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Chemical Composition of Crude Oil

Crude oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons and other organic compounds. It varies in composition but is classified based on density, sulfur content, and origin. The four main hydrocarbon groups in crude oil are paraffins, olefins, naphthenes, and aromatics. Refining crude oil produces useful products like liquefied petroleum gas, gasoline, kerosene, diesel fuel, lubricating oil, fuel oil, and residual products. These products have different applications and boiling point ranges depending on their hydrocarbon makeup.

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50 views

Chemical Composition of Crude Oil

Crude oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons and other organic compounds. It varies in composition but is classified based on density, sulfur content, and origin. The four main hydrocarbon groups in crude oil are paraffins, olefins, naphthenes, and aromatics. Refining crude oil produces useful products like liquefied petroleum gas, gasoline, kerosene, diesel fuel, lubricating oil, fuel oil, and residual products. These products have different applications and boiling point ranges depending on their hydrocarbon makeup.

Uploaded by

abdulzahra
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Chapter one: Composition of Crude Oil and its Products Petroleum Refining

Chemical Composition of Crude Oil

1. Introduction
Crude oil is considered light if the level of hydrocarbons relative to
organics and metals is high, making its density low, and it is considered
heavy if the level of hydrocarbons relative to organics and metals is low,
making its density as high. Additionally, crude oil is classified as sweet
if it has very little sulfur in it, and is classified as sour if it has a great
deal of sulfur in it. So a crude oil will usually be called something like a
sweet, light oil, or a sour, heavy oil. Sweeter oils are more valuable than
sour oils, because most countries have sulfur regulations for
environmental reasons, and sweet oils require less treatment to remove
the sulfur. Light oils are more valuable than heavy oils, because more
gasoline can be created from a smaller amount.

Different regions on earth tend to have different types of oil, so


crude oil is often classified based on where it comes from. Certain
regions will act as a sample of a broader region, since they are seen as
relatively representative of that broad region. For example, Dubai-Oman
oil is a sour crude oil, and is used to benchmark most sour crude from
the Middle East; West Texas Intermediate is a sweet, light oil; and the
OPEC Reference Basket is a composite oil sample that averages oils
from all over the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Petroleum is a mixture of hundreds of hydrocarbons of all type with
water, salts, sulfur and nitrogen containing compounds and some metal
complexes. The elementary composition of crude oil

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Chapter one: Composition of Crude Oil and its Products Petroleum Refining

Table 1 Elemental composition of crude oils

The proportion of hydrocarbons in the mixture is highly variable and


ranges from as much as 97% by weight in the lighter oils to as little as
50% in the heavier oils and bitumens.
Four different types of hydrocarbon molecules appear in crude oil. The
relative percentage of each varies from oil to oil, determining the
properties of each oil.

2. Composition of Petroleum

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Chapter one: Composition of Crude Oil and its Products Petroleum Refining

Hydrocarbons Compounds
1. Paraffins

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Chapter one: Composition of Crude Oil and its Products Petroleum Refining

2.Olefins

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Chapter one: Composition of Crude Oil and its Products Petroleum Refining

3.Naphthenes(Cycloalkanes)

4.Aromatics

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Chapter one: Composition of Crude Oil and its Products Petroleum Refining

Non-Hydrocarbons Compounds
1.Sulfur Compounds

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Chapter one: Composition of Crude Oil and its Products Petroleum Refining

2.Oxygen Compounds

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Chapter one: Composition of Crude Oil and its Products Petroleum Refining

3.Nitrogen Compounds

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Chapter one: Composition of Crude Oil and its Products Petroleum Refining

4.Metalic Compounds

5.Asphaltenes and Resins

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Chapter one: Composition of Crude Oil and its Products Petroleum Refining

3.Products Compounds

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Chapter one: Composition of Crude Oil and its Products Petroleum Refining

To understand the diversity contained in crude oil, and to understand


why refining crude oil is important in our society, look through the
following list of products that come from crude oil:

 Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)


 Used for heating, cooking, making plastics
 Small alkanes (1 to 4 carbon atoms)
 Commonly known by the names methane, ethane, propane, butane
 Boiling range < 90 oF / < 27 oC
 Often liquified under pressure to create LPG (liquefied petroleum
gas)
 Gasoline
 Motor fuel
 Liquid
 Mix of alkanes and cycloalkanes (5 to 7 carbon atoms)
 Boiling range = 90-220 oF / 27-93 oC

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Chapter one: Composition of Crude Oil and its Products Petroleum Refining

 Kerosene
 Fuel for jet engines and tractors; starting material for making other
products
 Liquid
 Mix of alkanes (10 to 15 carbons) and aromatics
 Boiling range = 315-450 oF / 177-293 oC
 Diesel Fuel
 Used for diesel fuel and heating oil, starting material for making other
products
 Liquid
 Alkanes containing 13-18 carbon atoms
 Boiling range = 450-650 oF / 293-315 oC
 Lubricating oil
 Used for motor oil, grease, other lubricants
 Liquid
 Long chain (20 to 50 carbon atoms) alkanes, cycloalkanes, aromatics
 Boiling range = 572 to 700 oF / 300 to 370 oC
 Fuel oil
 Used for industrial fuel; starting material for making other products
 Liquid
 Long chain (16 to 40 carbon atoms) alkanes, cycloalkanes, aromatics
 Boiling range = 650-800 oF / 315-565 oC
 Residual oil
 Coke, asphalt, tar, waxes; starting material for making other products
 Solid
 Multiple-ringed compounds with 40 or more carbon atoms
 Boiling range = greater than 800 oF / 565 oC

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