UNIT 1

PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY
INTRODUCTION

1. What are the products obtained in crude distillation?

 Liquified petroleum gas (LPG)

 Gasoline (also known as petrol)
 Naphtha
 Kerosene and related jet aircraft fuels
 Diesel fuel
 Fuel oils
 Lubricating oils
 Paraffin wax
 Asphalt and tar
 Petroleum coke
 Sulfur

2 . What are the reasons for corrosion of equipment in petroleum refinery?

Corrosion occurs in various forms in the refining process, such as pitting corrosion
from water droplets, embrittlement from hydrogen, and stress corrosion cracking
from sulfide attack.

3. What is Petroleum refining processes?

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.
4. Name any 4 processing unit used in Petroleum refining processes.

Crude Oil Distillation unit

Vacuum distillation unit

Catalytic reforming unit

Distillate hydrotreater unit.etc

5. What is meant by visbreaker unit?

 Visbreaker unit upgrades heavy residual oils from the vacuum distillation unit

by

thermally cracking them into lighter, more valuable reduced viscosity products.

6. List out the components in light distillate.

 Liquid petroleum gas (LPG)

 Gasoline (also known as petrol)
 Heavy Naphtha
 Light Naphtha

7. Explain distillation.

Distillation is a process of separating the component substances from a liquid

mixture by selective evaporation and condensation. Distillation may result in
essentially complete separation (nearly pure components), or it may be a partial
separation that increases the concentration of selected components of the mixture.
In either case the process exploits differences in the volatility of mixture's
components. In industrial chemistry, distillation is a unit operation of practically
universal importance, but it is a physical separation process and not a chemical
reaction.
8. List the application of distillation.

The application of distillation can roughly be divided in four groups: laboratory

scale, industrial distillation, distillation of herbs for perfumery and medicinal (herbal
distillate), and food processing. 

9. Define Raoult’s law.

Raoult's law states that the vapor pressure of a solution is dependent on 1) the
vapor pressure of each chemical component in the solution and 2) the fraction of
solution each component makes up aka the mole fraction. This law applies to ideal
solutions, or solutions that have different components but whose molecular
interactions are the same as or very similar to pure solutions.

10.Define Daltons law.

Dalton's law states that the total vapor pressure is the sum of the vapor pressures
of each individual component in the mixture. When a multi-component liquid is
heated, the vapor pressure of each component will rise, thus causing the total
vapor pressure to rise. When the total vapor pressure reaches the pressure
surrounding the liquid, boiling occurs and liquid turns to gas throughout the bulk of
the liquid.

11.List the types of distillation.

Simple distillation

fractional distillation

steam distillation

vacuum distillation

Air-sensitive vacuum distillation

Flash evaporation

Zone distillation 

Pressure-swing distillation
12. Define Uniflex Technology.
Technology for processing low quality residue by thermal cracking to produce high
quality distillate products is Uniflex Technology.

13. Write the conditions for delayed cooking process.

Operates in semi batch mode
Moderate (900-960F) heating at 90 psig
Soak drums (845-900oF) coke walls Coked until drum solid
Coke (removed hydraulically ) 20-40% on feed, Yield 4300F, 30%
14. Write the reaction in Vis breaking.
Reaction in visbreaking
CH3-CH2-CH2-CH2-CH2-CH2-CH3 CH3-CH2-CH=CH2 + CH3-CH2-CH3

15. What is the objective of Soaker Visbreaking Process.

To lower the viscosity of heavy residues under relatively milder cracking condition
than the conventional cracking processes.
16) Explain thermal cooking.
Coking is very severe form of thermal cracking and converts the heaviest low value
residue to valuable distillates and petroleum coke. Relatively severe cracking
operations to convert residual oil products and represents the complete conversion
of petroleum residues to coke and lighter product.17. Explain Flexi Coking.

It is continuous process involves thermal cracking in a bed fluidized coke and

gasification of the coke produced at 870 oC. This process contains an additional
step of gasification(Temp: The gases leaving the gasifier is low calorific value fuel
gas at 800-1500 kcal/m3 (4200 to 5000 kJ/std m3 and is burned in the furnace or
power plants.It can be applied to wide variety of feed stocks.

18) Write the conditions for cracking.

It is a endothermic process , so external heat is required.

Main parameters affecting cracking:
 Pressure .
 Temperature
 and time of cracking.

Pressure has no direct effect on velocity of the reaction. If UNIT-II

more gases to be produced then low pressures are desirable
 CATALYTIC CRACKING

1. What are the main advantages of catalytic cracking over

thermal cracking?

