Fuel oil is processed in the process of stripping distillates under vacuum at certain boiling points. This procedure is called the primary processing of fuel oil. The residues of the fuel oil haulage can be used for further - secondary - processing at coking and cracking units.
What is fuel oil processed for?
Fuel oil is a residual product resulting from the distillation of oil or the separation of gasoline, kerosene and diesel fuels from it. The output of fuel oil from oil is about 50%, which necessitates large industrial scale processing. The fuel oil itself is used as fuel for boilers, steam plants, and industrial furnaces.
Vacuum distillates obtained during the transportation of fuel oil are used to obtain motor fuel (bunker fuel, "naval" fuel oil) and lubricating oils. Resin is also obtained from fuel oil, which is used in the production of rubber and resins. Recycling of fuel oil is used to obtain tar, bitumen, coke. Recycled oil products are used in the production of building materials for flooring and roofing. Fuel oil and products of its processing are used in heavy industry and construction industry. Separate consumers of fuel oil are the navy and aviation.
Features of processing processes
The primary processing of fuel oil, namely the distillation of distillates under vacuum, is carried out using hydrocracking and catalytic cracking processes at boiling temperatures in the following ranges: 350 ° C - 420 ° C, 350 ° C - 460 ° C, 350 ° C - 500 ° C and 420 ° C - 500 ° C. Secondary processing of fuel oil is carried out in coking or technical cracking units.
Most often, fuel oil processing is used for the manufacture of various types of motor and lubricating oils. In this case, the process is divided into 3 stages:
- as a result of the primary processing of fuel oil, either a substance called tar or oil fractions of three types is obtained: high-viscosity oil distillate, low-viscosity oil distillate and a wide oil fraction; the resulting tar is further processed by deasphalting with propane to separate part of the oils;
- the resulting oil fractions undergo selective refining to produce oil components;
- oil components undergo post-treatment and compounding procedures, i.e. mixing to obtain the final oil product.
When processing fuel oil and using its derivatives, it is necessary to take into account such properties of fuel oil as high thermal qualities and heat density, ease of storage and transportation.
