Diesel Fuel Production in L.A. Basin Region

Diesel Fuel Production and Distribution

Petroleum products are refined from the crude oil pumped out of the ground (Paul 139). The crude is refined through a process of boiling and evaporative collection called fractional distillation. In this process, successively heavier elements of the crude oil are boiled off and collected. Throughout this process, gasoline, diesel fuel, and other petroleum products as well as engine oil are distilled out of the crude. The oil is further processed into different weights and unwanted elements are removed, resulting in what are called "base stocks."

The processing of crude in a refinery can be divided into four main steps·separation of crude oil, restructuring hydrocarbon molecules, treating, and blending (Emond 31). This process is presented graphically in a flow chart that may be found on page 15. A description and explanation of the refining process is as follows:

1. Separation of crude oil. Products are separated by boiling point in heated columns at atmospheric pressure or in a vacuum (atmospheric and vacuum distillation). Fractions are removed as heat brings them to their boiling point and d

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molecules to produce products of different characteristics. The two most widely used rearranging processes are catalytic reforming and isomerization. (1) Catalytic reforming. This process, which produces reformate, is widely used to upgrade low-octane naphthas to high-octane gasoline blending stocks. It is one of the main octane generators since lead was removed from gasoline. While other processes produce products of relatively fixed octane numbers, catalytic reforming can yield unleaded gasoline blending stocks in an octane-number range from the low 80s to over 100. Processing over a platinum catalyst produces aromatics, such as benzene, toluene, and xylene. Environmental regulators generally consider high levels of aromatics undesirable in gasoline and diesel fuel because of unwanted emissions. The required reduction of aromatics in diesel fuel by California drove some refiners out of the diesel market. As operational severity is increased to raise the octane number, the gasoline yield decreases. This process also generates hydrogen that is required for many other operations in modern refineries. (2) Isomerization. This catalytic process converts low-octane hydrocarbons to high-octane isomers used for octane improve
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Approximate Word count = 3103
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)

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