Petrochemicals

A Source of Energy

• Oil's primary importance lies in the fact that it is a very versatile and
powerful source of energy.
• There are many other energy sources that we routinely use, including
firewood, coal, and hydroelectric and nuclear generating stations.
• Oil is a non-renewable source of energy. What this means is that our
natural sources of oil are finite; there ll come a time when we have
used them up.
• Oil’s principle importance derives from the fact that it fuels the
machines of our industrialized society
 Petroleum
• Petroleum is loosely called CRUDE or CRUDE OIL
• Petroleum (or crude oil) is a complex, naturally occurring liquid mixture
containing mostly hydrocarbons, but containing also some compounds
of oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur
Constituents of Crude Oil

• The elemental composition of crude oils depends on the type and

origin of the crude; however, these elements vary within narrow
limits.
• The proportions of these elements in a typical crude are 84.5%
carbon, 13% hydrogen, 1–3% sulfur, and less than 1% each of
nitrogen, oxygen, metals, and salts.
Natural Gas

• Gaseous Hydrocarbon is called natural gas

• Natural Gas is mainly Methane (over 90% by composition)
• Natural Gas can also contain condensate, a liquid comprising some
hydrocarbons with higher boiling points
• Natural gas is a hydrocarbon mixture consisting primarily of
saturated light paraffins such as methane and ethane, both of which
are gaseous under atmospheric conditions. The mixture also may
contain other hydrocarbons, such as propane, butane, pentane, and
hexane
 Petrochemical

• Any of a large group of chemicals (as distinct from fuels) derived from
petroleum and natural gas and used for a variety of commercial purposes.
• The definition, however, has been broadened to include the whole range of
aliphatic, aromatic, and naphthenic organic chemicals, as well as carbon black
and such inorganic materials as sulfur and ammonia.
• In many instances, a specific chemical included among the petrochemicals may
also be obtained from other sources, such as coal, coke, or vegetable products.
• For example, materials such as benzene and naphthalene can be made from
either petroleum or coal, while ethyl alcohol may be of petrochemical or
vegetable origin.
• This makes it difficult to categorize a specific substance as, strictly speaking,
petrochemical or nonpetrochemical.
• Liquid Petroleum or Hydrocarbon is Crude Oil
• Solid Petroleum is Tar sands and bitumen
• Tar sands and bitumen can be found on the surface unlike natural gas
and crude oil.
 Sources of Petrochemicals
• Petrochemicals are derived from hydrocarbons such as propane, ethane, butane,
or other components separated from crude oil and natural gas liquids.
• Naphtha - a mixture of flammable liquid hydrocarbons - is also important in the
production of products made from petrochemicals. After being separated in some
sort of distillation process, separated hydrocarbons can be fed to a manufacturing
facility known as a cracker.
• This cracker works to break chemical bonds in hydrocarbon materials which allows
them to be converted into more useful chemicals for production.
• One major petrochemical is ethylene, used to create polyethylene - one of the
most important plastics in manufacturing.
• In petrochemical plants monomers like ethylene are connected to form giant
molecules with thousands of carbon atoms known as polymers. These long chains
are then transformed into plastics through a variety of molding techniques.
Classes of Petrochemicals

• The two most common petrochemical classes are:

• olefins (including ethylene and propylene) and
• aromatics (including benzene, toluene and xylene isomers).
• Petrochemicals are used to manufacture thousands of different
products that people use daily, including plastics, medicines,
cosmetics, furniture, appliances, electronics, solar power panels, and
wind turbines.
Important Petrochemicals
• 99% of all plastics are created from oil and natural gas, with most being
manufactured using naphtha feedstock.
• Naphtha is created during the distillation process, and is heavier than gasoline. It
is one of the most important of all the petrochemicals simply because it is used in
the production of plastics.
• Other important petrochemicals include

• Ethylene: Used in paper, consumer electronics, detergents, footwear, and

adhesives
• Propylene: Used in paints, furniture, textiles, pharmaceuticals, and food
packaging
• Benzene: Creates pharmaceuticals, furniture, electronics, and food packaging
• Methanol: Used in thermal insulation and building construction
• Toluene: Creates inks and sports equipment
Ethylene and derivatives
Propylenes
Benzene
 Economic Importance

• It's important to note that the biggest concern about fossil fuel use is
from combustion, turning these hydrocarbons into carbon dioxide and
water.
• So while there are environmental concerns about petrochemical
manufacturing of plastics, it doesn't lead to a significant release of
greenhouse gases that can cause climate change.
• For example, the plastic manufacturing is capturing the carbon in an
inert form (the plastic) and not releasing it to the atmosphere.
Petrochemical and Challenge: Plastics
• The use of plastics in modern life is extremely widespread, and most
products we use today are either made entirely of plastics or have plastic
components (from single-use saran wrap to components of our cars).
• There are concerns with the sheer volume of plastics being used and
disposed of in particular considering the fact that plastic doesn't biodegrade.
• Plastic photodegrades into small bits of plastic known as mermaid tears or
nurdles - that can absorb toxic chemicals. If these nurdles are then ingested,
these toxins can then harm the animal.
• These waste plastics can wind up in landfills or oceans and these small
pellets can be easily transported.
• Currently, there is a large mass of accumulating garbage in the ocean,
composed mostly of plastics, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Refining

