Fractional Distillation

There are several stages in the modern refining

process. The pro-cess begins with the separation
of petroleum or crude oil into useful categories by
fractional distillation.

The various components of crude oil have

different boiling points. Those with longer carbon
chains have higher boiling points, while those
with shorter chains have lower boiling points.
Gasoline, for example, starts to boil at about
150oC while furnace oil starts to boil at around
250oC.

Refineries use boiling point differences to

separate the crude oi linto its components, which
are then condensed along narrow boiling ranges
called fractions. The process of boiling and
condensing is called distillation, and when the
fractions are collected separately, it is called
fractional distillation.
Fractional distillation towers.

Fractional distillation of crude oil produces four distinct product categories, each
with a specific range of carbon atoms per molecule, as shown in Step I of the
diagram below.
 Click on the figure for a larger scaled diagram.

In the first stage of refining, crude oil is pumped through a furnace and heated to
about 400oC. At this temperature about 65% of the crude oil vaporizes, leaving
behind a heavy residue. The vapour is fed to an atmospheric distillation tower
that collects the components on separate trays as they condense. As the name
suggests, distillation proceeds at atmospheric pressure inside this tower. The
fractions with the lowest boiling points are collected at the top of the tower.

Approximately 35 % of the residual products do not vaporize in the first stage.

They are reheated and pumped to a second unit, the vacuum distillation tower as
shown in Step 2 of the diagram above. By keeping the residuals at low pressure
(near vacuum), they boil at lower temperatures. In this way, the residuals are also
vaporized so that they too can be separated by fractional distillation.

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