Petroleum refining involves fractionating crude oil into major fractions through chemical, thermal, and physical separation processes. These fractions are further processed and converted into over 2,500 finished petroleum products. Refineries separate crude oil into smaller fractions to produce fuels like gasoline and diesel, as well as non-fuel products and raw materials for the chemical industry. Major refining stages include distillation, conversion/upgrading, and desulphurization.

1. Petroleum refining
Ajay Sharma
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2. Petroleum Refining
• Petroleum refining is defined as chemical,
thermal and physical separation of crude oil
into major fractions. These fractions are further
processed through separation and conversion
into finished petroleum products.
• Refinery is the facility where this process takes
place. Refinery separates the crude oil into
smaller fractions in order to make 2500
separate products.
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3. Products of Refining
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4. Products of refining
1) Fuels (such as motor gasoline, diesel fuel,
aviation fuel, light and heavy fuel oil)
2) Non-fuel products (such as lubricating oils and greases,
asphalt)
3) Raw materials for the chemical industry.
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6. Source: www.aip.com
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7. Stages of Refining
• Refining involves following major steps.
1) Distillation and separation
2) Conversion or upgrading
3) Desulphurization or sweetening
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8. Distillation
The first stage in the
crude processing is
known as distillation
or fractionation.
In this process the
crude oil which is
mixture of many
hydrocarbons is boiled
and recondensed to
separate the crude oil
into components based
on ranges of boiling
points.
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9. Distillation Column
• Components which are heavier are harder to
boil and will collect in the lower part of the
column. Lighter components are easier to boil
and will be collected in the upper part of the
column.
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10. Distillation Column
• Very heavy components which are unable to
boil will leave from the bottom of the column,
in a stream known as residue, while very light
components will leave from the top of the
column. This stream is known as Liquefied
Petroleum Gas, or LPG
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11. Hydro processing
• To meet environmental specifications or to assist
is further processing, some components then
undergo a process known as hydro processing.
The objective of this process is to remove sulphur
from the component stream.
• This process will consume hydrogen to assist in
the sulphur removal. The sulphur removed from
this process is converted into pure liquid sulphur
and is sold to local industry for the production or
acid and fertiliser.
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12. Reforming/Platforming
• This process converts a low value component
called 'naphtha' into a product known as
reformate or platformate. This reformate has a
much higher octane number and is used for
gasoline blending.
• This is achieved using a catalyst that contains
platinum.
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13. Catalytic Cracking
• This conversion process involves the breaking
up of large hydrocarbon molecules into smaller
molecules using a combination of heat and
catalytic action.
• A by-product of this process is Coke (or
carbon), which is burnt to generate steam and
electricity.
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14. History of Petroleum refining in
Canada
• Oil was first discovered in 1700 as bituminous
gum when it was flowed out of Athabasca
River in Alberta.
• Around 1870, nearly 20 small refineries
existed in southern Ontario mainly to produce
kerosene. At that time naptha, benzene and
gasoline were considered as by product and
were discarded.
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15. History of Petroleum refining in
Canada
• In 1947, the giant Leduc was discovered near
Edmonton, which was the largest oil field of
its time. Leduc produced oil continuously until
the 1990s. It made Western Canada the centre
of the Canadian oil industry and encouraged an
exploration surge!
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16. Source of crude
• Canadian petroleum refineries obtain crude
from numerous sources including oils fields
and oil sands operated by the upstream oil and
gas industry, as well as imports from other
countries.
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17. Crude oil in Canada
• As of January 2009, Canada had 178 billion
barrels of proven oil reserves, second only to
Saudi Arabia; 95% of these reserves are in
Alberta, the majority in the oil sands of northern
Alberta.
• Refineries are necessary to transform crude oil
into a range of petroleum products. Refineries are
designed according to the end products they are
intended to provide, and the nature and quality of
crude oil available for processing.
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18. Canadian crude oil production
• Canadian crude oil production is expected to
grow from 2.8 million b /d in 2010 to 4.7
million b/d in 2025.This is about 401,000 b/d
higher than previously forecast.
2010 2015 2020 2025
Mb/d 2.8 3.5 4.2 4.7
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19. Refineries in Canada
• Refineries are complex, capital intensive
manufacturing facilities that convert crude oil
into a variety of valuable products.
• The refining process uses chemistry to break,
reshape and recombine the molecules of crude
oil into value-added products like gasoline,
diesel and aviation fuel.
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20. Refineries in Canada
• In the 1970s there were 59 refineries in Canada,
by the early 1980s this number had dropped to 40.
The decline was about 20% to a total of about 80
billion litres per year.
• Currently there are 19 refineries operating within
Canada. These 19 refineries have a combined
capacity that is double the capacity of the 40
refineries in operation in Canada in the early
1970s.
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21. Refineries in Canada
• Since 1990 refining capacity is stable but
demand is increasing steadily.
• In order to supply petroleum products in
dispersed Canadian market , refineries are
situated across the country with major refining
centres in Edmonton, Sarnia and Montreal.
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22. Refineries in Canada
• Currently there are 12 companies operating
refineries in Canada.
• Only Imperial oil, Shell and Petro Canada
operate more than one refinery.
• Other refiners generally operate single refinery
and market product in particular region.
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23. Refineries in Canada
• There are three main refining centres in
Canada (Edmonton, Sarnia and Montreal), but
most provinces have at least one refinery.
Manitoba and Prince Edward Island are the
only provinces with no refining capacity and
there are no refineries in the territories.
• Of the 19 refineries in Canada, there are 16
that manufacture the full range of petroleum
products.
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24. Refineries in Canada
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25. Regional Refineries
• Regional refiners include North Atlantic
Refining, Irving Oil and Ultramar in the east,
Suncor in Ontario and Federated Co-op, Husky
and Chevron in the west.
• 98 primary fuel distribution centers
• 12,710 retail outlets
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26. Refineries & Environment
• The increased efficiency of refining operations has been
accompanied by significant gains in refinery
environmental performance. For example, from 1993
to 2008, atmospheric emissions of nine of the ten most
commonly emitted substances declined by amounts
ranging from 61 per cent to 89 per cent. This was
achieved at the same time that product output from
refineries grew by 20 per cent. Total CO2 emissions
from refineries were reduced by 15 per cent between
1990 and 2009.
• In the past 10 years, refineries have invested $8 billion
in total environmental expenditures.
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27. Workforce in Refineries
• The Canadian refineries directly employed
about 17,800 highly skilled Canadians in 2009.
Twenty nine thousand were employed in
wholesaling, marketing and distribution of
refined oil products. Sixty thousand worked in
retail outlets for petroleum products.
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28. Characteristics of Labour
• Workers over 45 make up 47 percent in the
industry. Most of the workers are in 45-54
group.
• Calculations based on current retirement age
suggests that up to quarter of those workers
will retire in next decade.
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29. Wages
• The refining industry pays above-average
wages and salaries. In 2009, average weekly
earnings in the sector, including overtime,
were $1,371. That compares with $824 for all
industries. In 1991, a worker in the industry
earned about 50 per cent more than the
Canadian average. Now a worker in this
industry earns two-thirds more than the
average worker.
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30. Thank You
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31. References
• www.cppi.ca
• www.nrcan.gc.ca
• www.capp.ca
• www.ec.gc.ca
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