Chapter 3: Fuels from Petroleum and Heavy Oil

3.1 History

A petroleum refinery is a group of manufacturing plants (Fig. 3.1) which are used to separate petroleum into fractions and the subsequent treating of these fractions to yield marketable products, particularly fuels (Kobe and McKetta, 1958; Nelson, 1958; Gruse and Stevens, 1960; Bland and Davidson, 1967; Hobson and Pohl, 1973). The configuration of refineries may vary from refinery to refinery. Some refineries may be more oriented toward the production of gasoline (large reforming and/or catalytic cracking) whereas the configuration of other refineries may be more oriented toward the production of middle distillates such as jet fuel and gas oil.

Figure 3.1: Schematic overview of a refinery.

In general, crude oil, once refined, yields three basic groupings of products that are produced when it is broken down into cuts or fractions (Table 3.1). The gas and gasoline cuts form the lower boiling products and are usually more valuable than the higher boiling fractions and provide gas (liquefied petroleum gas), naphtha, aviation fuel, motor fuel, and feedstocks, for the petrochemical industry. Naphtha, a precursor to gasoline and solvents, is extracted from both the light and middle range of distillate cuts and is also used as a feedstock for the petrochemical industry. The middle distillates refer to products from the middle boiling range of petroleum and include kerosene, diesel fuel, distillate fuel oil, and light gas oil. Waxy distillate and lower boiling lubricating oils are sometimes included in the middle distillates. The remainder of the crude oil includes the higher boiling...