CH414

Petroleum Refinery Engineering

GIK Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology

Department of Chemical Engineering
2021

Dr Javaid Rabbani Khan

Petroleum Refinery Engineering
• Dr. Javaid Rabbani Khan (Instructor)
• TA: Engr. Usman
• Email: drjrabbani@giki.edu.pk
• Office: G-01, Ground Floor,
FMCE, Ext.:2229
• Meeting Timing: 9:00-1700 hrs

2
 Course Objective
• To introduce and compare various processes and operations of petroleum
refineries.
• To familiarize the technologies to purify crude oil, (feedstock having different
characteristics) to numerous products/cuts safely and economically.
• To appraise essential conversion processes/methodologies to enhance efficiency
and minimize wastages.
• To impart knowledge of future trends and developments,
i. to enhance efficiency,
ii. to improve quality and productivity,
iii. To design and develop latest refineries.
iv. Economical technologies for Naphtha cracking
• The topics include but are not limited to:
– Petroleum Refinery process, layout and products
– Chemical Processes involved for production of petroleum products
– Lube oil processing
– Petrochemicals feedstock 3
Latest Oil Refineries Characteristics
• Carbon - 84%
• Hydrogen - 14%
• Sulfur - 1 to 3% (hydrogen sulfide, sulfides, disulfides,
elemental sulfur)
• Nitrogen - less than 1% (basic compounds with amine
groups,
• No lead, Arsenic and other poisonous elements (may
adverse health effects e.g., increased risk of asthma,
cancers, birth defects, neurological damage, cardiovascular
damage, difficulty breathing, and blood disorders.),

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 Naphtha (looks like gasoline)
• Naphtha is a flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixture, produced
from distilling crude oils, natural gas condensates, petroleum
distillates, and the distillation of coal tar and peat.

• In different regions naphtha may be present in crude oils,

or
• May be present in refined products e.g., gasoline and kerosene.
• Naphtha is used
i. to dilute heavy oil
ii. to facilitate flow through pipelines,
iii. to make high-octane gas,
iv. to make lighter fluid, and even to clean metal.
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Engr. Fraz Saeed Butt 6
 Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs)
Student be able to
CLO-1 understand about composition, properties and
classification of crude oil or petroleum, operations and
processes in petroleum processing as well related
chemistry and catalysis and impurities in crude oil.
CLO-2 Develop understanding of refinery products and
their specifications.
CLO-3 Develop understanding of safety and environmental
issues in petroleum refining.
CLO-4 understand refinery chemical conversion processes
and be able to investigate the academic and technical
literatures for further information.
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 Syllabus
Pre-requisite(s): CH212
• Introduction: Origin, formation & composition of petroleum,
Indigenous and world resources, Refinery products, properties and
standard tests. Refinery feedstock.
• Crude Distillation: Crude preheating and preliminary treatment,
furnaces, atmospheric and vacuum distillation, Steam stripping,
Determination of number of plates in various sections of distillation
column for various cuts using Packie’s approach.
• Chemical Conversion Processes: Coking and thermal processes,
catalytic cracking, reforming, hydrocracking, isomerization and
alkylation.
• Supporting processes and Refinery Economics
• Lubricating oil and petrochemicals

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 Text Book

James H. Gary, Glenn E. Handwerk and Mark J. Kaiser

“Petroleum Refining Technology and Economics” 5th Edition 2007,
CRC Press, ISBN 9780849370380
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 Text Book

