PETROLEUM PROCESSING

DATA

EVALUATION OF
PETROLEUM
 Evaluation of petroleum
• crude oil is a complex mixture of various types of
hydrocarbon containing traces of impurities like
sulphur compounds, metals nitrogenous
compounds and naphthenic acids.
• Crude oil quality varies in composition and
properties
• Crude oil is becoming more and more heavier and
sour
• Crude oil characteristics have large impact on the
processing of crude oil
 PROPERTIES AND
CLASSIFICATION OF CRUDE OIL
• Physical properties and composition of crude oil provide critical
information for the optimum operation of a petroleum refinery.

• This information does not only help predict the physical behavior of crude
oil in refinery units, but also gives insight into its chemical composition.

• Therefore, the physical properties can be related to chemical properties of

crude oil and its fractions and the characteristics of the resulting refinery
products.

• The most important properties of crude include;

 density,
 viscosity,
 boiling point distribution,
 pour point, and
 the concentration of various contaminants
 API GRAVITY
• Density is defined as mass per unit volume of a fluid.
• The density of crude oil and liquid hydrocarbons is usually reported
in terms of specific gravity (SG) or relative density, defined as the
density of the liquid material at 60°F (15.6°C) divided by the density
of liquid water at 60°F.
• At a reference temperature of 15.6°C, the density of liquid water is
0.999 g/cm3 (999 kg/m3).
• Therefore, for a hydrocarbon or a petroleum fraction, the SG is
defined as:

• The American Petroleum Institute (API) adopted the API gravity

(°API) as a measure of the crude oil density.
• The API gravity is calculated from the following equation:
 Cont.
• The API scale for gravity was adapted from the Baumé scale, developed
in late 18th century to be used in hydrometers for measuring even small
differences in the specific gravity of liquids, using water as a reference
material in these devices.
• A liquid with SG of 1 (i.e., water) has an API gravity of 10.
• Liquid hydrocarbons with lower SGs have higher API gravities.
• The API of crude oils varies typically between 10 and 50, with
most crude oils falling in the range of 20-45.
• Using API gravity, the conventional crude oils can be generally
considered as;
 light (°API>30),
 medium (30>°API>22), and
 heavy (°API<22).
 Cont.
• Among the hydrocarbons, aromatic hydrocarbons
have higher SG (lower °API) than paraffinic
hydrocarbons with the same number of carbon
atoms.
• For example, benzene has an SG of 0.883 (°API of
28.7), whereas n-hexane has an SG of 0.665 (°API of
81.3).
• This makes the heavy (high-density) crude oils tend to
have high concentrations of aromatic hydrocarbons,
whereas the light (low-density) crude oils have high
concentrations of paraffinic hydrocarbons.
 VISCOSITY
• Viscosity (μ,) is a physical property of a fluid that describes its tendency/resistance
to flow.
• A high-viscosity fluid has a low tendency to flow, whereas low-viscosity fluids flow
easily.
• Newton’s Law of Viscosity provides a physical definition of viscosity.
• Power requirement to transport (e.g., to pump) a fluid depends strongly on the
fluid’s viscosity.
• Interestingly, the viscosity of liquid decreases with increasing temperature, while
viscosity of gases increases with increasing temperature.
• Among petroleum products, viscosity constitutes a critically important
characteristic of lubricating engine oils.
• Values of kinematic viscosity for pure liquid hydrocarbons are usually measured
and reported at two reference temperatures, 38°C (100°F) and 99°C (210°F).
• However, different reference temperatures, such as 40°C (104 °F), 50 °C (122 °F),
and 60 °C(140 °F), are also used to report kinematic viscosities of petroleum
fractions
 POUR POINT
• The pour point of a crude oil, or a petroleum fraction, is the lowest temperature at
which the oil will pour or flow when it is cooled, without stirring, under standard
cooling conditions.
• Pour point represents the lowest temperature at which oil is capable of flowing
under gravity.
• It is one of the important low-temperature characteristics of high-boiling fractions.
• When the temperature is less than the pour point of a petroleum product, it
cannot be stored or transferred through a pipeline.
• Standard test procedures for measuring pour points of crude oil or petroleum
fractions are described in the ASTM D97 (ISO 3016 or IP 15) and ASTM D5985
methods.
• The pour point of crude oils relates to their paraffin content:
 the higher the paraffin content,
 the higher the pour point
 CONCENTRATION OF VARIOUS CONTAMINANTS