- Good product quality

- Less coke formation

- Temperature and pressure uniformity in operation

2. What are the advantages of FCCRs with respect to MBRs?

- Uniformity in heat and mass transfer (fluidization)

- Compact design

- Lower erosion

- Lower steam requirements

- Higher steam efficiency

3. What is cracking?

Cracking involves the thermal or catalytic decomposition of petroleum

fractions having huge quantities of higher molecular weight compounds.
Cracking facilitates initiation, propagation and termination reactions amongst
the hydrocarbon themselves.

4. What is the principle of cracking?

Cracking generates lighter hydrocarbons constituting paraffin’s, olefins and
aromatics. In other words, high boiling low octane number feed stocks are
converted to low boiling high octane number products.

5. What is the catalyst used in the process of catalytic cracking?

Acid treated silica-alumina. During operation, poisoning occurs with Fe, Ni,

Vd and Cu.

6. What are the two flow sheets in the process of catalytic cracking?
7. Draw the flow sheet of fluidized catalytic cracking reactor?

8. Why steam stripping is carried out in the FCCR?

The purpose of stream stripping is to facilitate the removal of hydrocarbons

adsorbed on the catalyst surface. If this is not done, they will be burnt in the
CR unit and this will be loss of product value. In petroleum processing,
always we don’t wish to lose any valuable money in the processing. That’s
also the reason why the flue gas from CR is sent to the flue gas heat
recovery unit for steam generation.

9. Comment on process intensification in the FCCR?

The FCCR is a complicated arrangement of the riser (where the reaction

takes place); the cyclone separator (where solid fluid separation takes place)
and the stripper (where again stripping the catalyst takes place a physical
process). Therefore, we can see that the reactor and separator are packed
into a single vessel applying the finer principles of process intensification.

10. Flow chart of moving bed reactor.

11. What is hydro cracking?

Feed stocks are sent to a catalytic reactor in the presence of hydrogen.

Depending upon the intensity of the hydro processing operation, the hydro
processing is termed as hydro treating or hydro cracking.

12. What are the process conditions of hydro treating?

- Depending upon the feed conditions, the operating conditions are

Temperature: 290 – 430oc

Pressure: 7 – 180 bar

- Higher pressure and temperature are used when heavier feed stocks are
used.
- Catalysts: Cobalt, Molbdenum catalysts are used when effective sulphur
removal is targeted. Nickel, molybdenum catalysts are used when effective
nitrogen removal is targeted

- The hydro treating reactions are exothermic and therefore, the reactor
product needs to be cooled.

13. Comment upon hydrogen requirements for various hydro

treating feed stocks?

Depending upon the feed stocks, hydro treating feedstock’s would be fed
with variant hydrogen requirements. For straight run naphtha, the
H2/Naphtha feed ratio is 1.4 – 5.7 Nm3 /bbl of feed. For Gas oil, it is 5.5 –
16 Nm3 /bbl feed. For kerosene, it is 2.7 – 11.2 Nm3/bbl feed.
14. Why two phase separators are used for the reactor product in
hydro cracking flow sheet?

The first phase separator provides three streams based on its temperature
and pressure. However, when the temperature of the gas stream is again
reduced, again two phase streams would emanate. This is due to the heat
removal and due to this reason, adiabatic flash conditions would exist and
two streams would be generated. The second phase separator could be
optional as well, but it will affect the catalyst performance. Long term
performance studies along with process simulation studies provide such
minor changes in the process flow sheet which are important to eventually
phase out long term profitability of the hydro cracking flow sheet.

15. Why the phase separator emanates two streams?

Here, the principle of maximizing H2S, NH3 removal by absorption into water
is facilitated. All other hydrocarbons and hydrogen do not have much
solubility in water when compared to these two gases. Usually, a phase
separator is assumed to produce two phases namely gas or liquid or two
separate liquids based on densities. But here, due to injection of water and
cooling, three phases are existent. These are gas (hydrogen rich), water
(NH3 and H2S rich) and the hydro treated product (H2S and H2 lean).

16. Explain why one heat exchanger is used before mixing water and
one is used after mixing?

This is a very intelligent question. After years of research and process

simulation studies, such optimal conditions of mixing and cooling have been
obtained. Cooling the reactor product first is targeted for mixing and cooling
after mixing is targeted to maximize solubility’s of NH3 and H2S in the water
stream.

