Fractional Distillation Column Of Crude Oil

Fractional distillation of crude oil.

Fractional distillation column of crude oil. A tall fractionating column is fitted above the mixture with. In most cases the distillation is operated at a continuous steady state new feed is always being added to the distillation column and products are always being removed. The crude oil distillation system consists of an atmospheric distillation unit in which crude oil is separated into more valuable products and a heat exchanger network hen which pre heats the crude oil before it enters the column. If you want to learn about crude oil from a true chemical perspective check out the third lecture in this top rated chemistry 101 course which deals with one of the most interesting and relevant aspects of chemistry.

Fractional distillation is the most common form of separation technology used in petroleum refineries petrochemical and chemical plants natural gas processing and cryogenic air separation plants. Fractionating columns are used in small scale laboratory distillations as well as large scale industrial distillations. A fractionating column or fractional column is an essential item used in the distillation of liquid mixtures to separate the mixture into its component parts or fractions based on the differences in volatilities. As i mentioned above crude oil is a mixture of different compounds.

The oil refining process starts with a fractional distillation column. On the right you can see several chemical processors that are described in the next section. Fractional distillation is the process by which oil refineries separate crude oil into different more useful hydrocarbon products based on their relative molecular weights in a distillation tower. Fractional distillation separates a mixture into a number of different parts called fractions.

This is the first step in the processing of crude oil and it is considered to be the main separation process as it performs the initial rough separation of the different fuels.