Wilbur L. Nelson. “Petroleum Refinery Engineering” 4th Edition

1958, McGraw-Hill Inc.
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 Week # Lecture # Topic
Introductory lecture about course content, meeting and contact
1
COURSE BREAKAGE (Before MID)
time, textbook, CLOs
1
2 Refinery Processes and operations, historic overview
3 Refinery flow scheme-I
4 Refinery flow scheme-II
2 5 Refinery products-I
6 Refinery products-II
7 Refinery feedstocks,
3 8 composition of petroleum
9 Pre-treatment of crude oil
10 CDU and products-I
4 11 CDU and products-II
12 VDU and products
13 Coking and Thermal Processes-I
5 14 Coking and Thermal Processes-II
15 Coking and Thermal Processes-III
16 Catalytic Cracking-I
6 17 Catalytic Cracking-II
18 Catalytic Cracking-III
19 Catalytic Hydrocracking-I
7 20 Catalytic Hydrocracking-II
21 Hydroprocessing and Resid Processing-I
22 Hydroprocessing and Resid Processing-II
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8 23 Hydrotreating-I
 Week # Lecture # Topic
25 Catalytic reforming and isomerization-I
COURSE BREAKAGE (After MID)
9 26 Catalytic reforming and isomerization-II
27 Catalytic reforming and isomerization-III
28 Alkylaytion and polymerization-I
10 29 Alkylaytion and polymerization-II
30 Alkylaytion and polymerization-III
31 Petroleum products blending
11 32 Hydrogen production and purification
33 Acid Gas Removal
34 Sulfur recovery process-I
12 35 Sulfur recovery process-II
36 Sulfur recovery process-III
37 Wastewater treatment
13 38 Linear programming and models
39 Economics and planning application
40 Lube oil processing
14 41 Viscosity index improvement and solvent extraction
42 Dewaxing, environmental impacts
43 Petrochemicals, Aromatics production
15 44 Unsaturated production
45 Saturated paraffins production

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 Course Grading Policy
Sr. No EVALUATION MODE WT%
1 Assignments/Project/CEP 20%
2 Quizzes 10%
3 Mid Term Exams 30 %
4 Final Term exams 40%

Attendance as per GIKI Policy is 80% and is compulsory to appear in final exams

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 Fractional Column
• Crude oil can be separated into
various fuel, by a process called
refining, using fractional
distillation.
• Crude is heated, boiled,
vaporized, separated on the
bases of B.Pts. of individual
fraction and condensed.

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 Crude Oil to Refined Products
An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is a combination of processes to transform or
refined into useful products such as petroleum naphtha, gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt
base, heating oil, kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas, jet fuel and fuel oils

• 4major processes are

used to refine oil into
finished products: 
• Pre-separation,
Separation
conversion and
Treating

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 Crude Oil Effects on Global Politics
• Oil is needed to grow food, build infrastructure, advance
technology, manufacture goods and for transportation.

• Oil lubricates the mechanics of national and international

politics.

• The political risk of OPEC countries does have a significant

and positive influence on crude oil prices.
• OPEC's integrated political risk contributes to 17.6% of the
oil price fluctuations in the sample period.
• The political risk of OPEC countries in Middle East
contributes most to the oil price fluctuations.
• Crude oil is a global a necessary
commodity & control global economy
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 Crude Oil Introduction
• Crude oil is a naturally occurring, composed of
hydrocarbon, hydrogen and carbon atoms deposits and other
organic materials.
• Crude oil exists in liquid form in underground reservoirs in the
tiny spaces within sedimentary rocks along with natural gas and
saline water,
• A type of fossil fuel, crude oil can be refined to produce
usable products such as gasoline, diesel, and various other
forms of petrochemicals.
• The latest Statistical of World Energy resources, an estimated data
is 2.1 trillion barrels of crude oil remaining at the end of 2018.
• Approximately, the world will run out of oil in 2030, and other
fossil fuels in 2050."

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 Crude Oil in Global Scenario
•In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, USA was one of the world's
leading oil producers, and technology developer to refine oil into useful
products.
• Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), founded in
1960, which consists of the world's largest (by volume) countries of crude
oil and natural gas producers,
•In the early 21st century, USA developed a new technology, i.e. hydro-
fracturing to acquire SHALE GAS which decreases OPEC's importance and
influence.
•Since Spring 2020, oil prices collapsed due to COVID-19 and economic
slowdown.
•OPEC and its allies agreed to historic production cuts to stabilize prices,
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•  Crude oil is non-renewable resource, because it can't be
replaced naturally at the rate we consume.
• Therefore crude oil is a limited resource.
• LATIN: Petra means rock and Oleum=oil
• 5000 years ago: crude oil was directly burnt and used as
Asphalt
• Egyptian: used as a weapon of war
• Chinese, Arab and Persians distilled crude to obtain
flammable products
• Western Europe familiar in 12th century
• No commercial use until 19th century

