CHE 1014

PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY
UNIT 1
Petroleum (CRUDE OIL)
Topic: Crude Assay
By
Dr Bandaru Kiran
Assistant Professor (SCHEME,VIT-Vellore)
 Products from Petroleum

• Asphalt
• Bitumen
• Diesel
• Fuel Oil
• Gasoline
• Kerosene
• Liquefied Petroleum Gas
• Lubricating Oil
• Natural gas
• Paraffin Wax
• Petrochemicals
 Products from Petroleum
• ASPHALT
• Commonly used to lay roads.
• It’s colloid by nature, and is separated from other components of crude oil by fractional distillation.
• Once asphalt is collected, it is processed in a de-asphalting unit, and then goes through a process called
“blowing” where it is reacted with oxygen to make it harden.
• Asphalt is usually stored and transported at around 300° Fahrenheit.

• DIESEL
• Any fuel that can be used in a diesel engine.
• Produced by fractional distillation between 392° F and 662° F.
• Has a higher density than gasoline and is simpler to refine from crude oil.
• Commonly used in transportation.

• FUEL OIL
• Fuel oil is any liquid petroleum product that is burned in a furnace to generate heat.
• Fuel oil is also the heaviest commercial fuel that is produced from crude oil.
• The six classes of fuel oil are: Distillate fuel oil,
Diesel fuel oil,
Light fuel oil,
Gasoil,
Residual fuel oil and
Heavy fuel oil.
 Products from Petroleum
• GASOLINE

• Almost half of all crude oil is made into gasoline.

• It’s a finished product, while raw fraction is termed naptha or light
boiling fractions.
• Approximately 40 different types of Gasoline are produced in refineries.
• Almost 90 % of this fuel is consumed in automobile industry and
remaining 10 % in aviation industry.
• Its a mixture of paraffins, naphthenes, and olefins, although the specific
ratios of these parts depends on the refinery where the crude oil is
processed.
• Most refineries produce two primary grades: Regular and Premium
(both Leaded and Unleaded)
• Other names of Gasoline are petrol, petroleum spirit, gas, petrogasoline,
and mogas.
 Products from Petroleum

KEROSENE
• Collected through fractional distillation at temperatures between 302° F and 527° F.

• It is a combustible liquid that is thin and clear.

• Most commonly used as jet fuel and as heating fuel.
• In the early days of oil, kerosene replaced whale oil in lanterns.
• kerosene is used as fuel in portable stoves, kerosene space heaters, and in liquid pesticides.

LIQUEFIED PETROLEUM GAS

• Mixture of gases that are most often used in heating appliances, propellants, and refrigerants.
• Different kinds of LPG, are propane and butane.
• At normal atmospheric pressure, LPG will evaporate, so it needs to be contained in pressurized
steel bottles.
 Products from Petroleum

• LUBRICATING OIL
• Consist of base oils and additives.

• Its manufactured by special processes like solvent extraction, catalytic

dewaxing, hydrocracking, and iso-hydromerization.
• Different lubricating oils are classified as paraffinic, naphthenic, or aromatic.
• They are used between two surfaces to reduce friction and wear.
• Commonly-known lubricating oil is motor oil, which protects moving parts
inside an internal combustion engine.

PARAFFIN WAX

• Its white, odorless, tasteless, waxy solid at room temperature.

• Melting point of paraffin wax is between 117° F and 147° F.
• It is an excellent electrical insulator, second only to Teflon, used in drywall to
insulate buildings, used to make candles.
 Products from Petroleum
• BITUMEN
• Commonly known as tar, is a thick, black, sticky material.
• Refined bitumen is the bottom fraction obtained by the fractional distillation of
crude oil.

• Boiliing point of bitumen is very high (977° F), so it does not rise in the distillation
chamber.
• Used in paving roads and waterproofing roofs and boats.

