PPetrochemicals

WHAT ARE PETROCHEMICALS ?

PETROCHEMICALS
- chemicals derived from petroleum or natural gas.

- used to manufacture thousands of different products used in our everyday lives

 HISTORY OF
PETROCHEMICALS
 Present
Ancient Egypt 1872 1922
Day

The first chemicals Fast forward In the present day,

The earliest usage of
to be made from around 50 years petrochemicals
petrochemicals can
petroleum, and the represent the majority
actually be dates back
however, were petrochemical of all chemicals that
to ancient Egypt. The
produced in 1872. industry was are shipped between
substances that we
Carbon black was born, when the continents and
know as ethylene and
produced by the Standard Oil accounts for around
polyethylene were
partial combustion Company plant 40% of the global
produced by ancient
of natural gas, and was opened in chemicals market.
Egyptians by using
was used in the New Jersey, USA About 5% of the
gas and fig plants.
production of which produced world’s annual oil
synthetic rubber. propylene. supply is utilized to
make petrochemicals
Primary Petrochemicals
• includes olefins and aromatics

• produced in large quantities in oil refineries and chemical plants.

• processed into secondary petrochemicals

RAW MATERIALS
AND THEIR
PRIMARY
PETROCHEMICAL
PRODUCTS
Olefins (Alkene)
• Olefins are petrochemical derivatives produced by cracking feedstocks from raw materials such as natural
gas and crude oil. Lower olefins have short chains with only two, three or four carbon atoms, and the
simplest one is ethylene.

OLEFINS USED IN THE PETROCHEMICAL INDUSTRY

 Ethylene
 sometimes considered as the “king of petrochemicals” because there are more
commercial chemicals produced from ethylene than from any other intermediate
 considered as one of the platform chemicals in the petrochemical industry
 It is used in the manufacture of polymers such as polyethylene
PETROCHEMICALS FROM ETHYLENE
 Propylene (Propene)

 the oldest petrochemical feedstock

 produced by the cracking of propane or higher hydrocarbons in the presence of

steam

 Butadiene

 produced as a by-product of ethylene production from steam crackers

 a monomer in the production of synthetic rubber.
PETROCHEMICALS
FROM
PROPYLENE & BUTADIENE
Aromatics
• produced in the catalytic reforming of naphtha
• major sources of petrochemical products

AROMATICS USED IN THE PETROCHEMICAL INDUSTRY

 Benzene
• derived from natural gas, crude oil, or coal
• used as a feedstock, or raw material, to make other industrial chemicals
Toluene

• aromatic hydrocarbon used extensively as starting material for the manufacture

of industrial chemicals
• comprises 15–20 percent of coal-tar light oil and is a minor constituent of
petroleum
• made by catalytic reforming of petroleum naphtha

 Xylenes

• used as a solvent
• constituents of petroleum-based fuels like gasoline and jet fuel
AROMATIC PETROCHEMICAL PRODUCTS
Methanol
• Methanol is a primary liquid petrochemical made from renewable and
nonrenewable fossil fuels containing carbon and hydrogen

• most important basic chemical in the petrochemical industry

PETROCHEMICALS
FROM METHANOL
BASIC
PETROCHEMICAL
PRODUCTION
FLOWCHART
 Physical Properties of Petrochemicals
Vapor Density
• Weight of a unit volume of gas or vapor compared to the weight of an equal volume
• As such vapors can accumulate in low or depressed areas
• These vapors can be both flammable and toxic
Vapor Pressure
• Vapor Pressure is the pressure exerted by a vapor at a given temperature in a closed system
• A liquid with a high vapor pressure is called a volatile liquid
• Vapor Pressure is directly related to temperature
• Increasing Temperature = Increased Vapor Pressure
Specific Gravity
• Specific Gravity is the weight of a volume of liquid compared to an equal volume of water
-
UNIT OPERATION & UNIT PROCESSES
Vapor Liquid
• Distillation
• Extractive Distillation
• Azeotropic Distillation
• Absorption
Liquid-Liquid
• Solvent Extraction
Liquid-Solid
• Crystallization
• Extractive crystallization
• Encapsulation
• Adsorption on molecular sieves
Vapor-Solid
• Adsorption on molecular sieves
 Vapor-liquid
it is a process of transporting a chemical species from one phase into another and it is ultimately hinges
on diffusional transport of chemical species between the fluid phases and this in turn requires a large
interfacial surface area.

