Petrochemicals Process Flow Chart

Crude Oil Refining

Crude oil contains hundreds of different types of hydrocarbons all mixed together. To have anything useful, the crude oil must be separated into its various
hydrocarbon components. This is accomplished in an oil refinery.
The oil refining process starts with a fractional distillation column which will separate the various components on the basis of different boiling temperatures.
The crude oil is placed in the bottom of the tower and heated with high pressure steam to a temperature of about 600oC. The crude oil boils, becomes a
vapour, and begins to rise in the fractional distillation column. The column is filled with trays or plates that have many holes in them to allow the vapour to
pass through. As the vapour rises through the trays, it cools and condenses to form a liquid. When a substance reaches a height where the temperature is
equal to that of the substance’s boiling point, it will condense on that tray. Therefore, the substance with the lowest boiling point will condense at the highest
point in the column while substances with the higher boiling points will condense in lower trays. The trays collect the various liquid components and they will
later be purified.

Boiling Point of some chemicals:

• Propane Boiling point < 40 oC
• Car gasoline Boiling point 40 oC - 205 oC
• Motor oil Boiling point 250 oC- 350 oC

References:
http://www.epciran.comT
http://www.k12.nf.ca