Petroleum Science and Technology

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Optimization of crude oil refining products to

valuable fuel blends

Ayhan Demirbas & Hisham S. Bamufleh

To cite this article: Ayhan Demirbas & Hisham S. Bamufleh (2017) Optimization of crude oil
refining products to valuable fuel blends, Petroleum Science and Technology, 35:4, 406-412, DOI:
10.1080/10916466.2016.1261162

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10916466.2016.1261162

Published online: 24 Mar 2017.

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PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
, VOL. , NO. , –
http://dx.doi.org/./..

Optimization of crude oil refining products to valuable fuel blends

Ayhan Demirbas and Hisham S. Bamufleh
King Abdulaziz University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Jeddah,
Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
Crude oils are composed of hundreds of different hydrocarbon molecules, Crude oil refining; distillation;
which are separated through the process of refining and small quantities of fuel blends; end user
oxygen, sulfur, nitrogen, vanadium, nickel, and chromium. An oil refinery is a products; optimization
group of manufacturing plants that are used to separate petroleum into valu-
able fractions. Oil refining is one of the most complex chemical industries,
which includes many different and complex processes with several possible
connections. In the process of distillation, crude oil is heated in a furnace so
that hydrocarbons can be separated via their boiling point. The main purposes
of crude oil blending are to optimize commercial value, to upgrade or reduce
oil consumption to meet specifications and to facilitate oil movement. Simula-
tion software, such as linear programming modeling, is often used to estimate
the rate components that provide a low cost mix. The aim of blending of crude
oils and refinery products is to increase the refined margins without affecting
the required physical properties of the blends. The optimization of in crude
oil blends and maximization of low-cost refinery intermediates in final blends
are the basic processes for achieving this goal of using cheap crude oils. The
highest degree of blending optimization requires continuous updating of the
simulation model by adapting to real-time analytical trends.

1. Introduction
Crude oils are composed of hundreds of different hydrocarbon molecules, which are separated through
the process of refining and small quantities of oxygen, sulfur, nitrogen, vanadium, nickel, and chromium.
Crude oil refinery is a multiproduct manufacturing plant. Oil refining is one of the most complex chem-
ical industries, which includes many different and complex processes with several possible connections.
One of the most important steps in the optimization and management of oil refineries is the separation
of suitable raw material (Ganji et al., 2010). Blending of crude oil is made in order to obtain raw materials
through different physical properties (Adebayo et al., 2011). Crude oil is processed to obtain interme-
diate products that are blended to meet quantity, quality, and timing specification of the final products
(Purohit and Suryawanshi, 2013).
An oil refinery is a group of manufacturing plants that are used to separate petroleum into valuable
fractions. The most important one is gasoline. The other oil products are No. 2 diesel fuel, heating oil, and
jet fuel (Onwe, 2012; Nemli, 2015). Refineries can use many different methods to obtain these products.
One of the well-known methods is a boiling with heating named distillation (Kinsara and Demirbas,
2016). Distillation is a unit operation of separating the components from a liquid mixture by selective
evaporation and condensation. The molar ratios of components in the vapor phase are very close to the
molar ratios of the condensed liquid phase. Main distillation types are (a) simple distillation, (b) vacuum
distillation, (c) steam distillation, (d) multistage distillation, (e) catalytic distillation, and (f) pyrolytic

CONTACT Ayhan Demirbas ayhandemirbas@hotmail.com Faculty of Engineering, Department of Chemical and Materials
Engineering, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
©  Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
 PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 407

distillation. The configuration of refineries may vary from refinery to refinery. Some refineries may be
more oriented towards the production of gasoline whereas the configuration of other refineries may be
more oriented towards the production of middle distillates such as jet fuel, and gas oil (Demirbas, 2012).

