ENGINE FUELS

1. PETROLEUM                                                                        https://worldcxcel.blogspot.com/

 Petroleum is a Greek word. It is considered as made up of Petra meaning rock and oleum meaning oil.

 Thus, petroleum means rock oil.

       

  The first oil well in the word was drilled by an American, Edwin Drake in USA in 1859. Kerosene was obtained from it. In India, the Assam Railway and Trading Co.., discovered the first oil field in Digboi

(Assam). The oil was first noticed as patches of black greasy material on the legs of an elephant in Digboi by the engineers of the company. Later the Assam oil co. was formed at Digboi in 1899. In 1920, a British concern, the Burmah oil co. took over the Assam oil co. and built a large scale Refinery. Between 1954 and 1957, three more refineries in private sector were set up- Burmah shell, Stanvac (now ESSO) and Caltex. Different refineries in India are follows:

1. Assam Oil Co. (AOC),  Digboi  (Assam)
2. Burmah Sell, Bombay
3. ESSO, Bombay
4. Caltex, Vishakhapatnam
5. Gauhati Refinery, Noonmati
6. Barauni, bihar
7. Kochin refinery, Kerala.
8. Koyali Refinery, Baroda 
9. Madras Refinery, Tamil Nadu  
10. Haldi, West Bengal
11. Mathura Refinery (UP)

   2. COMPOSITION OF PETROLEUM

Petroleum consist of many hydrocarbon series such as Paraffin series, Olefin series, aromatic series, etc.., 

1. Paraffin Cn H2n+2                                          Methane, ethane, hexane, hexadecane
2. Olefin Cn H2n                                                  Ethane (ethylene), propene (propylene), butane (butylene)
3. Naphthene Cn H2n                                            cyclic compounds, saturated
4. Aromatic Cn H2n-6                                         Susceptible to oxidation, highly anti-knocking
5. Diolefin Cn H2n-2                                           extremely active, tends to polymerize
6. Cyclic Cn H2n-2 CnH2n-4, CnH2n-8            These series predominate in the higher boiling point                                                                           oils such as gas oil and lubricating oils 
7. Other Constituents                                          Sulphur, oxygen compounds, nitrogen asphaltites                                                                             and resins 

3. CLASSIFICATION OF REFINERY PRODUCTS

The refinery products are classified into six main heads as follows:

1.  Gas Fractions:

     (a)  Natural Gas 95% methane with small amount of other light hydrocarbons.

     (b) Light Gas from distillation of petroleum crude at refinery mainly C1 and C2.

      (c) Off gases  from refinery operations off gases are mainly hydrogen Sulphide, Hydrogen, Sulphur         dioxide, C1 and C2.

       ( d) Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). It is butane or propane normally liquefied and used as                      domestic fuel for household cooking.

 2. Light Fractions.

      (a) Petrol or gasoline. It is a most useful product of refinery. Petrol is produced by suitable blending of various light fractions to get gasoline product of desire octane numbers. Petrol of octane number75-85 are used in India where as a USA gasoline of 90-110 octane number are very commonly used for aircraft octane number as high as 150 is required.

      (b) Naphtha and Kerosene. Naphtha is an oil fraction having properties between gasoline and kerosene. It is widely used as solvent in paint and other chemical industries. Kerosene is used for illumination purposes and also as fuel for jet planes.

      (c)  Jet Fuel.  It is just like kerosene and has a wide boiling range which extends through gasoline and kerosene.

       (d) Light beating oil. It is used as a fuel for heating houses in cold countries.

  3. Distillates. It includes furnace oil, diesel fuel, gas oil, spray oil, absorption oil and insecticide:

       (a) Diesel fuels. The main characteristics of diesel fuels are cleanliness, ignition quality, fluidity and volatility. Octane number of diesel index for easy starting and low engine pressure is of almost importance.

       (b) Gas oils. There are used as absorbent for hydrocarbons gases.

 

  4. Lubricating Oil :

        (a) motor oil. Diesel engine oil and spark ignition engine oil differ primary in detergency properties. Naphthene base oils of low viscosity index may be used as diesel oils.

         (b) Lubricants. These are used to prevent friction between the parts of any machine. Lubricants may be liquid like gear oil, semi solid like grease.

          (c) Cylinder oil. It is unfinished oil stock used directly as lubricant for steam engine cylinders or for manufacture of bright stoke. It is usually filtered but not dewaxed.

           (d) Natural oil. It is light or low viscosity lubricating oil stoke used for compounding of motor oils and light machine oils.

            (e) Bright stoke. It is heavy or or high viscosity lubricating oil stoke for compounding of motor oil.

  5. Grease and waxes. It includes paraffin wax,  micro-crystalline wax, petroleum and greases. paraffin was used for manufacture of wax paper, insulating material. package sealing, etc. Petroleum and micro-crystalline was are base materials in the compound of grease, salves, ointments and package sealing.

Flow sheet for petroleum refining