ABSTRACT
Conventional fuels such as gasoline or diesel are produced in oil refineries from crude oil whose composition is given in Table 2.1.
As the crude oil cannot be used directly in the transportation sector, it is refined in an oil refinery to obtain gasoline or diesel. A typical refining process is given in Figure 2.1. Crude oil contains different hydrocarbon chains, molecular structures and boiling point ranges. The lighter fraction of crude oil, such as refinery fuel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) that has a lower boiling point, is separated using the atmospheric distillation process. The fuel quality of a relatively higher-boiling-point-range distilled product is upgraded by different conversion processes such as isomerisation, polymerisation and reforming to obtain gasoline fuel. Jet aviation fuel is produced from the distilled crude oil fraction after it undergoes the hydro-treating (HDT) and hydro-desulphurisation (HDS) process. The heavier fraction, which has a relatively higher boiling point, is distilled by using the vacuum distillation process. Diesel fuel is obtained by chemical treatments such as HDT, HDS, hydro-cracking, fluid catalytic cracking (FCC), alkylation and a reforming process. The tangible products such as residual fuel oil (RFO), lubricating oil, wax and tar are produced from the residual oil. The common fractions that can be obtained from crude oil are presented in Table 2.2.
