Fractional Distillation of Crude Oil

The make-up of crude oil consists mostly of carbon and hydrogen. Hydrocarbons come in different molecular forms. Longer chains with 5 or more carbons are liquids. Very long chains are solids like wax or tar. By chemically cross-linking hydrocarbon chains you can get a variety of different products like synthetic rubber, nylon, and even plastic. Hydrocarbons are very versatile depending on their cross-linking.

At the oil drilling site, after the rig is removed, a pump is placed on the well head. The pump system extracts the crude oil; then it is brought for refining and the process of distillation. The first step is to separate the oil components by size, weight, and boiling temperature. The process called fractional distillation separates the components by heat. Different substances have different boiling temperatures. Fractional distillation is useful for separating a mixture of substances with narrow (fractional) differences in boiling points, and is the most important step in the refining process.

The steps in this process are as follows: the mixture of two or more substances (liquids) with different boiling points are heated to a high temperature. A vapor (gases) form as the mixture boils. This vapor goes into the fractional distillation column that has trays or plates at different levels. These trays collect the liquids that form at various heights in the column. The temperature gauge runs from hot at the bottom of the column to cool at the top.

As the vapor rises through the column with trays, it cools. When a substance in the vapor reaches a level in the column where the temperature is equal to that substance's boiling point, it will condense into the form of a liquid. This liquid fraction is collected in the tray at the appropriate height. As the liquid cools even more, it passes from the tray to storage tanks or to other areas for further chemical processing.

Most of the components that go through fractional distillation have to be chemically processed further before becoming marketable. For example, one of the major products coming from crude oil, gasoline is only 40% distilled crude oil. Distillated and chemically processed fractions are treated to remove impurities, such as organic compounds containing sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, water, dissolved metals and inorganic salts. Treatment usually involves passing through a column of sulfuric acid, an absorption column filled with drying agents, and/or a hydrogen-sulfide scrub.

After treatment and more cooling, the fractions are blended together to make various products, such as gasoline, lubricating oils, and kerosene (all of various weights and grades), jet fuel, diesel fuel, and heating oil. Further chemical processing will turn the crude oil into plastics and other polymers. Oil companies like Triple Diamond Energy Corporation have production crews at the refineries to make sure that the fractional distillation process at the refineries produce enough of every product.

Chris Jent is the Chief Marketing Officer of Triple Diamond Energy Corp. Triple Diamond Energy specializes in acquiring the highest quality prime oil and gas properties. For more information, visit http://www.triplediamondenergycorp.blogspot.com.