Classification of Crude Oil

Classification of crude
The hydrocarbons found in petroleum are classified as
1. Paraffins(CnH2n+2): saturated hydrocarbons with straight or branched chains, but

without any ring structure.
Paraffins:
 Carbon atoms connected by single bond
 Other bonds saturated with hydrogen
2. Cycloparaffins (CnH2n): (naphthenes), saturated hydrocarbons containing one or

more rings, each of which may have one or more paraffin side-chains.
Naphthenes:
 Ringed Paraffins (Cycloparaffins)
 All bonds saturated with hydrogen
3. Aromatics(CnH2n-6): hydrocarbons containing one or more aromatic nuclei such as

benzene, naphthalene, and phenanthrene ring systems that may be linked up with
(substituted) naphthalene rings or paraffin side-chains.
Aromatics:
 Six Carbon Rings (Multiple Bonding)
 All bonds unsaturated
4. Olefins:
 Usually not in crude oil
 Formed During Processing
 At least two carbon atoms connected by double bond
Crude oil
Composition
Carbon 84-87 %
Hydrogen 11-14%
Sulfur 1-5 %
Nitrogen 0-1 %
Oxygen 0-2 %
Color: Light brown to dark brown

Sp.gr: 0.81—0.985
Boiling range : 25 – 400oC
Hydrocarbons C1- C70 (4000 compounds)
Metals: V, Fe, Ni
Sulfur comounds: (H2S,Thiols (mercaptans), sulfides, di sulfides, poly sulfides and
thiophenes).
These Sulfur compounds cause corrosion of equipments, bad odour in products,catalyst
poisoning, Air pollution.
Nitrogen compounds: Indols, pyridines and quinolenes (Difficult to remove).

Oxygen compounds: present as naphthenic acids and phenols and are corrosive in nature
and cause odour.
Metal: act as catalyst poisons