• In addition to hydrocarbons, crude oil contains heteroatom (S, N, metals)

species that need to be removed if their concentrations are higher than the
specified thresholds.
• Other impurities in crude oil include salt and sediment and water.
• The acidity of crude oil is also important particularly for concerns of
corrosion in pipes or other process units.
• Carbon residue of a crude oil indicates the tendency to generate coke on
heater tubes or reactor surfaces.
• All of these contaminants and properties of crude oils are measured using
standard methods, these includes:
 Sulfur Content,
 Nitrogen Content,
 Metals Content,
 Total Acid Number
 Sulphur Content
• Sulphur content of crude oils is the second most important property of crude oils
next to API gravity.
• Sulphur content is expressed as weight percent of sulphur in oil and typically varies
in the range from 0.1 to 5.0%wt.
• The standard methods that are use to measure the sulphur content are ASTM
D129, D1552, and D2622, depending on the sulphur level.
• Crude oils with more than 0.5%wt sulphur need to be treated extensively during
petroleum refining.
• Using the sulphur content, crude oils can be classified as:
 sweet (<0.5%wt S) and
 sour (>0.5% %wt S).
• The distillation process segregates sulphur species in higher concentrations into
the higher-boiling fractions and distillation residua.
• Removing sulphur from petroleum products is one of the most important
processes in a refinery to produce fuels compliant with environmental regulations.
 Nitrogen Content
• Nitrogen content of crude oils is also expressed as
weight percent of oil.
• Basic nitrogen compounds are particularly
undesirable in crude oil fractions as they
deactivate the acidic sites on catalysts used in
conversion processes.
• Some nitrogen compounds are also corrosive.
• Crude oils with nitrogen contents greater than
0.25%wt need treatment in refineries for nitrogen
removal.
 Total Acid Number
• Acidity of crude oil is measured by titration with
potassium hydroxide (KOH), using the standard
method ASTM D664.
• The measured acidity is expressed as the Total Acid
Number (TAN) that is equivalent to milligrams of KOH
required to neutralize 1 gram of oil.
• This number is particularly important to control
corrosion in the distillation columns through selection
of corrosion-resistant alloys for surfaces that come
into contact with oil.
 Metals Content
• Most common metals that are found in crude oil are
included in organometallic compounds like nickel, vanadium,
iron and copper, ranging in concentration from a few ppm up
to 1000 ppm by weight, depending on the source of crude
oil.
• Similar to sulfur species, the metallic compounds tend to
concentrate in the higher boiling fraction of crude oil.
• Higher metal contents also require treatment during
petroleum refining because of the corrosion activity of some
metals and their tendency to accumulate on catalyst
surfaces, thus deactivating the catalysts in a number of
refinery processes.
Cont.
 DISTILLATION AND BOILING POINTS
• The boiling point of a pure compound in liquid state is defined as the
temperature at which the vapor pressure of the compound equals the
atmospheric pressure, or 1 atm.
• The boiling point of pure hydrocarbons depends on carbon number,
molecular size, and the type of hydrocarbons (aliphatic, naphthenic, or
aromatic).
• The first step in refinery is distillation in which the crude oil separated into
fractions according to its boiling point.
• There are at least four types of distillation curves or ways of relating vapor
temperature and percentage vaporized.
• These are;
 True Boiling point (TBP) Distillation.
 ASTM Distillation.
 Semi-fractionating Distillation.
 Equilibrium Flash Vaporization (EFV).
 CRUDE OIL COST
• High sulfur, heavy crude is lowest cost.
Requires extremely complex refinery to
convert into high value products.
• Low sulfur, light crude is highest cost. Simple
refining yields high value products.
• Also a function of location of crude supply
versus refining centers.
• Refiners close to crude production enjoy
advantage over refineries distant from supply
Cont.