ABSTRACT
Distillation (Chapter 7) has remained a major refinery process, and almost every crude oil that enters a refinery is subjected to this process. However, not all crude oils yield the same distillation products. In fact, the nature of the crude oil dictates the processes that may be required for refining. And balancing product yield with demand is a necessary part of refinery operations (Speight and Ozum, 2002; Parkash, 2003; Hsu and Robinson, 2006; Gary et al., 2007; Speight, 2014). However, the balancing of product yield and market demand, without the manufacture of large quantities of fractions having low commercial value, has long required processes for the conversion of hydrocarbons of one molecular weight range and/or structure into some other molecular weight range and/or structure. Basic processes for this are still the so-called cracking processes in which relatively high-boiling constituents carbons are cracked, that is, thermally decomposed into lower-molecular-weight, smaller, lower-boiling molecules, although reforming alkylation, polymerization, and hydrogen-refining processes have wide applications in making premium-quality products (Speight and Ozum, 2002; Parkash, 2003; Hsu and Robinson, 2006; Gary et al., 2007; Speight, 2014).
