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Refining the Petroleum

Fractional Distillation

The primary method of refining petroleum is Fractional Distillation. The process involves heating the crude oil to certain temperatures for hydrocarbons to condense into a liquid to form useful hydrocarbons used for energy and other products.

The crude oil enters the distillation tower and is heated to very high temperatures until the petroleum is to converted into its gas phase where it contains a variety of hydrocarbons.

First the long chain hydrocarbons such as bitumen and paraffin waxes are removed from the petroleum and are filtered to another location for further distillation of chemical break down to produce smaller chain hydrocarbons for high demand products such as gasoline.The second process theses heavy hydrocarbons undergo is called cracking. Otherwise the heavy hydrocarbons are used for asphalt, and tar on paved roads

Then the rest of the hydrocarbons gases that are lighter continue to rise and are further distilled until they reach their unique condensing points. Where they are filtered out for further refining to break down the aliphatics and aromatics to select certain molecules.

Percentages of what petroleum is refined to based on demand

Tesoro Refinery

An informative video on the petroleum refining process.

Downstream Petroleum

Downstream Petroleum is broken into two main sectors: Refining and Marketing (R & M). Although this website is physics related, Downstream Petroleum heavily involves chemistry in refining, and economics in marketing. Since chemistry and physics go hand in hand, this section will focus on refining the crude oil.

Tesoro Refinery in Nikiski, Alaska

A General Preview

Once petroleum is past the first two stages of downstream and midstream the crude oil is ultimately ready for refining. Unfortunately, when the oil is produced it is not in a usable form for consumers. The petroleum has to undergo refining to remove impurities like sulfur, and nitrogen, then has to be distilled into component parts for different uses and products. Refining the petroleum prepares the crude to bring to market and usable for consumers.

Thousands of products contain petroleum, some that may be suprising are:

Vitamin Capsules
Lipstick
Dentures
Shampoo
Hair coloring
Toothpaste
Medicine
Pillows
Perfume
Pens
Yarn