Engr. Fraz Saeed Butt 22

 Commercial Utilization
• First commercial Drilling: 1859 USA (Titusville)
– First Refinery: 1856 Ploiesti, Romania
– In USA in 1861
• World War II creates the need of quality fuel
• Today, Petroleum refinery is a mature industry
with a well established infrastructure and
technology base, employing a complex array
of chemical and physical processing facilities
to transform crude oil into products that
consumer value.
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Refinery Processes and Operations
• Crude oil in its natural state has no value to
consumers and must be transformed into
products that can be used in the marketplace.
• Various chemical and physical methods are used
in refining processes.
• Heat, pressure, catalysts and chemical are
applied under widely varying process designs,
operating conditions and chemical reactions to
convert crude oil and other hydrocarbons into
petroleum products.
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Refinery Processes and Operations
• Refining begins with distillation by boiling
crude into separate fractions or cuts.
• All crude oils undergo separation processes
through distillation, and so it is common to
express the capacity of a refinery in terms of
its distillation capacity.
• Two measures are commonly used:
– BPSD (barrels per stream day)
– BPCD (barrels per calendar day)
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Refinery Processes and Operations

BPSD:
• A barrel per stream day is the maximum
number of barrels of input that a distillation
facility can process when running at full
capacity under optimal crude and product
slate conditions with no allowance for
downtime.

Engr. Fraz Saeed Butt 26

Refinery Processes and Operations

BPCD:
• A barrel per calendar day is the amount of input
that a distillation facility can process under usual
operating conditions, making allowances for the
types and grades of products to be manufactured,
environmental constraints, and unscheduled ad
scheduled downtime due to maintenance, repairs
and shutdown.
• Capacity expressed in BPSD is a few percentage
points higher than BPCD capacity.
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 Classification of Petroleum Refining Processes

• Petroleum refining processes and operations

are classified into FIVE basic types:

Engr. Fraz Saeed Butt 28

Classification of Petroleum Refining Processes

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 Refinery Processes and Operations
• Initial separation of crude oil at atmospheric pressure is
fallowed by vacuum separation into various fractions,
• Further processing is conversion process i.e., change in
size and structure of the molecules through cracking,
reforming, and other conversion processes.
• The converted products are treated for sweeting, to
remove undesirable constituents and improve product
quality.
• An overall process is summarized in the main
flow diagram,

30
Engr. Fraz Saeed Butt 31
Engr. Fraz Saeed Butt 32
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Engr. Fraz Saeed Butt 34
 Refinery Processes and Operations history

• Refinery Configurations
• The Macro-system GAS PROCESSING OIL-FIELD PROCESSING
PETRO- CHEMICAL,
• Petroleum Refining - Automobile Driven Growth,
• Petroleum Refining- Environment Driven Developments ,
• Conversion of Heavy distillates
Refinery Processes Refining comprises of five categories of processes
i. Conversion Processes To meet Product Spec.
ii. Conversion Processes Heavies to lights5.
iii. Treatment Processes Environment related and polishing1. Primary
Separation Distill into Various Cuts
iv. Processing for Lubes From Heavy distillates

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• Atmospheric and Vac. Distillation
• Primary Separation
• Storage and Blending
• Conversion Process
• Cracking of ‘Heavies’
• Thermal Cracking/ Coking
• FCC/ Hydro-cracking PRODUCTS
• Lube Oil Processing
• Extraction/Hydro-fining
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• Atmospheric and Vac. Distillation
•Refinery Processing Concept
•Conversion Process
•Product Up-gradation
•Catalytic Reforming
•Isomerization
•Treatment Processes
•Hydro-desulfurization
•Hydro-treatment
•Crude Oil
•Product Finishing
•Merox for gasoline
•Hydro-finishing