• Crude oil cannot be used as it occurs in nature, other than burning for fuel, which is wasteful, It
must be refined to manufacture finished products such as gasoline and heating oil.
• In the refinery, crude oil components can first be split by carefully applying heat to capture
various parts, called fractions, within certain boiling ranges. This is called distillation.
• The quality of these initial fractions produced is not sufficient to be sold directly as petroleum
products without further treatment.
• Moreover, the yield of products from straight distillation of crude oil is not the same as the
“demand barrel” needed for the marketplace. Crude oil must therefore be further processed
using both heat and pressure to improve qualities and meet market demand.
• A large part of refinery processing is concerned with converting unwanted heavy fuel oil into
marketable gasoline and diesel, using various processing methods.
• refiners produce a wide range of fuels and specialty oils used in transportation, electricity
generation, industrial processing, home heating, petrochemical production, and thousands of
other uses.
 Refining Processes

• The distillation of crude oil is the start of the refining process and is
primarily a boiling operation.
• Crude oil is first washed to remove salt, heated in a furnace, and
introduced to the Crude Distillation Unit (called a CDU).
• In this tower, the crude oil is separated by boiling range into a number
of fractions.
• A fraction is a term used for a specific hydrocarbon that is produced
and captured according to its molecular weight and boiling point.
Some fractions from the distillation process have all the qualities
needed as refined products and are ready for sale.
• The lightest fractions, like liquid petroleum gas (or LPG), are boiled off
the crude at the lowest temperature of 150 ⁰ F.
• The second fraction boiled off is kerosene or distillates which occurs
at 450⁰F.
Next is gas oil which is an intermediate fraction that requires further
processing in the plant with temperatures reaching 750 ⁰ F.
• The heaviest fraction, with the highest boiling point in the distillation
process, is fuel oil. These heavy fractions require more severe
processing to be useful.
Cracking

• Cracking is the breaking up large hydrocarbon molecules into smaller and

more useful bits.
• This is achieved by using high pressures and temperatures without a catalyst,
or lower temperatures and pressures in the presence of a catalyst. The
source of the large hydrocarbon molecules is often the naphtha fraction or
the gas oil fraction from the fractional distillation of crude oil (petroleum).
These fractions are obtained from the distillation process as liquids, but are
re-vaporized before cracking.
• The hydrocarbon molecules are broken up in a fairly random way to produce
mixtures of smaller hydrocarbons, some of which have carbon-carbon double
bonds.
• Thermal cracking, steam cracking, hydro cracking, and fluid catalysed
cracking are the different types of cracking.
Cracking is important for two main reasons:

• It helps to match the supply of fractions. The substances in each

fraction have similar boiling points to each other. with the demand for
them.
• It produces alkenes, which are useful as feedstock. for the
petrochemical industry.
 Catalytic cracking
• Modern cracking uses zeolites as the catalyst. These are complex aluminosilicates, and
are large lattices of aluminium, silicon and oxygen atoms carrying a negative charge.
• The alkane is brought into contact with the catalyst at a temperature of about 500°C
and moderately low pressures.
• The zeolites used in catalytic cracking are chosen to give high percentages of
hydrocarbons with between 5 and 10 carbon atoms - particularly useful for petrol
(gasoline). It also produces high proportions of branched alkanes and aromatic
hydrocarbons like benzene.
• The zeolite catalyst has sites which can remove a hydrogen from an alkane together
with the two electrons which bound it to the carbon. That leaves the carbon atom
with a positive charge.
• Reorganization of these leads to the various products of the reaction.
Thermal cracking
• In thermal cracking, high temperatures (typically in the range of 450°C to
750°C) and pressures (up to about 70 atmospheres) are used to break
the large hydrocarbons into smaller ones.
• Thermal cracking gives mixtures of products containing high proportions
of hydrocarbons with double bonds - alkenes.
• Thermal cracking does not go via ionic intermediates like catalytic
cracking. Instead, carbon-carbon bonds are broken so that each carbon
atom ends up with a single electron. In other words, free radicals are
formed.
Chemicals derived from Crude oil
• Petrol
• Around a half of every barrel of crude oil will be used to create petrol to power
cars, making it by far the biggest product derived from crude oil across the world.
• Diesel
• Diesel is a mixture of hydrocarbons with boiling points in the range of 150 – 380c,
which are obtained from petroleum. It’s one of the principal products currently
made using crude oil.
• Jet fuel
• Around 10% of the world’s crude oil currently goes towards creating jet fuel that’s
used to power the world’s air travel. As with diesel, it’s a mixture of hydrocarbons
with the exact composition varying depending on the petroleum source.
• Kerosene
• Kerosene is a combustible hydrocarbon widely used in the aviation industry. It has a low-viscosity,
and is a clear liquid formed from hydrocarbons. These are obtained from the fractional distillation
of petroleum between 150 and 275c.
• Paraffin
• Paraffin and kerosene are sometimes used interchangeably, but the former is actually a more
refined and distilled version of the latter. This makes it more suitable for use at home where it
produces less soot when burned.
• Heavy fuel oil
• Heavy fuel oil (HFO) consists of the residual of petroleum sources once the hydrocarbons of higher
quality are extracted via processes such as thermal and catalytic cracking. For this reason, HFO is
sometimes referred to as residual fuel oil.
• Liquefied Petroleum Gases (LPG)
• LPG, sometimes referred to as propane or butane, is a flammable gas used in cooking equipment,
home heating and as fuel for cars. In the UK, it’s frequently used as a home heating source in areas
not connected to the mains gas grid.
• Petrochemical feedstock
• A feedstock is a raw material that’s used to provide reactants to
create an industrial reaction. A petrochemical is a substance that’s
made from crude oil using chemical reactions.
• Lubricants
• Mineral oils are lubricating oils that are refined from naturally
occurring crude oil. They are composed of 80–90% petroleum
hydrocarbon distillate with 10–20% additives to impart specific
properties to the oil.