Advanced Mobile Source Training Course

MS 201 - Diesel

Session I. Motor Vehicle Diesel Fuel

a. The Refining and Distribution Process
© 2005 Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management (NESCAUM)
 Overview
• In the last several years, it has become clear that fuels and
vehicles must be regulated together to achieve the highest
level of pollution control
• In this portion of the course, we will discuss
– Characteristics of crude oils
– The refining process
– Technologies for achieving “clean fuels”
– How fuel is distributed

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 Crude Oils
• On average, crude oils are made up of the following
elements or compounds:
– Carbon – 84%
– Hydrogen – 14%
– Sulfur – 1 to 3%
– Nitrogen - <1%
– Oxygen - <1%
– Metals - <1% (nickel, iron,vanadium, etc.)
– Salts - <1%

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Hydrocarbons in Crude Oil

• Paraffins – methane, ethane, propane, butane, etc.

• Aromatics – benzene, naphthalene
• Naphthenes or Cycloalkenes – cyclohexane, methyl
cyclopentane
• Alkenes – ethylene, butene, isobutene
• Dienes and Alkynes – acetylene, butadienes

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Products From Refining

• Petroleum Gas – used for heating, cooking, making

plastics
• Naphtha – an intermediate product used to make gasoline
• Gasoline – motor fuel
• Kerosene – fuel for jet engines and tractors and a starting
material for making other products

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Products From Refining

• Gas Oil or Diesel – used for diesel fuel and heating oil and
a starting material for making other products
• Lubricating Oil – used for motor oil, grease, other
lubricants
• Heavy Gas or Fuel Oil – used for industrial fuel and a
starting material for making other products
• Residuals – coke, asphalt, tar, waxes, and a starting
material for making other products

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Flow Chart of the Distillation Process

Crude Oil Distillation: The First Step

(Source: Energy Information Administration)

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Sources and Quality of Crude Oil

• Physical characteristics of crude oil streams differ

• Streams with similar characteristics may come from a
single reservoir, a field, or sometimes even a region
• Crude oils are classified by density and sulfur content
– Light
– Heavy
– Sweet
– Sour
• Price differentials reflect the relative ease of refining

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Characteristics of Some Crude Oils

• West Texas Intermediate (light and sweet)

• Nigeria’s Bonny Light (middle distillates)
• Saudi Arabia’s Arabian Light (contains heavy residue)

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Other Characteristics of Crude Oils

• The type of hydrocarbon molecules may affect the cost of

processing or suitability for specific uses
• Presence of heavy metals is a contaminant for the
processing and the finished product
• It is not easy (at least not profitably) to substitute one
crude oil for another, so refineries tend to be designed and
operated around a specific crude oil or mix of crude oils
• Today’s demand is for lighter products of higher quality
from a crude supply that is increasingly heavier, with a
higher sulfur content

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The Refining Process

• Bending, breaking, and boiling

• Distillation separates crude oil into various components
(fractions) using the difference in boiling temperatures
• Chemical processing breaks longer chain hydrocarbons
into shorter ones – makes diesel into gasoline, for example
• Fractions are treated to remove impurities
• Mixtures are blended to meet market specifications

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 Chemical Processing
• Cracking
– Takes larger hydrocarbons and makes them into smaller ones
– Types of cracking
• Thermal – heats large hydrocarbons at high temperatures
(sometimes high pressures, as well) until they break apart
• Catalytic – uses a catalyst to speed up the breaking process
– Fluid catalytic cracking (heavy gas oil to diesel and gasoline)
– Hydrocracking – adds hydrogen gas (heavy oil to gasoline and
kerosene)

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Chemical Processing

• Catalytic Reforming
– Uses a catalyst to rearrange molecules into more
valuable ones of generally the same size and to produce
aromatics

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Chemical Processing

• Alkylation
– Small hydrocarbons (isobutane and an olefin, usually
butylene) are combined to produce a larger molecule

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Intermediate Products

• Refining processing generally produces blendstocks

suitable for making finished products rather than
producing finished products directly
• Blendstocks may be traded between companies
• Other blendstocks may come from outside the petroleum
refining industry. Examples include fuel ethanol and
biodiesel from agriculture and MTBE and GTL (gas to
liquids) diesel from natural gas

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 Blending

• Blending is a sophisticated optimization process where

producers attempt to maximize profit by blending the most
valuable set of finished products possible given the
blendstocks available and the constraints imposed by
product specifications (including environmental
regulations)
• Not all blending is done at refineries or by refining
companies

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Saleable Products

• In addition to gasoline and diesel fuel, refineries sell

petroleum gas, kerosene, heating oil,lubricating oil,
industrial fuel, asphalt, tar, waxes, and other products.
• Standards are set for these products by ASTM – consensus
standards aimed at improving product quality, safety, and
cost-effectiveness
• Fuel quality regulations have existed for many years – for
example, gasoline volatility was controlled regionally to
ensure driveability long before it was regulated for
environmental purposes