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Onshore Drilling

Engr. Fraz Saeed Butt 38

Offshore Drilling

Engr. Fraz Saeed Butt 39

Engr. Fraz Saeed Butt 40
Petroleum Composition

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 Standard Organizations

• ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials)

– ASTM International
• API (American Petroleum institute)
• BIS (British Standards Institution)
• IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission)
• DIN (Deutsches Institut für Normung)
• ANSI (American National Standards Institute)
• AFNOR (Association Française de Normalisation)
• ISO (International Organization for Standardization)
• PS (Pakistan Standards)
Engr. Fraz Saeed Butt 43
 Refinery Products
• More than 2000 products based on individual
specifications C3 vs C3=
• Main Products
– Fuel Gas • Lubricating Oils
– Liquefied Petroleum Gas • Greases
– Gasoline • Waxes
– Jet Fuel • Asphalts
– Heating Oil • Carbon black
– Kerosene • Coke
– Diesel
• Chemicals/Solvents
– Transformer or cableEngr.oil
Fraz Saeed Butt 44
 Refinery Products
• A survey by American Petroleum Institute (API)
conducted at petroleum refineries and
petrochemical plants revealed over 2000
products made to individual specifications.

Engr. Fraz Saeed Butt 45

 Properties of Paraffins
1. Boiling point rises with increase in molecular weight.
2. Boiling point of a branched chain is lower than for a
straight-chain hydrocarbon of the same molecular
weight.
3. Melting point increases with molecular weight.
4. Melting point of a branched chain is lower than for a
straight-chain hydrocarbon of the same molecular
weight unless branching leads to symmetry.
5. Gravity increases with increase of molecular weight

Engr. Fraz Saeed Butt 46

 Refinery Products

General
Detail

Composition Quality/Tests

Physical &
Chemical Use Local Need
Properties

Engr. Fraz Saeed Butt 47

Engr. Fraz Saeed Butt 48
 Low-Boiling Products
• The compounds that are in the gas phase at ambient
temperatures and pressures
• Examples: methane, ethane, propane, butane and corresponding olefins.

• Paraffin
• LPG
• GPA (Gas Processors Association)
• nC4 vs iC4
• MMCFD
• Reid Vapour Pressure(is a common measure of the volatility of gasoline and other
petroleum products. It is defined as the absolute vapor pressure exerted by the vapor of the liquid and
any dissolved gases/moisture at 37.8 °C (100 °F) as determined by the test method ASTM-D-323

(ASTM-D-323) at 100oF
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Engr. Fraz Saeed Butt 50
 Gasoline
• 90% used as a fuel in automobiles
• Unleaded Regular (PON~87), Premium (~89-93), Super-
Premium (>=95)
• Antiknock Performance
– MON
– RON
• Typical Boiling Range
– 38-205oC (ASTM)
• Blending Components: antiknock quality, ease of starting,
quick warm-up, low tendency to vapour lock, low engine
deposits, light straight run, alkylate, ETBE, TAME, n-butane,
ethanol, etc.
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 Gasoline Specifications

• RVP = 12.7 psia (ASTM D-323)

• 158oF, 90% ASTM distillation temperature
• E85 (Ethanol Blend): 70% of mileage of
reformulated gasoline
• Sulphur Content <30 wppm
• Difference between RON and MON

Engr. Fraz Saeed Butt 52

 Distillate Fuels

• Types
– Jet or Turbine Fuels
– Automotive Diesel Fuels
– Railroad Diesel Fuels
– Heating Oils
• Normally Blends to meets the desired specs.
• Expansion and air and truck travel has
increased diesel and jet fuel demands.

Engr. Fraz Saeed Butt 53

 Jet and Turbine Fuels
• Aviation Purpose
• Blending Stock of Kerosene
• Hyrdocracking
• Content of Aromatics
• Smoke Point
• Kero+Naphtha

Engr. Fraz Saeed Butt 54

• Diesel Fuel
– Cetane Number
• Railroad Diesel fuel
• Heating Oil/Furnace Oil
• Residual Fuel Oil

Engr. Fraz Saeed Butt 55

 a n k
Th
y o u !

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