 Distillation
a unit operation in which 2 constituents is separated by different boiling point. The net result like
flashing, more of the lower-boiling compounds will exit at the top of the column, and more of the higher-
boiling compounds will fall to the bottoms.

 Extractive Distillation
performs the separation of close boiling components or azeotropes in the presence of a miscible, high
boiling, relatively non-volatile component that forms no azeotrope with the other components in the
mixture
Azeotropic Distillation

•  isthe use of a third component to separate two close-boiling components. This is done by
means of the formation of an azeotropic mixture between one of the original components and
the third to increase the difference in the boiling points and facilitate separation by distillation.

 Absorption

• is a unit operation used in the chemical industry to separate gases by washing or scrubbing a
gas mixture with a suitable liquid. One or more of the constituents of the gas mixture dissolves
or is absorbed in the liquid and can thus be removed from the mixture. In some systems, this
gaseous constituent forms a physical solution with the liquid or the solvent, and in other cases,
it reacts with the liquid chemically.
Liquid – Liquid

• is a countercurrent separation process for isolating the constituents of a liquid mixture. In its

simplest form, this involves the extraction of a solute from a binary solution by bringing it into
contact with a second immiscible solvent in which the solute is soluble.

 Solvent Extraction

• is a classical analytical technique used to determine the contents of various inorganic and organic
species. Inorganic compounds are usually extracted after complexation with organic ligands. The
technique also enables preconcentration of solutes and their separation and finds practical
applications in various industries, including nuclear, metal processing, petrochemistry,
pharmaceutical, and others.
 Liquid – Solid
Liquid-solid separation involves the separation of two phases, solid and liquid, from
a suspension. It is used in many processes.

 Crystallization
 is an example of a separation process in which mass is transferred from a liquid
solution, whose composition is generally mixed, to a pure solid crystal. Soluble
components are removed from solution by adjusting the conditions so that the
solution becomes supersaturated and excess solute crystallizes out in a pure form. 

 Extractive Crystallization
is used to achieve several functions: separation, purification, concentration,
solidification, and the production of a crystal that can be used to determine
molecular structure. Because the heat of crystallization is typically much lower than
the heat of vaporization, considerable energy savings can be realized in applications
where crystallization is an effective means of separation.
Encapsulation

• is commonly adopted in drug delivery systems to form a shell to protect a particular drug, and

prevent it from leaching out before reaching the targeted site. The shell is usually made of
hydrogel matrices or polymeric nanostructures that are able to entrap the targeted drug.

Adsorption on molecular sieves

• when treating a gas or liquid stream so that it can be processed by a specific unit, one of the
commonly used treating units is an adsorption unit. These units are commonly used to remove
water from a feed stream, but they can also remove additional contaminants.
 Vapor Solid

• The separation of solids from gas streams is a common unit operation in production plants.
Gas-solid separation is important both as a device to recover product but also a key technology
for environmental control. An incredible array of process technologies (for example, cyclones,
bag houses, spray towers, venturi scrubbers) is available to accomplish the task of separating
the solids from gas.

 Adsorption on molecular sieves

• is a unit operation that exploits the attraction of solutes in a liquid or gas to a solid surface. This
attraction allows the solutes to be removed, or solutes with different affinities for the solid to be
separated. activated carbon, zeolite molecular sieves, silica gel, activated alumina, and
polymeric adsorbents with discussion of their physical characteristics, suitable applications, and
regeneration requirements.
PRODUCTS OF PETROCHEMICALS
• FERTILIZERS
• PLASTICS
• MEDICINE
• COSMETICS
• FURNITURE
• APPLIANCES