Heavy Fuel Refinery Process PDF
Heavy Fuel Refinery Process PDF
Heavy Fuel Refinery Process PDF
An oil refinery may be considered as a factory that converts crude oil into a range
of useable products. It is designed to produce what the market requires in the
most economical and efficient manner. The first step in the manufacture of
petroleum products is the separation of crude oil into the main fractions by
atmospheric distillation. When crude oil is heated, the lightest and most volatile
hydrocarbons boil off as vapours first and the heaviest and least volatile last. The
vapours are then cooled and condensed back into liquids.
Thermal Cracking
Another important factor in the process is the residence time. The feedstock can
be either the residue from the atmospheric or vacuum distillation units, or a
mixture of the two. In modern refineries, there are three major applications of
the thermal cracking process: visbreaking, a thermal gas oil unit and coking.
Visbreaking is the most significant process with regard to the manufacture of
residual fuel oil. It is a mild form of thermal cracking often used for reducing the
viscosity of straight-run residual fuels. Normally such fuels are very viscous and,
if required for sale as heavy fuel oil, must be blended with a relatively high value
distillate to meet the finished product specification.
Catalytic Cracking
Catalytic cracking is the major process in the petroleum refining industry for the
conversion of heavy hydrocarbon fractions, mainly into high-quality gasoline and
fuel oil components. These are lighter, less viscous and more valuable than the
feedstock. There are various different catalytic cracker designs but in all cases
the product output can finally be separated to: gases, gasoline blending
components, catalytically cracked cycle oils and cycle oil slurry. The cycle oils
are very important with respect to residual fuel oil since they are used as cutter
stocks to reduce the viscosity of residues. Prior to use as a cutter stock, the cycle
oil slurry has to be treated to remove entrained cat fines. In a modern refinery,
there is a wide range of residues and diluent available for the production of fuel
oil. Usually the fuel will consist of visbroken residue diluted with cycle oils and
smaller amounts of other distillates.
The figure below shows the main streams of feedstock, fuel oil diluent and fuel
oil residues in a modern refinery. Clearly, if a refinery does not have a thermal
cracking facility (visbreaker or thermal gas oil unit) then the fuel oil will be based
on long or short residue. Additional to the main residual fuel streams in a modern
refinery, it should be appreciated that other developments have taken place to
further maximise the production of gasoline, kerosene and diesel from a barrel of
oil.