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The document provides a historical overview of the oil refining industry from 1850 to present day. It traces key developments like the discovery of oil extraction methods in the 1850s, the rise of Standard Oil in the late 19th century, the growth of gasoline demand in the early 20th century which spurred new cracking technologies, and major mergers in the late 20th century as regulations tightened environmental standards. The timeline highlights over 150 years of technological advances, regulations, and consolidation that have transformed refining into a major global industry.
The document provides a historical overview of the oil refining industry from 1850 to present day. It traces key developments like the discovery of oil extraction methods in the 1850s, the rise of Standard Oil in the late 19th century, the growth of gasoline demand in the early 20th century which spurred new cracking technologies, and major mergers in the late 20th century as regulations tightened environmental standards. The timeline highlights over 150 years of technological advances, regulations, and consolidation that have transformed refining into a major global industry.
The document provides a historical overview of the oil refining industry from 1850 to present day. It traces key developments like the discovery of oil extraction methods in the 1850s, the rise of Standard Oil in the late 19th century, the growth of gasoline demand in the early 20th century which spurred new cracking technologies, and major mergers in the late 20th century as regulations tightened environmental standards. The timeline highlights over 150 years of technological advances, regulations, and consolidation that have transformed refining into a major global industry.
The Industry Begins to Change Refining in the Modern Era Refining: The Process & The Units The Basic Refining Process The Units and Their Functions When Theory & Reality Collide How You Fit In Chemical Engineering Electrical Engineering Mechanical Engineering Timeline 1850 Event Kerosene lamps are invented. Kerosene lamps soon became the standard for oil lamps. Kerosene is found in rock oil, which today we call crude oil.
Timeline 1850 1859 Event Edwin Drake searches for rock oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania. On August 29 th , Drake strikes an oil pocket and is successful. Drakes drilling method is still used today, even for wells over 1 mile below ground. Timeline 1850 1859 1870 Event John D. Rockefeller establishes Standard Oil. Standard Oil eventually grows into the largest oil company in the world. Timeline 1850 1859 1870 1890 Event Economical automobiles were coming to the mass market, and they required gasoline. Gasoline, a waste product, would become the refiners most important product.. Timeline 1850 1859 1870 1890 1901 Event The Lucas gusher blows, initiating the Texas Oil Boom. The Texas Company (Texaco) and Gulf Oil Corporation are founded to process the oil. Texaco and Gulf Oil build refineries in Port Arthur, Texas. Timeline 1850 1859 1870 1890 1901 1910 Event Gasoline demand has grown beyond what refiners supply. A method for converting trash oil into gasoline was needed. The answer was cracking, a process invented by Vladimir Shukov in 1891. The waste oil was heated until some of the trash oil broke up into usable gasoline liquids. Timeline 1850 1859 1870 1890 1901 1910 1911 Event The Supreme Court rules that Standard Oil is a monopoly. Standard Oil is broken into smaller Baby Standards. Notable Baby Standards: Standard Oil of New Jersey Standard Oil Co. of New York Standard Oil of California Standard Oil of Indiana Humble Oil & Refining Company
Timeline 1850 1859 1870 1890 1901 1910 1911 1912 Event Amocos William Burton makes refining history by starting the first thermal cracking unit. Refiners can now economically produce more gasoline by upgrading trash oil. Timeline 1850 1859 1870 1890 1901 1910 1911 1912 1920 Event The 18 th Amendment is passed and the era of Prohibition begins. Chemists who used to work for the alcohol industry are suddenly out of work. They find work in the refining industry, and they introduce fractional distillation to the refining process. Timeline 1850 1859 1870 1890 1901 1910 1911 1912 1920 1936 Event Eugene Houdry introduced a new cracking process based on a fixed bed and a catalyst. His new design doubled gasoline production versus thermal cracking. In 1946, Esso built the first fluidized catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) in