Hassan ElBanhawi

About this Book (Preface):-

The third volume of the "Petroleum Refining" collection deals with conversion processes for petroleum fractions as produced by the separation operations that are covered in the second volume. Conversion processes have three objectives:

• improve product quality so as to meet the requirements of the corre­sponding end use (e.g. heat engines, burners);

• convert crude oil fractions that can not directly find an outlet into prod­ucts better adapted to the market;

• protect the natural environment during product manufacturing and uti­lization.

Following an introduction which shows the growing importance of conver­sion processes in the refining industry, this volume presents the fundamentals of the chemical mechanisms at the basis of the processes. These disciplines are thermodynamics, chemical kinetics, reactor calculation and industrial cat­alysts.
Then the major refining conversion processes are discussed. The first group of processes is designed to improve the quality of light fractions: cat­alytic reforming and isomerization. The second group involves the conversion of distillates: catalytic cracking and hydrocracking, along with their related units: alkylation, oligomerization and etherification. The third includes pro­cesses for converting residues: visbreaking, coking and hydroconversion with its related hydrogen production unit. Lastly, processes which deal with reduc­ing air and water pollution: sweetening of white products and hydrotreating to eliminate sulfur and nitrogen compounds, sour gas treatments to remove hydrogen sulfide, desulfurization of heavy fuel oil combustion off gases and treatment of process water.