What is produced from oil? Oil refining technology

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

What is produced from oil in the modern world? Let's try to understand this further, as well as to understand how safe and practical such products are. For reference: oil is an oily liquid that does not dissolve in water, has a brownish or almost transparent hue. The parameters and features of the processing of this mineral depend on the percentage of carbon and other additional components in the initial composition.

What is oil for?

Humanity discovered carbons a long time ago, a few centuries ago gas lamps were used to illuminate British streets, and in many houses a kerosene lamp was often used. After the advent of the internal combustion engine, there was a significant leap in the development of this area. What to produce from oil to steel in the first place?

Gasoline and diesel fuel used to refuel various vehicles. In addition, rocket, aircraft fuel and its analogues for steamships are also obtained from this mineral. The consumption of petroleum products in the industrial sector has increased significantly. There are times when oil on the world market was valued more than gold and water. Despite the increased share of the use of nuclear and alternativeenergy, oil products continue to be in demand.

Products processed

To begin with, we note that different types of fuel are produced from oil, namely:

• Gasoline of various grades.
• Diesel oil.
• Rocket and aviation fuel.
• Fuel oil.
• Kerosene.
• Coke.
• Liquefied gas.

This product is obtained as a result of the simplest processing of raw materials, the final result depends on the ratio of the used parts of certain components.

Also, a lot of useful and popular products are made from oil. The most popular, apart from fuel, are the following materials:

• Engine oil.
• Plastic film.
• Rubber, plastic, rubber.
• Nylon and artificial fabric.
• Vaseline oil, pharmaceutical and cosmetic creams.
• Tar, aspirin, chewing gum.
• Fertilizers, detergents, dyes and more.

What is oil made of?

The composition of this mineral may vary somewhat, depending on the deposit. For example, in the Sosnovsky basin (Siberia), the paraffin part of the components occupies about 52 percent, aromatic hydrocarbons - 12%, cycloalkanes - about 36%.

The Romashkinskoye field in Tatarstan includes up to 55% alkanes and 18% arocarbons in oil, while the capacity of cycloalkanes does not exceed 25%. The remaining elements included in the composition,belong to mineral and nitrogen impurities, as well as sulfur compounds. Depending on the indicated indicators, various methods and technologies of oil refining are used.

Cleaning raw materials

Preliminary cleaning of the extracted mineral is not the main stage of oil refining. This procedure can be done in one of the following ways:

• Adsorption. In this case, resins and acids are removed by treating the composition with hot air or an adsorbent. Such material is often used for the production of synthetics, fabrics based on them and polyethylene.
• Chemical cleaning. The product is treated with concentrated sulfuric acid and oleum. The method contributes well to the removal of unsaturated and aromatic hydrocarbons.
• Catalytic treatment - gentle hydrogenation aimed at eliminating sulfur and nitrogen inclusions.
• Physico-chemical method. Solvents are used that selectively remove unwanted components. For example, polar phenol serves to remove sulphurous and nitrogenous fillers, while butane and propane displace tars and aromatic hydrocarbons.

Vacuum processing

This method produces minimal waste. Knowing what oil consists of, the developers use the principle of its boiling while reducing pressure and limiting temperature. For example, some carbons in the composition boil only at 450 degrees Celsius. However, they can be made to react faster if the pressure is reduced. Vacuum treatment of oil is carried out in special sealed rotary evaporators. They allow you to increase the intensity of distillation, while receiving oil from oil, paraffins, fuel, ceresins, and heavy tar is further used to make bitumen.

Atmospheric technology

This method has been used since the 19th century. Modern technology has been improved, includes additional cleaning. At the same time, the raw material is dehydrated on special electrical devices, cleaned of mechanical implants and light carbohydrates. Then the already prepared oil is sent for final processing.

In the case of the atmospheric type, these are windowless ovens made of the highest quality refractory bricks. In their inner part there are pipes in which raw materials move at a speed of about two meters per second, heating up to 300-325 degrees. As a cooler, distillation columns are used, in which excess steam is separated and condensed. The finished product for the production of fuel, oil or polyethylene film enters entire complexes from tanks of various sizes and purposes.

Hydrocracking

Modern extraction and processing of petroleum products includes various types of hydrocracking. This procedure is a hydraulic cleaning process that splits hydrocarbon molecules into small particles and simultaneously saturates these elements with hydrogen.

Hydrocracking is easy - use of one reactor, workingpressure - 5 MPa, optimum temperature - up to 400 degrees. In this way, diesel fuel and components for further catalysis are usually obtained. The hard option involves the use of several reactors, the temperature is at least 400 degrees, the pressure is 10 MPa. This method produces gasoline from petroleum, kerosene, oils with a high viscosity coefficient and low inclusion of aromatic and sulphurous hydrocarbons.

Recyclable

This process can be done in one of the following ways:

1. Visbreaking. The working temperature for processing raw materials is about 500 degrees, the pressure is from 0.5 to 3 MPa. After the splitting of naphthenes and paraffins, gasoline, hydrocarbon gas, asph altenes are obtained.
2. Reforming. This method was developed in 1911 by a scientist named Zelinsky. The procedure involves the catalytic processing of raw materials with the subsequent production of aromatic hydrocarbons, fuel, gas with a high hydrogen content.
3. Coking of heavy residues. This procedure includes deep processing of oil (temperature - up to 500 degrees, pressure - about 0.65 MPa). The result is a coke lump that undergoes aromatization, dehydrogenation, cracking and drying. The method is used primarily for the production of petroleum coke, synthetics, textiles and polyethylene.
4. Alkylation. In this case, the procedure is based on the introduction of alkyl components into the organic molecules of the raw material. As a result, hydrocarbons are used to create material for the manufacture of gasoline with highoctane.
5. Another popular way to recycle oil is isomerization. At this stage, an isomer is obtained from a chemical compound by changes in the carbon composition of the substance. The main product received is commercial fuel.

Modernization

Above we looked at what is produced from oil. As it turns out, this material has the widest range of uses, ranging from various types of fuel to building materials, cosmetics and even food. The technology of processing raw materials is constantly being improved, the depth of selection of light oil products is increasing, and the quality of the final product is also increasing, striving for European standards. This allows not only to make products safer for the human body, but also to reduce the negative impact on the environment.