PILOT PLANT OPERATION 1

CPD 20402

CHAPTER 1

CRUDE OIL DISTILLATION

 Objectives
Able to define crude oil, crude oil formation
and composition

Able to explain the process of crude oil

distillation

Able to discuss the operational of the crude

oil distillation

Able to name the final products from

distillation operation
 What is crude oil??
• A dark oil consisting mainly of hydrocarbons
• Consist of hydrogen and carbon
• Also known as a fossil fuel, petroleum or
unprocessed oil
• Crude oil can be refined to produce usable
products such as gasoline, diesel and various
forms of petrochemicals.
• ‘Black Gold’
 Hydrocarbon
• Oil and gas are made of a mixture of
different hydrocarbons.
• As the name suggests these are large
molecules made up of hydrogen
atoms attached to a backbone of
carbon.
Crude Oil
HOW OIL WAS FORMED?
• Oil was formed from the remains of animals
and plants that lived millions of years ago in a
marine (water) environment before the
dinosaurs.   Over the years, the remains were
covered by layers of mud.  Heat and pressure
from these layers helped the remains turn into
what we today call crude oil .  The word
"petroleum" means "rock oil" or "oil from the
earth."
Plant plankton Animal plankton

• Most oil and gas starts life as microscopic

plants and animals that live in the ocean.

• However, if there is little or no oxygen in the

water then animals can’t survive and the
organic mush accumulates
• When the plankton dies it rains down on
sea bed to form an organic mush

• Where sediment contains more than 5%

organic matter, it eventually forms a rock
known as a Black Shale

Sea bed
 Cooking
As Black Shale is buried, it is heated.

Organic matter is first changed by the

Kerogen increase in temperature into kerogen,
which is a solid form of hydrocarbon
Around 90°C, it is changed into a liquid
Oil state, which we call oil

Gas
Around 150°C, it is changed into a gas

www.oilandgasgeology.com/oil_gas_window.jpg A rock that has produced oil and gas in

this way is known as a Source Rock
PETROLEUM

PETRA • The Greek word for

ROCK

OLEUM • The Latin word

for OIL

• Petroleum is referred as
rock oil since it is mostly
found in rocks
 Composition of crude oil
CRUDE OIL

HYDROCARBONS NON-HYDROCARBONS

ALIPHATICS AROMATICS NAPHTHENES SULFURS NITROGENS OXYGENS METALLICS

25% 17% 50% <8% <1% <3% <100PPM

C1 - C60 (C6H5)n O
CYCLOALKANES
SH

N
H COOH
S
• The majority of crude oil is alkanes, cycloalkanes (naphthenes), aromatics,
polycyclic aromatics, S-containing compounds, etc.
Gasoline: branched alkanes
Diesel: linear alkanes
• Heavier crude contains more polycyclic aromatics
• Lead to carboneceous deposits called “coke”
• Some crudes contain a lot of sulfur, which leads to processing
considerations.
• Carbon- 84 % 2%
• Hydrogen- 14% 0%
14%
• Sulfur – 1 to 3 % (hydrogen sulfide, Ca rbon

disulfides, elemental sulfur) Hyd rogen

Sulfur
• Nitrogen – less than 1% Other
• Oxygen – less 1% (found in organic
compound such CO2 , phenols, 84%

ketones, carboxylic acid)

• Metal – less 1% (nickel, iron, copper,
vanadium, arsenic)
• Salts – less 1% (sodium chloride,
magnesium chloride and etc)
 Crude oil

1 barrel= 42gallons= 159L

CRUDE Petroleum delivered from well field

DESALTING Water washing to remove impurities

Distillation to separate by boiling point ranges

REFINING

REFORMING Conversion reactions to alter molecular

structures

Mixing to obtain maximum commercial

BLENDING characteristics
 Distillation Process
• Distillation is used to separate crude oil
into fractions
• A process in which a liquid or vapor
mixture of two or more substances
is separated into its
component fractions
of desired purity,
by the application
and removal of heat.

Distillation columns
 Process
Crude oil is stored in the tank and pumped through the desalter to
the furnace

Desalter
As the raw crude oil arriving contains quite a bit of water and salt, it is
normally sent for salt removing first in the desalter

Furnace
At about 200-280⁰C the crude oil enters the furnace where it is heated
up further to 355-370 ⁰C . The furnace outlet stream is sent directly to
the distillation column.

Distillation
Separates (based on different boiling point) products such as gas,
gasoline, naphtha, kerosene and gas oil from the crude oil
 • Small
molecules
• Low boiling
point
• Very volatile
• Flows easily
• Ignite easily

• Large
molecules
• High boiling
point
• Not very
volatile
• Does not flows
easily
• Does not
Ignite easily
Crude Oil Refinery
 25 - 100oC

The raw material (i.e.

- Crude oil) is heated
in a furnace and then
passed into the lower
part of the column

The majority of the

fractions in the oil are
already in a gaseous
state when they enter
the column 300 - 400oC

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• The hydrocarbon vapours
rise quickly up the
column until they reach
the tray where the
temperature is slightly
below their boiling point.
• The long column is filled
with trays or plates
operating at different
temperatures
• When a substance in
vapor reaches the height
where its boiling point is
equal to the operating
temperature at that
position, it condenses
• Here they condense and
become a liquid again on
the tray.
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They are then drawn off by
pipes from their respective gases
trays.
This is a continual process
as more hot crude oil flows
into the column gasoline

naphtha
Residue is left
kerosene
over and flows
out of the bottom
of the column.
Each fraction has gas oil
its own use.
In the case of fuel oil
crude oil no
fraction is wasted

residue
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The most volatile fractions.
(i.e. - those with lowest
boiling point) come out of
the top of the column and
are gases, as these have
very low molecular masses
(e.g. methane).

The heaviest compounds

fall to the bottom of the
column.

These compounds have

the highest molecular
masses and are the least
volatile.
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There is a hole in
each tray in the
fractionating column.

Covering this hole is a

piece of metal which
prevents gases being
forced up through the
next tray, without first
bubbling through
some of the liquid
which has collected in
that tray.
This is called a
bubble cap.

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Sieve tray
 Uses of the products
B. P. Carbon atoms
Fraction (Kelvin) per molecule  Uses

Domestic fuel (Bottled gas),

 Gases < 313  1-4 motor fuel (LPG)

 Light
 313-373  5-6 Petrol
Gasoline
Petrol, white spirit. “Cracked”
 Naphtha  373-433  7-10 to make ethene

 Kerosene  433-523  11-16 Jet fuel, paraffin

Diesel, central heating oil,

 Gas Oil  523-623  17-25 cracked to make petrol and
various alkenes
Lubricants, waxes, greases,
 Residue > 623  > 25 bitumen for roads, fuel for
ships and power stations.

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 kerosene
contains residue
gases aviation fuel contains tar,
contain lubricating oil
methane, fractions
propane

gasoline
Naphtha, gas oil
contains
the starting contains
petrol
point for diesel oil
many other
chemicals 24
THE END….