The Refinery, The Petroleum Distillation, By Benjamin Jr.

In 1859, the first oil well was dug, however, the gasoline had no use until the invention of the automobile (EIA, 2014). Nowadays, gasoline is classified as a refinery product and is produced as three types: Unleaded Regular, Premium and Super-Premium (Gary, J. et al, 2007). The first one is most common between automobiles, it is a byproduct of crude oil with an 87 octane rating and a highly flammable material. It is also environmentally-friendly and has less hazardous to health due to no lead compounds. Premium Gasoline is less polluted due to its detergent additives that make engines cleaner. It shares similar characteristics

Crude oil comes from plants and animals that have died millions of years ago. The heat and pressure turns most of the materials into a thick dark oil called crude oil or it is also called petroleum. There are three types of crude oil: Heavy crude oil, which is found in Lloydminster and in Kindersley, medium crude, oil is found in southwest Saskatchewan, and light crude oil is found in Weyburn, Estevan and Kindersley.

When oil was first discovered it was “Discovered of the spindle top oilfield near Beaumont in January 10, 1901 marked the opening of the prosperous phase of the business in Texas.” But not long after discovering in Texas it would soon be discovered in Oklahoma in 1905. Shortly after 1910 more oil was being founded and more was coming out of Texas. By the end of the Progressive Era in 1920’s “Texas was producing 85,000,000 barrels per year with even more dramatic increase

When people hear the word oil it is commonly interpreted as gas, but the oil that we drill is not what goes into our cars. The oil that is retrieved from the ground is called crude oil, Oil in its raw natural form and when it becomes refined it is used in plastics, rubber, and gasoline. ”Gasoline is a volatile, flammable liquid obtained from the refinement of petroleum, or crude oil. It was originally discarded as a byproduct of kerosene production.” The first oil well was found and harvested in Titusville, Pennsylvania by a man named Edwin L. Drake, in 1859. The well was about 70 feet deep (How gas). It pumped between 20-40 barrels a day

In Texas, there is an economic powerhouse that not only runs deep beneath fields of cotton, but also reaches miles beyond the green pastures of cattle. Its multitude of uses in daily life also far outweighs the benefits of technology. This resource, greater than any other in Texas, is oil. In 1866 the first commercial oil well was dug near Nacogdoches, Texas but unfortunately the well came up dry. Thirty years later in 1894 oil was discovered in Corsicana, Texas by accident while a water well was being dug. This was the first economically significant discovery of oil in Texas. On January 10, 1901, Texas was catapulted into the era of oil and gas with the discovery at Spindletop. The Spindletop well, located south of Beaumont produced roughly

Oil is very important in our world. But we should be able to come up with some alternate methods of getting oil, or even better, alternate resources. There has already been an alternate way to produce oil already invented. This process is known as the Fischer-Tropsch process, which converts coal into crude oil. It was a concept pioneered in Nazi Germany when imports of petroleum were restricted due to war, and Germany found a method to extract oil from coal. It was known as Ersatz ("substitute" in German), and accounted for nearly half the total oil used in WWII by Germany. However, the process was used only as a last resort as naturally occurring oil was much cheaper. As crude oil prices increase, the cost of coal to oil conversion becomes comparatively cheaper. The method involves converting high ash coal into synthetic oil in a multistage process. Ideally, a ton of coal produces nearly 200 liters of crude, with by-products ranging from tar to rare chemicals.

The process of making synthetic crude oil requires an enormous amount of water, especially in the separation process. Each barrel of oil requires two tons of oil sands and up to five barrels of hot water. Water is also needed along with electricity to convert it steam. The steam is pushed by steam injections making bitumen less viscous. It is quite evident that oil sands are not practical in terms of its process. Also three-quarters of the bitumen can be recovered from the sands, leaving behind 25% as waste. With the technology in our present society, oil sands are not entirely practical in terms of efficiency; however, in the future, this may change. To reflect, there are many disadvantages associated with oil sands, especially in the way it is processed.