17. Can we use steam instead of reboiler in the fractionators?

This is also an important question. Steam utilization instead of reboilers is

usually carried out for heavier hydrocarbons but not for the light
hydrocarbons such as naphtha and gas oil. This is to ensure that lighter
hydrocarbons are easily stripped from the heavier desulphurized product and
good product quality is obtained in the top and bottom products of the
fractionators.

UNIT-III
 CATALYTICAL

1. Define reforming and its types.

Reforming is the processing technique by which the molecular
structure of a hydrocarbon is rearranged to alter its properties.
Types:-
 Thermal reforming.
 Catalytic reforming.

2.What is the purpose of reforming process to low quality gasoline

stocks?

The purpose of reforming process to low quality gasoline stocks is to

improve their combustion characteristics.

3.Define Catalytic reforming.

Catalytic reforming is a chemical process used to convert petroleum

refinery naphthas distilled from crude oil (typically having low octane
ratings) into high-octane liquid products called reformates, which are
premium blending stocks for high-octane gasoline. The process converts
low-octane linear hydrocarbons (paraffins) into branched alkanes
(isoparaffins) and cyclic naphthenes, which are then partially
dehydrogenated to produce high-octane aromatic hydrocarbons .

4. What are all the different industrial products obtained from

catalytic steam reforming?
 Hydrogen
 Ammonia
 Methanol
 Naphtha and
  Petroleum derived products

5. What are all the major catalytic reforming reactions?

 Dehydrogenation.
 Isomerization.
 Aromatization.
 Hydrocracking.

6. What are all the types of catalytic reforming process?

 Semiregenerative.
 Cyclic regeneration.
 Continuous regeneration.

7.Explain catalytic reformer unit and its parts?

Catalytic reformer unit is designed to process upto 8400 BPD of the

combined naphthas produced in crude and visbreaker unit. It is to increase
the capacity to approximately 11000 BPD.
Parts:-
 Reactor section.
 Recycle gas system and hydrogen storage section.
 Stabilizer section.

8.Define Isomerization process in petroleum refining.

Isomerization is a process in petroleum refining that converts n-

butane, n-pentane and n-hexane into their respective isoparaffins of
substantially higher octane number. The straight-chain paraffins are
converted to their branched-chain counterparts whose component atoms are
the same but are arranged in a different geometric structure.
 Isomerization is important for the conversion of n-butane into
isobutane, to provide additional feedstock for alkylation units, and the
conversion of normal pentanes and hexanes into higher branched isomers
for gasoline blending.

9.What is the purpose of isomerization process?

The main purpose is to increase their refinery production of high

octane and low aromatic gasoline.

10.What are all the different types of isomerization in petroleum

refining and in other chemical industries?
 Naphtha isomerization.
 Butane isomerization.
Others:-
 Xylene isomerization.
 Cyclohexane isomerization.
 Butylene isomerization.

11.Name the major catalyst used for the isomerization process of

naphtha and butane.
Platinum (or) platinum chloride on alumina (or) zeolite.

12.Define alkylation process in petroleum refining

The alkylation process in petroleum refining combines low-molecular-

weight olefins (primarily a mixture of propylene and butylene) with
isobutene in the presence of a catalyst, either sulfuric acid or hydrofluoric
acid. The product is called alkylate and is composed of a mixture of high-
octane, branched-chain paraffinic hydrocarbons.
13.Define alkylates

Alkylate is a premium blending stock because it has exceptional

antiknock properties and is clean burning. The octane number of the alkylate
depends mainly upon the kind of olefins used and upon operating conditions.

14.What are the types of alkylation process?

 Sulfuric Acid Alkylation Process.
 Hydrofluoric Acid Alkylation Process

15.Mention some of the operating variables that impact the product
quality and cost of alkylation unit.
 Isobutene concentration
 Temperature.
 Acid strength.
 Olefin space velocity.
 Mixing.

16. Define polymerization process.

Polymerization in petroleum refining is the process of converting light
olefin gases including ethylene, propylene, and butylene into hydrocarbons
of higher molecular weight and higher octane number that can be used as
gasoline blending stocks.

17.What are the functions of common blending operations?

 To reduce both reblends and product giveaway
 To meet product specifications while conforming to
environmental requirements
  To enhance effective inventory capability and improve
profitability
 To lower risk of missed export schedules
 To improve refinery planning/scheduling accuracy

18. Explain the objective of product blending.

The primary object in blending is to maximize the refineries profit by

producing a variety of products that meet the greatest demand in the
market. e.g. naphthas can be either blended into gasoline or jet fuel –
refinery streams should be blended in such a way as to meet the market
demand.
It includes:-
 Octane blending and
 pour point blending.
19.What are the different streams blended to form gasoline?

