Crude Oil Refining &

Upgrading
ECH 80 Lecture 4
What is Crude Oil & Crude Oil Refining?
Refining Capacities
Refining
Capacities -
Vietnam
Nghi Son Refinery
 New Refinery in Vietnam
HANOI, Feb 26, 2018 (Reuters) - Vietnam’s second oil refinery, Nghi Son Refinery
and Petrochemical, will be ready for start-up from Feb. 28, its parent firm Vietnam Oil
and Gas Group, or PetroVietnam ,said on Monday.

The $9 billion plant, co-owned by Kuwait Petroleum Europe BV and Japanese firms
Idemitsu Kosan and Mitsui Chemicals , is designed to help Vietnam cope with a
shortage of refined oil products.

Vietnam’s first refinery Dung Quat currently supplies 30 percent of the country’s total
domestic fuel demand. The 200,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Nghi Son plant along with
Dung Quat will help Vietnam meet 80 percent of its fuel demand.

Operations at Nghi Son, in Thanh Hoa province south of the capital of Hanoi, were
previously delay but are now expected to begin producing commercial products such
as paraxylene starting in April and, starting in May, A95 gasoline and diesel fuel,
PetroVietnam said.

Nghi Son will process Kuwaiti crude oil to produce liquefied petroleum gas, gasoline,
diesel, kerosene and jet fuel, mainly for the domestic market.
Commercial production November 2018
Capacity of 10 million tonnes/year
What is Crude Oil & Crude Oil Refining?
 Crude oil is a thick, dark brown or greenish
flammable liquid, which is found in some regions
of the Earth's crust
 It is a complex mixture of various hydrocarbons,
(mainly, alkanes), along with trances of other
chemicals and compounds (e.g. Sulphur)
 When extracted from underground, it ranges in
density from very light to very heavy and in color,
from yellow to black
 Crude oil can be categorized as either "sweet
crude" (where the sulphur content less than 0.5%)
or "sour crude," (where the sulphur content is at
least 2.5%)
What is Crude Oil & Crude Oil Refining?
 Crude oil must undergo several separation
processes so that its components can be
obtained and used as fuels or converted to more
valuable products
 The process of transforming crude oil into finished
petroleum products
(that the market demands) is
called crude oil refining

An Oil Refinery
Distillation of Crude Oil
 We can separate the components of crude oil by
taking advantage of the differences in their
boiling points. This is done by simply heating up
crude oil, allowing it to vaporize, and then letting
the vapor to condense at different levels of the
distillation tower (depending on their boiling
points). This process is called fractional
distillation and the products of the fractional
distillation of crude oil is called fractions
C5 to C9

C6 to C12

C10 to C14

C14 to C20

C10 to C20

C15 to C22
Distillation of Crude Oil
 A fraction from crude oil can be categorized into
two categories:
 Refined Product: A crude oil fraction which
contains a lot of individual hydrocarbons (e.g.
gasoline, asphalt, waxes, and lubricants)

 Petrochemical Product: A crude oil fraction

which contain one or two specific
hydrocarbons of high purity (e.g. benzene,
toluene, and ethylene).
Crude Oil Refining
AT THE TOP OF AT THE BOTTOM
THE OF THE
DISTILLATION DISTILLATION
COLUMN COLUMN
Short carbon Long carbon
chains chains
Light molecules Heavy molecules

