Refined Oil - Energy Industries

Idiomas

02/05/2013

The industry of petrol uses gasoline and petroleum products to make many things. After crude oil it goes to the second part: a refinery. The different parts of it are separated into useful products of petrol.

At refineries 3 steps are followed: separation, conversion and treatment.

Separation
Petroleum components are separated into heavy and light. The heavy components are on the bottom and the light ones on the top. The resulting liquids and vapors from this process of separation are discharged into distillation towers. Once at the towers the liquids and vapors are separated into small fractions according to weight and boiling point. The fractions which are lighter (as gasoline and LPG gas) vaporize and go to the top of the tower where they go back to liquids.

The medium fractions as kerosene and diesel stay in the middle and the heavier liquids as gas oils, stays at the bottom.

Conversion

It is in this process that the fractions from the distillation towers are transformed into streams that will become the finished products. The most used conversion method is cracking.

Treatment

To make gasoline refineries carefully combine some streams from the processing units. Some of them are vapor pressure ratings, octane level and if the gasoline can be used at high altitudes.

Storage

Crude oil and the final products from all the process need to be stored. These liquids are stored in tanks near the refinery. Pipelines carry the final product to the rest of the country(ies).