 Light naphtha
 Heavy naphtha run through the reformer
 FCC product run through alkylation
 Delayed coking gasoline
 Deasphalted (DAO)run through an FCC

20. Mention the refinery end products

The primary end-products produced in petroleum refining may be
grouped into four categories: light distillates, middle distillates, heavy
distillates and others.
Light distillates
 Liquid petroleum gas (LPG)
  Gasoline (also known as petrol)
 Heavy Naphtha
 Light Naphtha
Middle distillates
 Kerosene
 Automotive and rail-road diesel fuels
 Residential heating fuel
 Other light fuel oils
Heavy distillates
 Heavy fuel oils
 Bunker fuel oil and other residual fuel oils

UNIT-IV

LUBRICATING
1. Define lubricant
A lubricant is a substance introduced to reduce friction between surfaces in
mutual contact, which ultimately reduces the heat generated when the surfaces
move. It may also have the function of transmitting forces, transporting foreign
particles, or heating or cooling the surfaces. The property of reducing friction is
known as lubricity.

2.What are the characteristics of good lubricant?

 High boiling point and low freezing point
 High viscosity index
 Thermal stability
 Hydraulic stability
 Demulsibility
 Corrosion prevention
 High resistance to oxidation
3.What are the different types of lubrication?
Considering the nature of motion between moving or sliding surfaces, there
are different types of mechanisms by which the lubrication is done. They are:
 Hydrodynamic lubrication or thick film lubrication
 Hydrostatic lubrication
 Boundary lubrication or thin film lubrication
 Extreme pressure lubrication

4. What are the general classification of lubricants?

 Mineral lubricants
o Fluid.
o Semi-fluid.
o Solid.
 Synthetic lubricants
 Vegetable lubricants
 Animal lubricants

5. Define the classification of lubricants based on its application.

 Engine oils
 Gear oils
 Hydraulic oils
 Cutting fluids (coolants)
 Way lubricants
 Compressor oils
 Quenching and heat transfer oils
 Rust protection oils
 Transformer oils (insulating oils)
 Turbine oils
 Chain lubricants
 Wire rope lubricants
6. Define the classification of lubricants by additives
 Extreme pressure (EP)
 Anti-wear (AW)
 Friction modifiers
 Corrosion inhibitors
 Anti-oxidants
 Dispersants
 Detergents
 Compounded
 Anti-foaming agents
 Pour point depressant

7. What are the importance of lubricating oil?

Lubricants play very vital roles in most industries, especially those that
operate machineries and vehicles. This essential industrial material is used to keep
machine parts from damage and allow the smooth operation of industrial
equipment.
 Chrome plating Melbourne 
 Commercial fit out 
 Undercover Blinds folding arm awnings 
 Hot water system

8. What are the important properties of lubricating oil?

 Viscosity
 Viscosity index
 Pour point
 Oxidation resistance.
 Flash point.
 Boiling temperature.
 Acidity.

9. Mention the undesirable characteristics of lubricating oil.

  High pour point
 Poor oxygen stability
 Poor colour
 High cloud point
 High organic acidity
 High carbon and sludge forming

10. Mention the applications of lubricants.

 Keep moving parts apart
 Reduce friction
 Transfer heat
 Carry away contaminants & debris
 Transmit power
 Protect against wear
 Prevent corrosion
 Seal for gases
 Stop the risk of smoke and fire of objects
 Prevent rust

11.What are the types of mineral oil?

 Paraffinic
 Naphtenic
 Aromatic.

12.What is meant by blending stock?

Any substance used for compounding gasoline, including natural gasoline,

catalytically reformed products, and additives is called blending stock.

13.Define feedstock.
Raw material (input) fed into a process for conversion into something
different (output). Crude oil is a feedstock in a refining process which produces
gasoline (petroleum)

14. What is antiknock index (ANI)?

 It means the arithmetic average of the Research Octane Number (RON) and
Motor Octane Number (MON): AKI = (RON + MON)/2. This value is called by a
variety of names like: octane rating, posted octane, (R + M)/2 octanes etc.

15. What do you mean by aviation gasoline?

A type of gasoline suitable to use as a fuel in an aviation spark-ignition
internal combustion engine.

