Egyptian Petrochemicals Holding Company ECHEM

1-Dew point is:

The dew point is the temperature below which the water vapor
in a volume of humid air at a constant barometric pressure will
condense into liquid water. Condensed water is called dew
when it forms on a solid surface.
The dew point is a water-to-air saturation temperature. The
dew point is associated with relative humidity. A high relative
humidity indicates that the dew point is closer to the current
air temperature. Relative humidity of 100% indicates the dew
point is equal to the current temperature and that the air is
maximally saturated with water. When the dew point remains
constant and temperature increases, relative humidity
decreases.
2-Bubble point is:
the bubble point is the point where first bubble of vapor is
formed. Given that vapor will probably have a different
composition than the liquid, the bubble point (along with the
dew point) at different compositions are useful data when
designing distillation systems.
For single component mixtures the bubble point and the dew
point are the same and are referred to as the boiling point.
3-Define octane number?
Octane rating or octane number is a standard measure of the
performance of a motor or aviation fuel. The higher the octane
number, the more compression the fuel can withstand before
detonating. In broad terms, fuels with a higher octane rating
are used in high-compression engines that generally have
higher performance. In contrast, fuels with low octane numbers
(but high cetane numbers) are ideal for diesel engines. Use of
gasolines with low octane numbers may lead to the problem of
engine knocking.

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4-How to increase O.N?
There are two ways to increase the octane number of a fuel.
One is to put special additives into the fuel which discourage
auto ignition, and the other is to blend high-octane fuels in with
the ordinary petrol.
1-Anti-knocking additives: are substances which reduce the
tendency of a fuel to auto-ignite, and so increase the octane
number.
small amounts of lead compounds have been used as
economical and effective anti-knock additives.
2-The right kind of alkane:The short alkane chains have to be
mixed in petrol to lower their volatility and higher the octane
number of the petrol.
3-omerization:The other factor that affects the octane number
is the degree of branching in the alkane chain. The more
branched the alkane is, the higher the octane number.
Crude oil contains both straight-chain and branched alkanes,
but it does not contain enough branched alkanes to give it a
high octane number.
Chemists have solved this problem; increasing the octane
numbers by isomerism, reforming and cracking.
omerization involves heating up straight chained alkanes in the
presence of suitable catalysts, so that the chains break.
When the chains join together again, they are more likely to be
branched.
Oil refineries do this on a large scale with C6H14 and C5H12.
he catalyst involved in the isomerization is platinum; the
products are then passed over a form of zeolite, which acts as a
molecular sieve, separating the straight chains from the
branched chains.
4-Reforming:
Reforming is where alkanes are converted to cyclo-alkanes and
cyclo alkanes to aromatic hydrocarbons.
Substances such as hexane (which are common in crude oil) are

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converted to cyclo-hexane. Hydrogen is also produced, which is
valuable.
5-Cracking: is one of the most important reactions in the
petroleum industry.
Cracking involves breaking up large alkanes which have too
many carbons for petrol into shorter chains that can be used in
petrol.
These shorter chains are often branched, which gives them a
higher octane number.
Most of the cracking is done by heating up the fuel in the
presence of a catalyst. This process is referred to as cat
cracking. The fuel that is heated can be kerosene, diesel oil, or
any other heavier fuels from the residue.
Zeolites are once again used in this process, as they act as
excellent catalysts. Zeolite Y is used to crack the fuel, as it
particularly effective at producing fuels with a high octane
rating.
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5-Why salt is removed from crude?
The salts that are most frequently present in crude oil are
calcium, sodium and magnesium chlorides. If these compounds
are not removed from the oil several problems arise in the
refining process.

6-Why we make vacuum distillation to fuel oil?

vacuum distillation processes to separate heavy oil into
lubricating oil stocks and asphalt. to yield marketable products
In a petroleum distillation unit, a tower is used for
fractionation. The feedstock of crude oil flows through one or
more pipes arranged within a large furnace where it is heated
to a temperature at which a predetermined portion of the feed
changes into vapor. The heated feed is introduced into a
fractional distillation tower where the nonvolatiles or liquid
portions pass downward to the bottom of the tower and are
pumped away, while the vapors pass upward through the

