the tube walls in heat exchangers and furnaces as a result of decomposition reactions.

transport, gasoline, diesel

Fill in the blanks.

The major part of the oil fractions is used in the ___________ sector, especially as _________ and _________.

Octane Number

This is the measure of the quality of gasoline.

Flash Point

This refers to the lowest temperature at which gasoline vapors can ignite when exposed to a spark or flame.

Autoignition Temperature

This is the minimum temperature at which gasoline vapors ignite spontaneously without an external ignition source.

Fire Point

This is slightly higher than the flash point, the temperature at which vapors continue burning after ignition.

Cetane Number

This is the diesel equivalent of the octane number.

Cracking

It is one of the most common conversion processes; it breaks or cracks heavier, higher-boiling point petroleum fractions into more valuable products.

catalyst

In FCC, it is a solid sand-like material that is made fluid by the hot vapor and liquid fed into the FCC.

catalyst, heat, gas oil, gasoline, distillate, butane, propane

Fill in the blanks.

The FCC uses the ________ and _______ to break apart the large molecules of ________ into the smaller molecules that make up _________, __________, and other higher-value products like _________ and __________.

fractionators, boiling points

Fill in the blanks.

After the gas oil is cracked through contact with the catalyst in FCC, the resulting effluent is processed in ____________, which separates the effluent based on various ______________ into several intermediates.

Catalytic Reforming

This is an important process used to convert low-octane naphthas into high-octane gasoline blending components called reformates.

naphtha, catalysts, reformates, BTX (benzene, toluene, xyelene), gasoline blending, petrochemical processing

Fill in the blanks.

In catalytic reforming, depending on the properties of the __________ feedstock and __________ used, _________ can be produced with very high concentrations of ________ and other aromatics useful in _____________ and ____________.

Hydrogen

This significant by-product from catalytic reforming is separated from the reformate for recycling and is used in other processes.

reformer, reactor, product-recovery

Fill in the blanks.

A catalytic _________ compromises a ________ and ____________ section.

hydrotreatment, distillation

Fill in the blanks.

In catalytic reforming, there is a feed preparation section compromising a combination of _____________ and ____________.

Alkylation

It is the reaction of isobutene with alkenes to form higher branched alkanes ("alkylate").