16. Define biodiesel.

It means a blend consisting of diesel fuel and a substantial amount of
esterified animal fats and/or vegetable oil(s).

17. What is M100 fuel methanol and M85 fuel methanol?

M100 methanol means nominally anhydrous methyl alcohol, generally
containing small amounts of additives, suitable for use as a fuel in a compression-
ignition internal combustion engine. Whereas M85 methanol means a blend of
methanol and hydrocarbons of which the methanol portion is nominally 70 to 85
volume percent.

18. What is SAE?

It means the Society of Automotive Engineers, a technical organization for
engineers, scientists, technicians, and others in positions that cooperate closely in
the engineering, design, manufacture, use, and maintainability of self-propelled
vehicles.
19. What is petroleum feedstock?

Usually refers to crude oil or a petroleum based 'fluid' like oil sands. Its some
thing that will undergo processing (like removing sulfur) to become a finished
product like gasoline or diesel fuel.

20. Give the schematic representation of petroleum feedstock 

 

UNIT-V

COST EVALUATION
1. ECONOMIC EVALUATION:

Economic evaluations are also performed to determine reserves and the

"standardized measure of value" for reporting purposes for publicly held companies.
In many cases, the goal of the company is to make decisions that have the best
chance of maximizing the present day profit.

2. WHAT ARE THE THREE MODELS TO CALCULATE PROFIT:

The three models are

 The net cash flow model,

 The financial net income model, and
 The tax model.

3. EXPLAIN CASH FLOW MODEL

 The cash flow model is the most common model used to evaluate oil/gas
products.. The cash flow model assumes that 100% of both the investment and the
expenses are recognized when they occur.
4. EXPLAIN FINANCIAL NET INCOME MODEL

The financial net income model attempts to match the revenue with the costs
to produce that revenue. This leads to recognizing the expenses in the current
period and recognizing the investment over a longer time period—often the life of
the project.

5. WRITE ABOUT TAX MODEL:

The tax model is used only if an after-tax analysis is done. 

6. EXPLAIN GROSS PRODUCTION:

Gross production is the volume of oil/gas that is projected to be produced

during the particular month or year being calculated. Gross production is one of the
most important numbers entering the net cash flow calculation and, simultaneously,
one of the most difficult to determine accurately.

7. WRITE ABOUT GROSS SALES

Gross sales is the volume of oil/gas that is projected to be sold during the time
period. If shrinkage is negligible, gross sales will equal gross production.

8. WRITE ABOUT NET SALES

Net sales is the product of gross sales and net revenue interest. It is your
share of the production after accounting for shrinkage, royalties, and splitting the
proceeds with other working interest owners

9. DEFINE COST CONTROL

The process or activity on controlling costs associated with an activity,

process, or company. Cost control typically includes (1) investigative procedures
to detect variance of actual costs from budgeted costs, (2) diagnostic procedures
 to ascertain the cause(s) of variance, and (3) corrective procedures to effect
realignment between actual and budgeted costs.

10. DEFINE TIME VALUE OF MONEY

Time value of money is defined as the value of money received today is more than
its value received after some year.

11. WRITE THE FORMULA FOR PERCENTAGE OF RATE OF RETURN

% rate of return = (earning per year / net investment) x 100

12. EXPLAIN REGULAR VALUATION

This is not a standard method. In this, every year the value of machine is
revealed and the depreciation is difference between the initial book value of
machine and every year regular valuation of machine.

13. DEFINE CASH FLOW DIAGRAM

A cash flow diagram is a tool used by accountants and engineers to represent

the transactions which will take place over the course of a given project

14. DEFINE RETURN ON INVESTMENT

A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to

compare the efficiency of a number of different investments. To calculate ROI, the
benefit (return) of an investment is divided by the cost of the investment; the
result is expressed as a percentage or a ratio. 
The return on investment formula:
 15. PAY OUT TIME:

It is defined as the minimum length of the time theorically necessary to

recover the original capital investment in the form of cash flow to the project based
on total income minus all costs except depreciation.

16.COST EVALUATION
Cost evaluation is the process of determining how resources are used. It can
be on any scale, from as focused as one single project or unit of an organization, to
broad, comparative studies of resource allocation in a whole network of
organizations. Generally, a cost evaluation is only one part of a broader cost-benefit
analysis, with the goal of determining whether resources are being used efficiently.

17. COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS:

Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is a technique used to compare the total costs of a

programme/project with its benefits, using a common metric (most commonly
monetary units). This enables the calculation of the net cost or benefit associated
with the programme.