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The hot crude oil is then passed into a distillation column that allows the separation of the crude oil into different fractions depending on the difference in volatility. The pressure at the top is maintained at 1.2–1.5 atm [ 2 ] so that the distillation can be carried out at close to atmospheric pressure, and therefore it is known as the ...
Petroleum refinery in Anacortes, Washington, United States. Petroleum refining processes are the chemical engineering processes and other facilities used in petroleum refineries (also referred to as oil refineries) to transform crude oil into useful products such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), gasoline or petrol, kerosene, jet fuel, diesel oil and fuel oils.
The crude oil is fed to a stabilizer which is typically a tray or packed tower column that achieves a partial fractionation or distillation of the oil. [4] The heavier components, pentane (C 5 H 12 ), hexane (C 6 H 14 ), and higher hydrocarbons (C 7 +), flow as liquid down through the column where the temperature is increasingly higher.
[1] [2] [41] Below is a schematic flow diagram of a typical crude oil distillation unit. The incoming crude oil is preheated by exchanging heat with some of the hot, distilled fractions and other streams. It is then desalted to remove inorganic salts (primarily sodium chloride). Following the desalter, the crude oil is further heated by ...
For example, fractional distillation is used in oil refineries to separate crude oil into useful substances (or fractions) having different hydrocarbons of different boiling points. The crude oil fractions with higher boiling points: have more carbon atoms; have higher molecular weights; are less branched-chain alkanes; are darker in color; are ...
Image 1: Typical industrial distillation towers Image 2: A crude oil vacuum distillation column as used in oil refineries. Continuous distillation, a form of distillation, is an ongoing separation in which a mixture is continuously (without interruption) fed into the process and separated fractions are removed continuously as output streams.
While not used as commonly as other techniques today, distillation is used in the process of refining petroleum. It involves the dividation of the crude oil into hydrocarbon categories, and products are recovered from the heated material. [17] A distillation tower is used in separation of the oil, with anywhere between 2 and 300 theoretical plates.
Vacuum distillation can also be referred to as "low-temperature distillation". [citation needed] In distilling the crude oil, it is important not to subject the crude oil to temperatures above 370 to 380 °C because high molecular weight components in the crude oil will undergo thermal cracking and form petroleum coke at