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tower and are fractionated into gas oils, kerosine, and
naphthas.
Vacuum distillation is used in petroleum refining to separate
the less volatile products, such as lubricating oils, from
petroleum without subjecting the high-boiling products to
cracking conditions. Operating pressure for vacuum distillation
is usually 50–100 mm of mercury (6.7–13.3 kilopascals)
[atmospheric pressure = 760 mm of mercury]. By this means, a
heavy gas oil that has a boiling range in excess of 315°C (600°F)
at atmospheric pressure may be obtained at temperatures of
around 150°C (300°F); and lubricating oil, having a boiling range
in excess of 370°C (700°F) at atmospheric pressure may be
obtained at temperatures of 250–350°C (480–660°F).
Atmospheric and vacuum distillation are major parts of refinery
operations, and no doubt will continue to be used as the
primary refining operation.
vacuum distillation processes to separate heavy oil into
lubricating oil stocks and asphalt. to yield marketable products
Vacuum distillation is used in petroleum refining to separate
the less volatile products, such as lubricating oils, from
petroleum without subjecting the high-boiling products to
cracking conditions.

7-Why we separate produced water from crude in the

field?
When crude oil comes out of the well, it holds contaminants
such as water, suspended solids, and water-soluble salts. These
contaminants are damaging to refinery equipment, and
therefore need to be removed from the crude oil before further
processing. Dewatering (and desalting) of the crude oil
becomes more and more difficult with regard to heavy crude oil
(API 19 and higher densities).

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Single Separator Design
As the oil/water mixture is pumped out of the well, it is
separated yielding the hydrocarbon product and the produced
water. As the well’s oil level drops, the amount of injected
water is increased to fill the void. Produced water volumes tend
to increase dramatically as older oilfields pass their peak
production. These volumes represent huge amounts of
contaminated water that require economical and
environmentally friendly methods of treatment so the water
can be re-used or safely disposed off. GEA Westfalia Separator
has solved this particular challenge by creating the possibility to
convert the separators on site from crude oil separation to
produced water separation. This gives the operator the ability
to adapt the amount of crude oil separators during the
operation of the field and convert these one by one into
produced water separators.

8.What are the types of flow?

A distinction is made between three types of flow in a vacuum.

The types of flows described below will occur as a function of
pressure, mean free path and component dimensions d.
1-Continuous flow in low vacuum, p = 103 – 100 mbar
What characterizes continuous flow, as well as viscous flow, is
frequent contact between gas molecules, yet less frequent
contact with the walls of the vessel. In this case, the mean free
path of the gas molecules is significantly shorter than the
dimensions d of the vacuum equipment.
2-Knudsen flow in medium vacuum, p = 100 – 10-3 mbar
f the Knudsen number is between 0.01 and 0.5, this is termed
Knudsen flow. Because many process pressures are in the
medium vacuum range, this type of flow occurs with
corresponding frequency. Since this is a transitional flow, this

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range is transited relatively quickly when pumping down
vacuum chambers. This means that the influence of this
conductivity on pump-down times is correspondingly low.
3-Molecular flow in high vacuum, (p = 10-3 – 10-7 mbar)
At Knudsen numbers of Kn > 0.5 molecular interaction virtually
no longer occurs. What prevails is molecular flow. In this case,
the product of pressure p and component diameter d is p · d ≤
1.3 · 10-2 mbar · cm.

9. Q=U*A*∆T = M*CP*∆ T
Q = U*A*Δt,
For the case of a heat exchanger, U can be used to determine
the total heat transfer between the two streams in the heat
exchanger by the following relationship:
q = UA \Delta T_{LM}
where
q = heat transfer rate (W)
U = overall heat transfer coefficient (W/(m²·K))
A = heat transfer surface area (m2)
\Delta T_{LM} = log mean temperature difference (K)
he log mean temperature difference (also known by its
initialism LMTD.The LMTD is a logarithmic average of the
temperature difference between the hot and cold streams at
each end of the exchanger
Q=U*A*∆T = M*CP*∆ T
Q =( m ) ( Cp ) ( delta T )
Where Q= heat required in joules, m = mass in grams , Cp =
specific heat in J/g/*C or cal/g ,and delta T tempreture
difference
= Tf- Ti = final temperature – beginning temperature ,
Specific heat is the heat needed to raise one gram of a
substance by one degree .
1 calorie = 4.18 joules. The specific heat of water is 4.18
Joules/gram * C.

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10-What are the units of U?
·
U = overall heat transfer coefficient (W/(m² K))
W= one joule per second