Petroleum Refining & Petrochemicals
Petroleum refining and petrochemicals, followed through an engineer's secondment to a 120,000 b/d refinery near Joliet, Illinois: refinery configurations and complexity, crude oil assays and characterization, atmospheric and vacuum distillation, hydrotreating and sulfur recovery, fluid catalytic cracking, coking and hydrocracking, catalytic reforming and isomerization, alkylation and gasoline blending, bitumen upgrading and diluted bitumen, steam cracking and aromatics, the refinery hydrogen balance and emissions, ending with a planning and economics capstone built on linear programming.
CHE-470 Year 4 3 credits 12 lessons · 4 h 17 min ▶ Video lessons coming soon
Offered by HSM University · Chemical Engineering
This is the American version of this course. See the Canadian version.
What you'll learn
- Describe the refining industry, classify refinery configurations, and compute a Nelson complexity index and a refinery volume and mass balance.
- Characterize crude oils by API gravity, sulfur, Watson factor and true boiling point curve, and blend crude properties correctly.
- Explain desalting, atmospheric and vacuum distillation, cut points, pumparounds and overflash, and estimate crude unit yields and duties.
- Apply hydrotreating kinetics to ultra-low sulfur targets, and describe amine treating, the Claus process and tail gas treatment.
- Explain fluid catalytic cracking chemistry, catalyst and heat balance, and estimate coke burn, catalyst circulation and yields.
- Compare carbon rejection and hydrogen addition for residue, and estimate coker yields and hydrocracker volume gain and hydrogen use.
- Explain catalytic reforming and isomerization chemistry, reactor types and the trade-off between severity, octane and yield.
- Describe alkylation by sulfuric and hydrofluoric acid, and blend gasoline for octane and vapor pressure with and without ethanol.
- Explain how bitumen is upgraded to synthetic crude or shipped as dilbit, and compare upgrading routes by yield, hydrogen and emissions.
- Describe steam cracking for olefins and the recovery of aromatics, and relate refinery streams to petrochemical feedstocks.
- Build a refinery hydrogen balance, estimate carbon dioxide from steam methane reforming, and evaluate options to reduce emissions and fuel carbon intensity.
- Formulate a refinery planning linear program, interpret shadow prices and crack spreads, and frame capital and emissions decisions.
Course content
12 lessons · 4 h 17 min total · final exam
- 1 The refining industry and refinery configurations 21 min · quiz
- 2 Crude oil characterization 21 min · quiz
- 3 Atmospheric and vacuum distillation 22 min · quiz
- 4 Hydrotreating and sulfur recovery 21 min · quiz
- 5 Fluid catalytic cracking 22 min · quiz
- 6 Hydrocracking and residue conversion 21 min · quiz
- 7 Catalytic reforming and isomerization 21 min · quiz
- 8 Alkylation and gasoline blending 21 min · quiz
- 9 Bitumen upgrading 22 min · quiz
- 10 Steam cracking, olefins and aromatics 21 min · quiz
- 11 Refinery hydrogen, energy and emissions 22 min · quiz
- 12 Refinery planning and economics: the capstone 22 min · quiz
- E Final exam 20 questions
Requirements
Recommended background. You can start any course at any time.
Description
Petroleum refining and petrochemicals, followed through an engineer's secondment to a 120,000 b/d refinery near Joliet, Illinois: refinery configurations and complexity, crude oil assays and characterization, atmospheric and vacuum distillation, hydrotreating and sulfur recovery, fluid catalytic cracking, coking and hydrocracking, catalytic reforming and isomerization, alkylation and gasoline blending, bitumen upgrading and diluted bitumen, steam cracking and aromatics, the refinery hydrogen balance and emissions, ending with a planning and economics capstone built on linear programming.
Part of the Engineering stream, typically taken in year 4.