Refining Diesel

[RGardner]

Does anyone know the refining process well enough to say how much diesel can be made from a barrel of oil versus gasoline?

 

[JoeBioDiesel]

Does anyone know the refining process well enough to say how much diesel can be made from a barrel of oil versus gasoline?

I can't say for sure, but I was told by a refiner that the ratios can be slightly adjusted... . that is, if you're tyring to get a little more diesel from a barrel of crude, you can sacrifice a little volume of the other distillates in order to get some.



Joe

 

[fharsh]

Through the distillation process, a 42 Gallon barrel of crude oil yields the following products.

19. 7 Gal. Gasoline

10 Gal. Diesel Fuel and Heating Oil

4 Gal. Jet Fuel

1. 8 Gal. Heavy Fuel Oil

1. 8 Gal. Liquefied Petroleum Gas

7. 3 Gal. Other Products



A 42 U. S. gallon barrel of crude oil yields slightly more than 44

gallons of petroleum products. This “process gain” in volume is due to

a reduction in density during the refining process.



Source:

http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/brochure/gas04/gasoline.htm

 

[Champane Flight]

All depends

On the grade of crude, there are different grades of crude oils, some with higher sulfer content, some with higher solids.

 

[KKohagen]

These product volumes mainly depend on which crude oil it is and the different plants within the refinery. Some refineries are geared for making gasoline, jet, and diesel. Many others make mostly lube oil blending stocks.

As far as the different types of crude vs products I can gve an example.

Higher gravity crudes such as Minas, Arabian light, Basra tend to give more gasoline and jet, a good amount of diesel and small amounts of gasoil, resid. On the opposite spectrum low gravity crudes such as SJV, Domestic result in a small amount of gasoline some jet and diesel and a lot of gasoil and resid.

In short, the plants within the refinery and the kind of crude that is run determines the results or products that are made from each barrel of crude.

 

[Blakers]

As mentioned, it depends on the type of crude oil.



But, modern technology allows manipulation of the products derived. Heavier hydrocarbons can be catalytically cracked to lighter hydrocarbons. Lighter hydrocarbons can be joined to form heavier hydrocarbons through alkalinzation or hydrogenation - I forget which term is right - been 24 years since Petroleum Engineering in college.

 

[AUrban]

For more information on the process itself:



http://science.howstuffworks.com/oil-refining.htm