What is made from oil in the modern world? Let's try to understand this further, and also to understand how such products are safe and practical. For reference: oil is an oily liquid that does not dissolve in water, has a brownish or almost transparent shade. The parameters and characteristics of the processing of this mineral depend on the percentage in the initial composition of carbons and other additional components.
What is oil for?
Mankind has long discovered carbon, a few centuries ago gas lamps were used to illuminate British streets, and in many houses a kerosene lamp was often used . After the appearance of the internal combustion engine, a significant leap in the development of this sphere took place. What to produce from oil in the first place?
Gasoline and diesel fuel for refueling various vehicles. In addition, rocket, aircraft fuel and its analogues for ships are also obtained from this mineral. Significantly increased consumption of petroleum products in the industrial sector. There are known times when oil in the world market was valued more than gold and water. Despite the increased share of the use of nuclear and alternative energy, oil products continue to be in demand.
Processed products
To begin with, we note that different types of fuel are produced from oil, namely:
- Gasoline of various classes.
- Diesel fuel.
- Missile and aviation fuel.
- Fuel oil.
- Kerosene.
- Coke.
- Liquefied gas.
These products are obtained as a result of the simplest processing of raw materials, the final result depends on the amount of the ratio of the used parts of certain components.
Also, a lot of useful and popular products are made from oil. The most popular, in addition to fuel, are the following materials:
- Machine oil
- The film is polyethylene.
- Rubber, plastic, rubber.
- Nylon and artificial fabric.
- Petroleum jelly, pharmaceutical and cosmetic creams.
- Tar, aspirin, chewing gum.
- Fertilizers, detergents, dyes and more.
What does oil consist of?
The composition of this mineral may vary somewhat, depending on the field. For example, in the Sosnovsky basin (Siberia), the paraffin part of the components occupies about 52 percent, aromatic carbons - 12%, cycloalkanes - about 36%.
The Romashkinskoye field in Tatarstan includes up to 55% of alkanes and 18% of aromatic carbon derivatives in oil, while the capacity of cycloalkanes does not exceed 25 percent. The remaining elements that make up the composition belong to mineral and nitrogen impurities, as well as sulfur compounds. Depending on these indicators, various methods and technologies of oil refining are used.
Raw Material Cleaning
Preliminary treatment of extracted minerals is not the main stage of oil refining. This procedure can be performed in one of the following ways:
- Adsorption. In this case, resins and acids are removed by treating the composition with hot air or an adsorbent. Such material is often used for the production of synthetics, fabrics based on them and polyethylene.
- Chemical cleaning. The product is treated with concentrated sulfuric acid and oleum. The method is good at removing unsaturated and aromatic carbons.
- Catalytic treatment - mild hydrogenation aimed at eliminating sulfur and nitrogen inclusions.
- Physicochemical method. Solvents are used that selectively remove unnecessary components. For example, polar phenol serves to remove sulfur and nitrogen fillers, butane and propane displace tars and aromatic hydrocarbons.
Vacuum Processing
This method gives a minimal amount of waste. Knowing what the oil consists of, the developers use the principle of its boiling while lowering the pressure and temperature limit. For example, some carbons in the composition boil only at 450 degrees Celsius. However, they can be made to react faster if the pressure is reduced. Vacuum processing of oil is carried out in special sealed rotary type evaporators. They allow you to increase the distillation intensity, while getting oil from oil, paraffins, fuel, ceresins, and heavy tar is used further for the manufacture of bitumen.
Atmospheric technology
This method was used back in the 19th century. Modern technology is improved, includes additional cleaning. In this case, the raw materials are dehydrated on special electrical appliances, cleaned of mechanical implants and light carbohydrates. Then the already prepared oil goes to the final refining.
In the case of the atmospheric type, these are stoves that resemble buildings without windows, made of refractory bricks of the highest quality. In their inner parts are pipes, in which the raw material moves at a speed of about two meters per second, heating up to 300-325 degrees. Distillation columns are used as a cooler, in which excess steam is separated and condensed. The finished product for the production of fuel, oil or polyethylene film is supplied to entire complexes from tanks of different sizes and purposes.
Hydrocracking
Modern production and processing of petroleum products includes various types of hydrocracking. This procedure is a hydraulic cleaning process with the splitting of hydrocarbon molecules into small particles and the simultaneous saturation of these elements with hydrogen.
Hydrocracking is easy - using one reactor, working pressure - 5 MPa, optimal temperature - up to 400 degrees. In this way, diesel fuel and components are usually obtained for further catalysis. The hard version involves the use of several reactors, a temperature of at least 400 degrees, a pressure of 10 MPa. This method produces gasoline from oil, kerosene, oil with a high viscosity coefficient and low inclusion of aromatic and sulfur hydrocarbons.
Recycling
This process can be carried out in one of the ways listed below:
- Visbreaking. The working temperature of the processing of raw materials is about 500 degrees, the pressure is from 0.5 to 3 MPa. After the breakdown of naphthenes and paraffins, gasoline, hydrocarbon gas, asphaltenes are obtained.
- Reforming. This method was developed in 1911 by a scientist named Zelinsky. The procedure involves the catalytic processing of raw materials with the subsequent production of aromatic hydrocarbons, fuel, gas with a high hydrogen content.
- Coking heavy residues. This procedure includes deep oil refining (temperature - up to 500 degrees, pressure - about 0.65 MPa). The result is a coke block, which undergoes aromatization, dehydrogenation, cracking and drying. The method is used mainly for the production of petroleum coke, synthetics, fabrics and polyethylene.
- Alkylation In this case, the procedure is based on the introduction of alkyl components into organic molecules of the feedstock. As a result, a material for the manufacture of high octane gasoline is created from hydrocarbons.
- Another popular oil refining method is isomerization. At this stage, the isomer is obtained from the chemical compound by changes in the carbon composition of the substance. The main product obtained is commercial fuel.
Modernization
Above, we examined what is produced from oil. As it turns out, this material has a wide range of uses, ranging from various types of fuel to building materials, cosmetology products, and even nutrition. The processing technology of raw materials is constantly being improved, the depth of selection of light petroleum products is increasing, and the quality of the final product, striving for European standards, is also increasing. This allows not only to make products safer for the human body, but also to reduce the negative impact on the environment.