Baton Rouge. The FCCU would become a major part of US refineries. Timeline 1850 1859 1870 1890 1901 1910 1911 1912 1920 1936 1960 Event Wilbur Nelson publishes a new metric of refinery performance in the Oil & Gas Journal. The Nelson Complexity Index becomes an industry standard measurement tool and changes the refining industry forever. Timeline 1850 1859 1870 1890 1901 1910 1911 1912 1920 1936 1960 1980 Event The Coast States Gas Corp. undergoes what became Americas largest ever spinoff. Valero Energy Corporation is created from this spinoff. Timeline 1850 1859 1870 1890 1901 1910 1911 1912 1920 1936 1960 1980 1994 Event The Environmental Protection Agency introduces the Tier I standard. Tier I regulates allowable sulfur in gasoline to 300ppm. Timeline 1850 1859 1870 1890 1901 1910 1911 1912 1920 1936 1960 1980 1994 1998 Event British Petroleum merges with Amoco to form BP Amoco. Timeline 1850 1859 1870 1890 1901 1910 1911 1912 1920 1936 1960 1980 1994 1998 1999 Event Exxon merges with Mobil to form ExxonMobil. TOTAL merges with Petrofina. Timeline 1850 1859 1870 1890 1901 1910 1911 1912 1920 1936 1960 1980 1994 1998 1999 2000 Event British Petroleum acquires Atlantic Richfield. TotalFina merges with Elf Aquitaine, forming TotalFinaElf. (The company renamed itself Total S.A. later.) Timeline 1850 1859 1870 1890 1901 1910 1911 1912 1920 1936 1960 1980 1994 1998 1999 2000 2001 Event Chevron Corp. acquires Texaco. Valero finishes acquiring UltramarDiamondShamrock. Timeline 1850 1859 1870 1890 1901 1910 1911 1912 1920 1936 1960 1980 1994 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Event Conoco merges with Philips Petroleum Company to form ConocoPhilips. Timeline 1850 1859 1870 1890 1901 1910 1911 1912 1920 1936 1960 1980 1994 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2004 Event The Environmental Protection Agency introduces the Tier II standard. Tier II regulates allowable sulfur in gasoline to 30ppm, a 90% reduction in allowable sulfur content. Timeline 1850 1859 1870 1890 1901 1910 1911 1912 1920 1936 1960 1980 1994 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2004 2005 Event Valero purchases Premcor Inc. to become Americas largest independent refiner. Hydraulic fracturing of the Marcellus Shale deposit begins. Timeline 1850 1859 1870 1890 1901 1910 1911 1912 1920 1936 1960 1980 1994 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2004 2005 2008 Event The Great Recession begins and the oil & gas industry suffers major reductions in profit margins. Refiners are hit especially hard. Oil & gas companies begin closing or divesting their refining operations. Keystone XL is proposed, changing US energy policy debate forever. Timeline 1850 1859 1870 1890 1901 1910 1911 1912 1920 1936 1960 1980 1994 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2004 2005 2008 ???? Event Direction of industry changes: Integrated oil & gas companies propose lifting US oil export ban. Refiners propose US/Canadian oil trading agreement Ethanol blend wall & E15? Tier III gasoline standard begins; gasoline prices increase further.
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API Specific Gravity Crude Oil Characteristics Light Crude Medium Crude Heavy Crude Separation Cracking Reshaping Combining Treating Crude Distillation Unit Crude oil is initially heated by pumping through a series of heat exchangers. Heated oil is then purified by desalting & sediment removal. The oil is heated once more before being pumped into the distillation tower. The crude oil separates into various streams & the bottoms are sent for more distillation. Vacuum Distillation Unit The VDU receives atmospheric bottoms & attempts to distill it under more severe conditions. The VDU produces two main fractions: Light Vacuum Gas Oil & Heavy Vacuum Gas Oil. LVGO & HVGO are pumped off for cracking in FCCUs & HCUs. VDU residuum is pumped off for the harshest form of cracking: the coker unit. Fluidized Catalytic Cracking Unit FCCU or cat cracker units take atmospheric bottoms and light vacuum gas oil as feed. The feedstock is mixed with a catalyst to promote the cracking process. The mixture is sent to a reactor; the catalyst is recycled while the upgraded oil is sent off for distillation & to join the other product streams. Hydrocracker Unit The HCU is a newer cracking technology that accepts heavy vacuum gas oil & usually converts it to diesel and kerosene. The feedstock is typically reacted 3 times, each time drawing off fractions that are sent to the distillation column. Anything left over is sent off to