Introduction to petroleum refinery
Petroleum refineries have goal to convert as much of the barrel of crude oil into
transportation fuels which is economically practical. Refineries produce many profitable
products however, the high-volume profitable products are the transportation fuel
gasoline, diesel and turbine (jet) fuels, and the light heating oils. These transportation fuels
have boiling points between 25 and 350oC. Although products such as lubricating oils,
refrigeration and transformer oils, and petrochemical feedstocks are profitable. They
amount to less than 5 percent of the total crude oil charged to refineries. The processing
equipment indicated is for processing crude oils of average gravities and sulfur contents.
Crude oils with low API gravities (high specific gravities) and high sulfur contents require
additional hydrotreating equipment. The quality of crude oils processed by worldwide
refineries is expected to worsen slowly in the future with the sulfur contents and densities
to increase. Therefore refineries will require processing the entire barrel of crude rather
than just the material boiling below (550 oC).Sulfur restrictions on fuels, coke and heavy
fuel oils affects the bottom-of-the-barrel processing as well. These factors requires
extensive refinery additions modernization the shift in market requirements among
gasolines and reformulated fuels for transportation challenges.[16]
Overview of Refinery
The crude oil is heated in a furnace and charged to an atmospheric distillation tower, where
it is separated into light gas (C1-C4), light naphtha, heavy naphtha, kerosine, atmospheric
gas oil, and reduced (topped) crude. The reduced crude is sent to the vacuum distillation
tower and separated into vacuum gas oil stream and vacuum reduced crude bottoms
(residua, resid). The reduced crude bottoms from the vacuum distillation tower is thermally
cracked in a delayed coker to produce gas, coker gasoline, coker gas oil, and coke. The
atmospheric and vacuum crude unit gas oils and coker gas oil are used as feedstocks for
the catalytic cracking or hydrocracking units where heavy molecules get converted into
lower molecular weight compounds boiling in the gasoline and distillate fuel ranges. The
hydrocracked products are saturated whereas catalytic cracker products are unsaturated
and further need improvement in quality by either hydrotreating or by reforming. The light
naphtha streams from the crude tower, coker and cracking units are sent to an
isomerization unit to convert straight-chain paraffins into isomers which have higher
octane numbers. The heavy naphtha streams from the crude tower, coker, and cracking
units are fed to the catalytic reformer to improve octane numbers. The products from the
catalytic reformer can be blended into regular and premium gasolines for marketing. The
wet gas streams from the crude unit, coker, and cracking units are separated in the vapor
recovery section (gas plant) into fuel gas, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), unsaturated
hydrocarbons (propylene, butylenes, and pentenes), normal butane, and isobutane. The
fuel gas is burned as a fuel in refinery furnaces and the normal butane is blended into
gasoline or LPG. The unsaturated hydrocarbons and isobutane are sent to the alkylation
unit to react olefins with isobutane to yield isoparaffins. The alkylation is done at high
pressure and low temperature in the presence of sulfuric or hydrofluoric acid as catalyst.
The product is called alkylated gasoline, which is a high-octane product blended into
premium motor gasoline and aviation gasoline. The middle distillates from the crude unit,
coker, and cracking units are blended into diesel and jet fuels and furnace oils. In some
refineries, the heavy vacuum gas oil and reduced crude from paraffinic or naphthenic base
crude oils are processed into lubricating oils. The asphaltenes are removed in a propane
deasphalting unit, and the reduced crude from bottoms are processed with the vacuum
gas oils to produce lubeoil base stocks (LOBS). The vacuum gas oils and deasphalted stocks
are solvent-extracted to remove the aromatic compounds followed by dewaxing to
improve the pour point. These LOBS are further treated with acid clays to improve their
color and stability before being blended into lubricating oils. Each refinery has its own
unique processing scheme which is determined by the process equipment available, crude
oil characteristics, operating costs, and product demand.
Refinery Feed Stocks
The basic raw material for refineries is petroleum or crude oil. The chemical compositions
of crude oils obtained from various sources are almost uniform although their physical
characteristics vary widely. Crude oils are classified as paraffin base, naphthene base,
asphalt base, or mixed base depending upon the composition of the residue left after
distillation. Crude oils which have up to 80% aromatic content are known as aromatic-base
oils.
Major Processes in Refinery:
 Desalting
 Sweetening
 Hydrogen Generation Unit
 DHDS/DHDT
 Reformer
 Isomerisation
 Amine Treating
 Sulphur Recovery Unit
 Bitumen Blowing Unit
 Lube and wax
 Solvent Extraction
 Solvent dewaxing
 Solvent Deoiling
 Solvent deasphalting
 Lube isomerisation
 Hydrodesulfurisation
Refinery Products
 LPG
 NAPHTHA
 ATF
 KEROSENE
 DIESEL
 FUEL OIL
 LUBRICATING OIL
 GAS OILS
 BITUMEN
Refinery Operation
 Crude oil is transported to refineries by pipelines, (more than 500,000 barrels per
day), or by ocean-going tankers.
 The basic refinery process is distillation, which separates the crude oil into fractions
of differing volatility.
 After the distillation, other physical methods are employed to separate the
mixtures including absorption adsorption solvent extraction and crystallization.
 After physical separation into such constituents as light and heavy naphtha,
kerosene, light and heavy gas oils selected petroleum fractions may be subjected
to conversion processes such as thermal cracking (i.e., coking;) and catalytic
cracking.
 Cracking breaks the large molecules of heavier gas oils into the smaller molecules
that form the lighter, more valuable naphtha fractions.
 Reforming changes the structure of straight-chain paraffin molecules into
branched-chain iso-paraffins and ring-shaped aromatics. The process is widely used
to raise the octane number of gasoline obtained by distillation of paraffinic crude
oils.
Figure 1: A typical REFINERY PROCESS CHART with both Atmospheric (ADU) and Vaccum
distillation process (VDU).

Classification of Crude Oil

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Classification of crude

The hydrocarbons found in petroleum are classified as

1. Paraffins(CnH2n+2): saturated hydrocarbons with straight or branched chains, but

2. Cycloparaffins (CnH2n): (naphthenes), saturated hydrocarbons containing one or

3. Aromatics(CnH2n-6): hydrocarbons containing one or more aromatic nuclei such as

Color: Light brown to dark brown

Nitrogen compounds: Indols, pyridines and quinolenes (Difficult to remove).

Metal: act as catalyst poisons

Refinery Feed Stocks

Major Processes in Refinery:

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