• PETROCHEMICALS
• Chemical products made from the raw materials of petroleum.
• These chemicals include:
• Ethylene, used to make anesthetics, antifreeze, and detergents;
• Propylene, used to produce acetone and phenol;
• Benzene, used to make other chemicals and explosives;
• Toluene, used as a solvent and in refined gasoline; and
• Xylene is used as a solvent and cleaning agent.
 Properties of crude oil

CARBON RESIDUE (WT%)

• Carbonaceous residue left out after destructive distillation- non-
volatile part of petroleum/petroleum products
• Viscosity and Asphaltenes, Nitrogen & Sulfur contents increase with
increasing carbon residue
• Indicates the potential for coke formation

ANILINE POINT
• Temperature at which exactly equal parts of two components are
Miscible- Aniline & Any petroleum fraction/oil
• Increases slightly with molecular weight
• Increases rapidly with paraffinic character
• Higher the aniline point- lower is the aromatics content in the fraction
 Properties of crude oil

CLOUD POINT

• The temperature of the test specimen at which wax crystals have formed
sufficiently to be observed as a cloud from a petroleum fraction

• Applicable for petroleum products and biodiesel fuels

• An index of the lowest temperature of their utility for certain

applications.
•
• Petroleum blending operations require a precise measurement of the
cloud point.
 Properties of crude oil
SMOKE POINT

• It is the maximum height of flame in millimeter of which the fuel will burn without a
smoke
• Its an indication of clean burning property of kerosene.
• Illumination depends on flame dimension and not on flame height.
• Provides an indication of the relative smoke producing properties of kerosenes and
aviation turbine fuels in a diffusion flame

• Related to the hydrocarbon type composition of such fuels, esp. aromatics

• More aromatic the fuel the smokier the flame

• A high smoke point indicates a fuel of low smoke producing tendency.

• The smoke point is quantitatively related to the potential radiant heat transfer from
the combustion products of the fuel.
 Properties of crude oil
Pour point
The lowest temperature at which it will pour or flow under
prescribed conditions. It is a rough indication of the lowest
temperature at which oil is readily pumpable.
Can be defined as the minimum temperature of a liquid, particularly
a lubricant, after which, on decreasing the temperature, the liquid
ceases to flow.

Flash point
The flash point of a volatile material is the lowest temperature at
which it can vaporize to form an ignitable mixture in air. Measuring a
flash point requires an ignition source

Fire point
The fire point of a fuel is the temperature at which it will continue to
burn for at least 5 seconds after ignition by an open flame.
 Tests for Gasoline

ASTM Distillation
• It specifies the evaporation characteristics of gasoline.

Process
• 100 ml of sample is distilled std flask at 5 cc/ min
• Disillate is condensed in a brass tube condenser, surrounded by water
bath (0 deg C)
• First drop from condenser must be available in 5 to 10 min (after starting
the distillation),
• Temperature is noted to be the Initial Boiling Point (IBP) of the sample
• Test continues till 95 % of the fraction is condensed.
• The heat intensity may be increased to obtain the maximum boiling point
known as End Boiling Point (EBP)
 Tests for Gasoline- REID VAPOR PRESSURE (RVP)
• A measure of the volatility of gasoline.
• It is defined as the absolute vapor pressure exerted by a liquid at 37.8 °C.
• RVP differs slightly from the True Vapor pressure (TVP) of a liquid due to some small
sample vaporization and the presence of water vapor and air in the confined space of the
test equipment.

PROCESS
The apparatus consists of 2 chambers,
Lower chamber is a cylindrical bomb, while the upper one upper air chamber (hollow
cylindrical space- 4 times bomb volume).

Top portion is fitted to a Bourdon pressure gauge

Bomb is filled with sample (upto Brim) and connected to air chamber.

The apparatus is now immersed in water bath (38 deg C)

Maximum pressure indicated in the pressure gauge is counted to be Reid Vapor pressure
 Tests for Gasoline

Octane Number
The percentage volume of i-octane (2,2,4-trimethyl pentane) in a mixture of i-
octane and n-heptane that gives the same knocking characteristics as the fuel
under consideration.

Its because of untimely burning of fuel in a spark ignition engine

Additives like Tetraethyl Lead or Methyl lead are extensively blended to boost the
Octane number

With increase in altitude, a fuel of less octane number is satisfactory.

 Tests for Diesel
Viscosity
• Ease of ignition depends upon viscosity and ignition quality.

• Diesel used for different speed must posses different viscosities (High speed, low speed
and medium speed diesel).

• Thermal stability of diesel is important b’cos the remaining fuel in the combustion
chamber is returned back to the reservoir.
• The test is conducted by exposing 50 ml of sample at 149 deg C for 90 min with an
additive.
• When sample is filtered , the excessive strain of the filter paper is a bad indication of
oxidising stability

• Additives used : 1-n- butoxy-1-ethane, dioctyl-di phenyl amines (up to 20 ppm) are
used to increase the stability of fuel.