the coker. Delayed Coker Unit Cracking option of last resort. Residual oil is heated and pumped into a drum under extremely high heat and pressure, so high that the liquid converts to a solid substance called coke. The coke is then cut, drained from the tank, dehydrated, and transported for waste holding. Catalytic Reforming Unit Naptha, a product stream from the distillation units, has a low octane rating & makes a poor fuel blending feedstock. Catalytic reforming takes the low octane strait-run naptha and rearranges the molecules to a higher octane naptha called reformate. This process is also generically known as isomerization. Alkylation Unit Most crude blends contain a portion of light hydrocarbons like butane. Additionally, cracking & reshaping activities tend to crack some hydrocarbons more than intended. Alkylation units accept light hydrocarbons & react them with an acid catalyst to form heavier hydrocarbon chains. Hydrotreating Unit Oil is laden with impurities. Impurities lower fuel quality, degrade engine performance, & cause environmental issues. Hydrotreaters purify the oil by vaporizing the crude, mixing it with hydrogen & a catalyst, & recovering the purified oil. Sulfur, the primary impurity, is extracted as a gas called hydrogen sulfide or H 2 S. Amine Treating Unit H 2 S is highly toxic & refineries have to destroy it for safety. Amine compounds are an effective carrier for H 2 S & are used to capture the H 2 S generated by hydrotreating. The amine treating unit recovers the H 2 S and sends it a sulfur recovery unit (SRU) for destruction. Sour Water Stripper Unit Similarly, other refinery units contaminate water with H 2 S. This water cannot be released to the environment with H 2 S. A sour water stripper (SWS) unit serves a similar purpose to the amine treating unit. H 2 S from the SWS unit is sent to the SRU for destruction. Sulfur Recovery Unit The SRU accepts H 2 S streams from the ATU & SWS. H 2 S is flammable & a portion of the H 2 S is mixed with air to support combustion. The remaining H 2 S is heated until the hydrogen & sulfur separate. The SRU uses a series of heaters & condensers to recover the liquid sulfur. Refinery Flow Diagram Modern refineries have many process streams: raw liquids, intermediates, final products, off-spec, utilities, & more. No two refineries are exactly alike, so process stream portfolios vary by facility. What happens if a refinery finds itself with unbalanced process streams? Remember Wilbur Nelson & his Complexity Index? This is where he becomes important. Nelson noticed that there was a relation between types of units in a refinery & the refinerys profits. Crackers, reformers, alky units, etc. process less oil and are more complex to operate, but generate higher per unit profits. The Nelson Complexity Index provides a means to analyze a refinerys expected costs & profits. Sample problem: Refinery A builds a 300K bpd distillation unit. The Nelson Complexity Index assigns distillation a complexity factor of 1, so the refinerys NCI equals 1. If we assume that the refinery buys crude at $100 per barrel & sells the distilled products at $110 per barrel, the refinery earns $3,000,000 in profits per day. Refinery B builds a 300K bpd delayed coker unit. DCUs get a Nelson Complexity factor of 6, so the refinerys NCI equals 6. The DCU buys vacuum resid at $105 per barrel and converts it to gasoline, worth $125 per barrel. Refinery B earns $6,000,000 in profits per day. Moral of the story: Higher NCI rating means higher potential profits. Therefore, a refinerys NCI score is very important. Assist Process Engineers in unit optimization. Calculate mass balances, energy balances, etc. Improve unit yields and energy efficiency. Troubleshoot unit operations. Initiate and justify unit upgrades. Identify HSE issues that impact refinery operations and personnel.
Develop area classifications and safety standards. Maintain electrical one-line drawings. Maintain electrical testing records and programs. Manage refinery electrical power distribution system. Troubleshoot and maintain DCS and PLC systems. Install field instruments, develop process control schemes, and advanced process control technologies. Assist Mechanical Engineers, Inspectors & Metallurgists in maintaining equipment reliability. Mechanical equipment design, service fitness, material selection, root cause analysis Develop equipment maintenance programs. Calculate fluid flow, mechanical stress, heat transfer, remaining life calculations Work with process engineers to execute unit upgrades.