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Diesel Fuel Quality Regulation

• The introduction of catalyst-based diesel particulate filters

created a need to reduce the sulfur content of diesel fuels
• Options to reduce sulfur include:
– Increasing the proportion of low-sulfur crude oil
– Hydro-treating straight run diesel and thermally
cracked diesel
– Reducing the proportion of FCC oil blended into the
final product
– Installing hydrocrackers

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Hydrotreating

• The primary means to achieve ULSD levels

• Passes a mixture of heated feedstock and hydrogen
through a catalyst-laden reactor to remove sulfur and other
impurities
• Hydrotreating can occur at many places in the refining
process – right after distillation or at various points of
chemical processing
• To achieve 15 ppm diesel, refineries must desulfurize
essentially all diesel blending components

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2 Stage Process

• Probably will be required at most refineries

• 1st stage – conventional hydrotreating unit
• 2nd stage – using higher pressures, increasing hydrogen rate
and purity, newer catalysts
• Higher pressures may require new reactors with thicker
walls
• Hydrogen consumption is the largest operating cost – 10
ppm sulfur may require 25 to 45% more hydrogen than
500 ppm

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New Technologies for Sulfur Reduction

• Sulfur adsorption
• Biodesulfurization
• Sulfur oxidation
• These technologies are in experimental stages of
development
• They may affect the market by 2010

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Costs of Sulfur Reduction

• EPA estimates that average investment for diesel

desulfurization will cost $50 million per refinery
• EPA analysis also assumes that 121 new or modified units
will be added to make ULSD
• EPA estimates (xx) cents per gallon increase in diesel fuel
price once regulations are fully in effect

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U.S. Oil Flow 2002

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Fuel Distribution

• In 2001, the U.S. consumed 19.5 million barrels per day of

petroleum products
• Crude oil is transported to refineries
• Refined products are transported to consumers
• The primary transportation modes in the U.S. is through
pipelines

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Domestic Oil Shipment

• Domestic Shipments of Petroleum, 2003

• (Source: Association of Oil Pipe Lines, May 2005)
0.8

0.7

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
Pipelines Water Carriers Trucks Railroads

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Why Pipelines?

• During World War II, German submarines began sinking

tankers along the East Coast
• In 1942, nearly 500 U.S. merchant ships were sunk by
German U-boats
• A joint industry-government effort constructed long-
distance pipelines
• Pipelines now transport roughly two-thirds of the
petroleum shipped in the U.S.
• Trucking is generally limited to short hauls, but is essential
to the completeness of the system

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The PADD System

• During World War II, the government divided America

into five economically and geographically distinct regions
for the purposes of oil allocation
• The original segments and names are still used: Petroleum
Administration for Defense Districts – PADDs

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PADDs

• PADD I: East Coast and Atlantic Seaboard – virtually no

production of crude oil, but the highest demand for refined
products in the country
• PADD II: Midwest – lately a significant drop in local
crude oil production; two-thirds now comes from Canada
for local refineries
• PADD III: Gulf Coast – America’s major refining area
and former supplier of domestic crude; lately a significant
decrease in crude production

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PADDs

• PADD IV: Rocky Mountains – lower population density

limits demand with the consequence that the pipeline
infrastructure is not well developed; demand is growing,
however, with new pipelines bringing in Canadian crude to
local refineries
• PADD V: West Coast, Hawaii and Alaska – rapid
population increases and stringent environmental
regulations present special challenges; PADD V is not
connected by pipeline to and other PADD

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Logistics Hubs

• Interconnections of pipelines, tankers, rail and truck;

terminals with substantial storage capacity
• New York Harbor; Cushing, Oklahoma; Chicago; Los
Angeles; Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast
• Large diameter “trunk” lines (fungible mode) bring
products in, and smaller diameter “delivering” lines
distribute the products

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Managing Oil Pipeline Flow

• Centrifugal pumps are located at the origin and at 20 to

100 mile increments
• Operation goes on 24/7/365
• 3-8 miles per hour – 14 to 22 days to move oil from
Houston to New York City

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Potential for Contamination
• Always a certain amount of intermixing at the interface
where batches meet
• If they are similar products, then the resulting mixture is
added to the lower value product
• If the products are dissimilar, the “transmix” must be
channeled to separate storage for reprocessing
• Products with tighter specifications require more batching
and reprocessing

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Motor Vehicle Fuels - Summary

• New emission control technology requires “cleaner fuels”

• There are a large number of different crude oils with
different compositions requiring different processing
• Technology for producing fuels with the desired
characteristics is currently available, and new technologies
are under development
• Investment in new infrastructure is required
• Distribution must be carefully managed

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 Go to: Projects/Academy
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