A refinery is an industrial unit where, depending on its type, crude oil or gas is refined and converted into other products such as gasoline, oil gas, ethane, naphtha, etc.
Refineries are divided into three categories depending on the type of product:Fuel refineries: which are the most common type of refinery and their purpose is to produce common fuels such as gasoline, diesel, liquid gas, kerosene, etc. Such as Tehran Refinery, Abadan Refinery, Arak Refinery and…
oil refineries: whose products are all kinds of light and heavy oils and lubricants, bitumen and… These products can produce oil separately or continue the operation of a fuel refinery. Famous refineries in this field include Pars Oil Refinery and Behran Oil Refinery.
Petrochemical refineries: which, in addition to producing fuel products, produce raw materials for petrochemical units such as aromatics, ethylene, butadiene, etc. Among the famous refineries in this area, we can mention the Persian Gulf Star Refinery.
The input materials to these units are crude oil and gas condensate. Crude and unprocessed oil does not have much use by itself, and in order to use it, it must be refined and turned into other products. Petroleum products are used in a wide range of applications. These products have different boiling points, and for this reason, these substances can be separated by the distillation process.
This process is done with the help of a distillation tower and in several stages. In the distillation process, by heating the crude oil, the products are separated based on the boiling point, in such a way that the lighter products are placed on top of the distillation tower, and the heavier the products are as we move down.
The raw materials used in these units are light and rich gases and natural gas. These types of refineries are composed of different units that together refine gross hydrocarbons received from natural gas reservoirs.
Each gas refinery usually has several main units:
◊ Be sure to read this article: Free stock market training from zero to one hundred
In this unit, gas enters the refinery from feed wells (gas tanks) and is sent to the sweetening unit after primary separation.
In this unit, most of the impurities are separated from the gas and the product is brought to the required standard.
In this unit, the gas is refined and converted into products such as propane, butane, ethane, etc.
In this unit, the sulfur left from the sweetening process, which is in liquid form, is recycled.