So what is this mysterious black gold substance that everyone refers to as crude oil? Basically, crude oil is a petroleum based substance that is naturally formed from plants and animals that roamed the Earth millions of years ago. These microorganisms settled deep within our Earth’s crust and comprises of numerous minerals, hydrocarbons, organic compounds and inconsequential traces of metals. Crude oil cannot just be drawn up from the ground and shoved into someone’s gas tank without first being refined

Petroleum is a thick and flammable mixture of gaseous, liquid and solid hydrocarbons that occurs naturally beneath the earth’s surface. It can be separated into fractions including natural gas fuels, lubricating oils and so on. There are some major oil producing regions around the globe. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia’s crude oil fields are the largest. But in Texas, the former world’s major oil region is now almost completely dry. The real catalyst for petroleum production is World War I. It is being produced in large amount during the war. Petroleum is a commercial product in this modern era. Sometimes, petroleum and crude oil are used to mean the same thing, or in other words, petroleum products after crude oil is refined in a factory. There are

In 1866, Medical Doctor John Ellis was trying to determine if there were any medicinal properties of crude oil. He did not find any medical properties, but realized that there were potentials in lubrication for steam engines. At that time, lubrication was mainly animal or vegetable fat, and that has started to come back around full circle, but has potential since new technology for refining those fats into a more usable lubrication. He then founded the Predecessor to Valvoline oil, Continuous Oil Refining Company and put his medical practice on hold indefinitely. He patented several refining methods

What is crude oil? Crude oil is found trapped in the underground rock; it is a natural occurring mixture of hydrocarbon compounds, cause from dead marine life and vegetation from millions of years ago. These materials had died and settled on the bottoms of streams, lakes, and oceans; where sediment had then covered this thick layer of organic materials, which applied heat and cooked this layer of materials to form what we now extract from the ground as petroleum.

It has been argued that Conventional oil production has reached its peak and is now on a terminal, global decline however, it must be noted that oil is not finishing anytime soon but certain forms of it are being experimented in terms of chemicals, geography, geological and economically. Others allege the era of oil is coming to an end. But certainly not

Then, at a refinery, crude oil undergoes several processes that change it into many different useful products (including fuels, fertilizers, plastics, and paving materials). Overall, the oil goes through three processes inside a refinery – Distillation, Conversion, and Alkylation. Oil also goes through a desulfurization process to remove unwanted chemicals. These unwanted chemicals are released into our atmosphere, which is detrimental to the climate. Also, 647 million gallons of oil processed a day. In a Crude tower (also known as a fractionating tower) heat from a furnace is added to crude oil. Next, gasoline boils a a relatively low temperature and is separated when the crude oil is boiled. When it reaches 730℉ to 850℉ , the heaviest components from the bottom of the tower will break up (Oil to Car). Gasoline is not distributed evenly around the world. More than half of the world’s oil reserves are in the Middle East, which contain more oil than the rest of the world combined. The next regions that have the most oil reserves are Canada and the United States, Latin America, Africa, and the region occupied by the

With supercritical water extraction and treatment, the heavy crude is upgraded to a medium to light crude that is higher value and can be further refined at more facilities worldwide. In addition, it can be transported and stored using 'conventional' crude infrastructure already in place and leverage that capital and operating investment.

With almost 200 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil reserves located in the United States alone, it is not surprising why so many companies are adopting enhanced oil recovery techniques in everyday operations (“Total energy”, 2012). Oil production can be broken down into three main components: primary, secondary, and tertiary recovery. Primary recovery is when the well is first drilled and the natural pore pressure of the rock squeezes hydrocarbons out of the pore space. During this time the hydrocarbons are put under immense pressure and the majority of the liquids and gases will flow to the top. Secondary recovery is when water and gas injection are used to transfer the oil from the reservoir to the surface.