Low boiling High boiling points

points

Gases & very Thick, viscous

runny liquids liquids

Very volatile Low volatility

Light colour Dark colour

Highly flammable Not very

flammable
Fractions of Crude Oil & Their Properties
Number of Boiling Point
Name Uses
Carbon Atoms (°C)
Bottled Gas
Refinery Gas 3 or 4 below 30
(propane or butane).
Fuel for car
Gasoline 7 to 9 100 to 150
engines.
Solvents
Naphtha 6 to 11 70 to 200
and used in gasoline.
Fuel for aircraft
Kerosene (paraffin) 11 to 18 200 to 300
and stoves.
Fuel for road vehicles
Diesel Oil 11 to 18 200 to 300
and trains.
Lubricant for engines
Lubricating Oil 18 to 25 300 to 400
and machines.
Fuel for ships
Fuel Oil 20 to 27 350 to 450
and heating.
Lubricants
Greases and Wax 25 to 30 400 to 500
and candles.
Road surface
Bitumen above 35 above 500
and roofing.
Chemical Processing
 The fractions from crude oil are liable to undergo chemical processing to
alter its structure and thus its properties
 The sort of chemical processing employed depends largely on the market
demand
 Examples of chemical processes are as the following:
 Cracking: the process obtaining relatively simple and small
hydrocarbon molecules from the breaking down of large, heavier
and more complex hydrocarbon molecules.
 Coking: the process of breaking down bitumen into its fractions
(done by a Coker)
 Alkylation: A process where the structure of a hydrocarbon
molecule in one fraction is altered to produce another hydrocarbon
molecule with another structure. In alkylation, compounds with a low
molecular weight, such as propylene and butylene, are mixed in the
presence of a catalyst such as hydrofluoric acid or sulfuric acid
 Unification: a process where two or more hydrocarbons are
combined to produce a larger one. The major unification process is
called catalytic reforming and occurs in the presence of a catalyst
(platinum, platinum-rhenium mix) to combine low weight naphtha
into aromatics
Chemical Processing
 The fractions from crude oil can be chemically
processed to alter its structure and thus its
properties
 The sort of chemical processing employed
depends largely on the market demand – make
the most money
 Examples of chemical processes are as the
following:
 Cracking:
 Coking:
 Alkylation:
 Unification:
 Cracking:

 Coking:
 Alkylation:

 Unification:
Treatment Processes
 Chemical sweetening, acid treating, clay
contacting, caustic washing, hydro treating,
drying, solvent extraction, and solvent dewaxing.
Sweetening compounds and acids desulphurize
crude oil before processing and treat products
during and after processing.

 Example – remove hydrogen sulfide

Treatment Processes
 Example – remove hydrogen sulfide
Treatment Processes
 Example – desalter
Solvent-Refining Process
 Uses chemicals (fairly safe recyclable solvent) to dissolve one part of the oil
from another
 Removes heavy materials and wax (undesirable component by extraction)
Treatment Processes
 Chemical sweetening, acid treating, clay contacting, caustic washing,
hydro treating, drying, solvent extraction, and solvent dewaxing.
Sweetening compounds and acids desulphurize crude oil before
processing and treat products during and after processing.

 Clay Treating
 Use clay to soak up and remove unwanted components in petroleum
 Dilute the oil with solvent and freeze the oil
 During the freezing process, wax will solidify leaving only the pure oil in
liquid phase
 Acid treating
 Using concentrated sulphuric acid to convert sludge from the oil
 Expensive
 SO2 Treating
 Using a very toxic recyclable solvent to remove the worst components in
oil
Treatment: The Finishing Touch
 Impurities such as organic compounds containing sulphur, nitrogen, oxygen,
water, dissolved metals and inorganic salts must be removed from the
distillated and chemically processed fractions
 Treating is typically done by passing the fractions through the following:
 a column of sulphuric acid - removes unsaturated hydrocarbons
(hydrocarbons with carbon-carbon double-bonds), nitrogen
compounds, oxygen compounds and residual solids (tars, asphalt)
 an absorption column filled with drying agents to dehydrate the
fraction
 sulphur treatment and hydrogen-sulphide scrubbers to remove
sulphur and sulphur compounds

 Today, a major portion of refining involves blending, purifying, fine-tuning

and improving products to meet specific requirements
 Example: Refinery workers carefully blend together a variety of
hydrocarbons to make petrol. Moreover to distinguish the various grades of
fuel, technicians add performance additives and dyes. At the end of the
production of petrol, the petrol contains more than 200 hydrocarbons and
additives
Why Upgrade An Oil Refinery?
 Oil refining releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere
 Response to changing market demands for certain products
 Government regulations
 Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (CAAA90)
 Changing consumer demand for better and different products
 Decrease the number of non-hydrocarbons, impurities, and other
constituents
 Potential physical, mechanical, chemical, and health hazards are
recognized in air
Accomplishment of Oil Refinery
Upgrading
 The emissions of
pollutants from oil
refining decreased
significantly over the
past decade due to
the new technology
implemented into the
oil refining
techniques