Process of Refining Oil - P#7

A How to Guide: Separating Crude Oil into Energy Byproducts.

What is Crude Oil?
Crude Oil or petroleum is unprocessed oil which comes from the ground. This raw material is a natural resource, given the name “black gold”. The chemical makeup of Crude oil consists of hydrocarbon molecules. Hydrocarbons by their nature contain a tremendous amount of energy.  Crude oil can be separated into many energy products through the process of Fractional Distillation.

Here is a step by step process by which Fractional Distillation separates these products into useful energy byproducts:

1.      Obtain crude oil from the source, such as an oil rig or derrick from oil field.

2.      Turn the furnace up to 400 degrees Celsius.

3.      Crude oil is desalted to remove inorganic salts, primarily sodium chloride.

4.      Steam heaters raise the temperature of the crude oil slowly.

5.      The crude oil enters the fire heated furnace raising the temperature to 400°C.

6.      The heated crude oil is routed to the fractioning tower, where it is separated into fractions of the different oil products.

7.      The fractions of products with the lower boiling points rise to the top.

8.      The fractions of products with the higher boiling points settle at the bottom.

9.      The fractions of product from top to bottom are as follows: gas, naphtha, gasoline, kerosene, diesel fuel, fuel oil, lubricating oil, paraffin wax, and asphalt.