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Fossil Fuels
Published in Robert Ehrlich, Harold A. Geller, John R. Cressman, Renewable Energy, 2023
Robert Ehrlich, Harold A. Geller, John R. Cressman
Generally, crude oil and natural gas need to be processed or refined before they are useful. Refineries are sprawling extremely complex chemical plants with miles of piping connecting various processing units. Natural gas processing is designed to clean raw natural gas by separating impurities and various nonmethane hydrocarbons so as to produce pipeline-quality dry natural gas, but the complex processes will not be described here. Oil refineries can typically process several hundred thousand barrels of crude oil per day and usually operate on a continuous process, rather than in batches. The basic process in an oil refinery involves separating out the various useful components of crude oil according to their degree of volatility through a process known as fractional distillation. The different useful components of crude oil include many components including, among others, gasoline, kerosene, diesel oil, fuel oil, lubricating oil, wax, and asphalt. Each of the crude oil components consists of many different molecules whose structure give the substance its desirable properties, which may make it suitable as a fuel, lubricant, tar, or feedstock for producing petrochemicals, among other purposes. Unlike a pure substance consisting of a single molecule with a single boiling point, the distillates of crude oil are each defined in terms of a range of boiling points. Thus, kerosene is that distillate whose boiling point lies in the interval of 150°C–200°C. The fractional distillation process in cartoon version is shown in Figure 2.15.
Evaluating the Impact of Sustainability and Pipeline Quality on the Global Crude Oil Supply Chain
Published in Erick C. Jones, Supply Chain Engineering and Logistics Handbook, 2020
Erick C. Jones, Sunny Paraskumar Jain
A crude oil refinery is a group of industrial facilities that turns crude oil and other inputs into finished petroleum products. A refinery’s capacity refers to the maximum amount of crude oil designed to flow into the distillation unit of a refinery, also known as the crude unit.
Modular Systems in Oil Industry
Published in Yatish T. Shah, Modular Systems for Energy and Fuel Recovery and Conversion, 2019
Oil refining is the process that takes us from crude oil to refined or finished products through an oil refinery such as high-octane motor fuel (gasoline/petrol), diesel oil, LPG, jet aircraft fuel, kerosene, heating fuel oils, lubricating oils, asphalt, and petroleum coke. A petroleum refinery is therefore a factory where crude oil is transformed into petrol and hundreds of other useful products or a factory where crude oil is broken down into its various components, which then are selectively changed into new products. An oil refinery is considered an essential part of the downstream side of the petroleum industry. Refineries come in various sizes.
Evaluation of different polymeric coagulants for the treatment of oil refinery wastewater
Published in Cogent Engineering, 2020
The rise of industrialization and extensive utilization of petrochemical products (oil-related fuels), makes the processing of crude oil a major pollution potential by generating large volumes of wastewater posing a threat to human health and the ecosystem (Sun et al., 2020). In a crude oil refinery, some hydrocarbons are fragmented into different components, which are then blended into useful products (Petrol, diesel) (Ghodbane et al., 2020; Shahriari et al., 2018; Yargholi et al., 2020). Due to the complexity of the crude and the high concentration of the oil (>1000 mg/L) in the waste streams along with high content of recalcitrant pollutants, the treatment of oily wastewater is difficult (Farid et al., 2006; Shahriari et al., 2018). In South Africa, the demand for freshwater supply outpaces its availability and is being faced with several sanitation problems. Interfering with the crude oil processing can lead to enormous human health risk and economic deformation (Kweinor Tetteh et al., 2017; Shikwambana & Kganyago, 2020; Tetteh et al., 2020). To curb this issue as an effort of achieving the united nations (UN) sustainable development goal of clean water and sanitation for all before 2030 (UN, 2018), the treatment of oil refinery wastewater (ORW) for reuse therefore comes in handy (Sharma et al., 2020: Sun et al., 2020).