THE CRUDE OIL MARKET
207
Whatever the choice, refinery practice continues to evolve and
new processes are installed in live with older modified process. The
purpose of this chapter is to present to the reader a general overview of refining that, when taken into the context of the following chapters, will show some of the differences that occurring in
refineries.
The configuration of any refinery-type may vary from refinery
to refinery. Some refineries may be more oriented toward the production of gasoline (large reforming and/or catalytic cracking),
whereas the configuration of other refineries may be more oriented
towards the production of middle distillates, such as jet fuel and
gas oil.
A modern refinery is a highly complex and integrated system
separating and transforming crude oil into a wide variety of products, including transportation fuels, residual fuel oils, lubricants,
and many other products. The simplest refinery configuration is
the topping refinery, which is designed to prepare feedstocks for
petrochemical manufacture or for production of industrial fuels in
remote oil-production areas.
The topping refinery consists of tankage, a distillation unit,
recovery facilities for gases and light hydrocarbons, and the
necessary utility systems of steam, power, and water-treatment
plants. Topping refineries produce large quantities of unfinished
oils and are highly dependent on local markets, but the addition
of hydrotreating and reforming units to this basic configuration
results in a more flexible hydroskimming refinery, which can also
produce desulfurized distillate fuels and high-octane gasoline.
These refineries may produce up to half of their output as residual fuel oil, and they face increasing market loss as the demand
for low sulfur (even no sulfur) high sulfur fuel oil increases
(Ansheyta and Speight, 2007; Hsu and Robinson, 2006; Speight,
2007, 2011).
The most versatile modern refinery configurations are the catalytic cracking refinery and the coking refinery (Speight, 2007,2011).
These refineries incorporate all the basic units found in both the
topping and hydroskimming refineries, but also feature gas oil conversion plants, such as catalytic cracking and hydrocracking units,
olefin conversion plants (i.e. alkylation or polymerization units),
and coking units for residuum conversion to reduce or eliminate
the production of residual fuels. Modern catalytic cracking and coking refineries produce high outputs of gasoline, with the balance
207
Whatever the choice, refinery practice continues to evolve and
new processes are installed in live with older modified process. The
purpose of this chapter is to present to the reader a general overview of refining that, when taken into the context of the following chapters, will show some of the differences that occurring in
refineries.
The configuration of any refinery-type may vary from refinery
to refinery. Some refineries may be more oriented toward the production of gasoline (large reforming and/or catalytic cracking),
whereas the configuration of other refineries may be more oriented
towards the production of middle distillates, such as jet fuel and
gas oil.
A modern refinery is a highly complex and integrated system
separating and transforming crude oil into a wide variety of products, including transportation fuels, residual fuel oils, lubricants,
and many other products. The simplest refinery configuration is
the topping refinery, which is designed to prepare feedstocks for
petrochemical manufacture or for production of industrial fuels in
remote oil-production areas.
The topping refinery consists of tankage, a distillation unit,
recovery facilities for gases and light hydrocarbons, and the
necessary utility systems of steam, power, and water-treatment
plants. Topping refineries produce large quantities of unfinished
oils and are highly dependent on local markets, but the addition
of hydrotreating and reforming units to this basic configuration
results in a more flexible hydroskimming refinery, which can also
produce desulfurized distillate fuels and high-octane gasoline.
These refineries may produce up to half of their output as residual fuel oil, and they face increasing market loss as the demand
for low sulfur (even no sulfur) high sulfur fuel oil increases
(Ansheyta and Speight, 2007; Hsu and Robinson, 2006; Speight,
2007, 2011).
The most versatile modern refinery configurations are the catalytic cracking refinery and the coking refinery (Speight, 2007,2011).
These refineries incorporate all the basic units found in both the
topping and hydroskimming refineries, but also feature gas oil conversion plants, such as catalytic cracking and hydrocracking units,
olefin conversion plants (i.e. alkylation or polymerization units),
and coking units for residuum conversion to reduce or eliminate
the production of residual fuels. Modern catalytic cracking and coking refineries produce high outputs of gasoline, with the balance