2. Main common processes in an oil refinery

A refinery is a multiproduct manufacturing plant. Three major refinery processes change crude oil into
end-user products. The refining process is divided into three basic steps: separation, conversion, and
treatment (Demirbas et al., 2015; Aburas et al., 2015). The first step is separation called the distillation
process, which is performed in a series of distillation towers.
Crude oil can be separated into fractions by fractional distillation. The fractions at the top are lower
than the fractions at the bottom. The heavy bottom fractions are often cracked into lighter, more useful
products. All of the fractions are processed further in other refining units. An oil refinery cleans and
separates the crude oil into various fuels and byproducts. The most important one is gasoline. Some
other petroleum products are diesel fuel, heating oil, and jet fuel.
A generalized distillation column is shown in Figure 1. Industrial distillation is typically performed in
large, vertical, steel cylindrical columns with diameters ranging from about 65 cm to 11 m and heights
ranging from about 6 m to 60 m or more. To improve the separation, the tower is normally provided
inside with horizontal plates or trays, or the column is packed with a packing material. To provide the
heat required for the vaporization is most often added to the bottom of the column by a reboiler.
There are generally 25–45 plates or trays in a distillation tower. Each of the plates or trays is at a differ-
ent temperature and pressure. The stage at the tower bottom has the highest pressure and temperature.
Progressing upwards in the tower, the pressure and temperature decreases for each succeeding stage.
Another way of improving the separation in a distillation column is to use a packing material instead of
trays.
The conversion processes have focused on reducing the long chain hydrocarbons (Demirbas et al.,
2016). Once crude oil has been through separation and conversion, the resulting products are ready
for purification, which is principally sulfur removal (Demirbas et al., 2015a, 2015b). The common unit
processes in an oil refinery are given in Table 1. Figure 2 shows a simple block diagram of a common
crude oil refinery.
In the process of distillation, crude oil is heated in a furnace so that hydrocarbons can be separated via
their boiling point. Inside large towers, heated petroleum vapors are separated into fractions according
to weight and boiling point. The lightest fractions rise to the top of the tower before they condense back
to liquids and the heaviest fractions will settle at the bottom because they condense early.

Figure . A generalized fractional distillation column.

408 A. DEMIRBAS AND H. S. BAMUFLEH

Table . Common unit processes in an oil refinery.

Unit process Process objective and shortly properties

Desalting It washes out salt from the crude oil before it enters crude distillation unit (CDU) process. Prior to
distillation, crude oil is often desalted to remove corrosive salts as well as metals and other
suspended solids.
Crude distillation unit (CDU) It distills crude oil into fractions used to separate the desalted crude into specific hydrocarbons
(gasoline, naphtha, diesel fuel, etc) or fractions.
Vacuum distillation unit (VDU) It further distills residual bottoms after the CDU process. Heavy crude residue from the CDU
column is further separated using a lower-pressure distillation process at lower temperatures,
without decomposition and excessive coke formation.
Delayed coking Thermal noncatalytic cracking process that converts low-value oils to higher value gasoline, gas
oils, and marketable coke. Residual fuel oil from vacuum distillation column is typical feedstock.
Fluidic coking It is used to convert low value resid to valuable products (naphtha, diesel, gas oil).
Catalytic reforming It is used to convert the naphtha-boiling range molecules into higher octane reformer product
(reformate). The process whereby naphthas are changed chemically to increase their octane
numbers. Octane numbers are measures of whether a gasoline will knock in an engine.
Hydrotreating It desulfurizes distillates (e.g., diesel) after atmospheric distillation.
Fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) FCC upgrades low value gas oils into lighter, more valuable products (naphtha, diesel fuel and
slurry oil).
Hydrocracking It is used to remove feed contaminants (nitrogen, sulfur, metals) and convert low value gas oils to
valuable products (naphtha and middle distillates). It uses hydrogen to upgrade heavier
fractions into lighter, more valuable products.
Visbreaking Thermal noncatalytic process used to convert large hydrocarbon molecules in heavy feedstocks to
lighter products such as fuel gas, gasoline, naphtha, and gas oil. It upgrades heavy residual oils
by thermally cracking them into lighter, more valuable reduced viscosity products.
Coking It converts very heavy residual oils into gasoline and diesel fuel, leaving petroleum coke as a
residual product.
Alkylation Important process to upgrade light olefins to high-value gasoline components. Used to combine
small molecules into large molecules to produce a higher octane product for blending into
gasoline. It produces high-octane component for gasoline blending.
Dimerization It converts olefins into higher-octane gasoline blending components.
Isomerization Process used to produce compounds with high octane for blending into the gasoline pool. It
converts linear molecules to higher-octane branched molecules for blending into gasoline. Also
used to produce isobutene, an important feedstock for alkylation.
Polymerization Process that combines smaller molecules to produce high octane blend-stock.
Solvent refining It use solvent such as cresol or furfural to remove unwanted, mainly asphaltenic materials from
lubricating oil stock.
Solvent dewaxing For removing the heavy waxy constituents petroleum from vacuum distillation products.

Cracking is the process of taking heavier, less useful fractions of crude oil and converting them into
lighter products (Aburas et al., 2015; Demirbas et al., 2015a). Cracking uses heat and pressure to break
heavier elements into lighter ones (Demirbas et al., 2015b). Alkylation is another common main process
in the refinery, which is basically the opposite of cracking. In alkylation, small gaseous byproducts are
combined to form larger hydrocarbons (Aburas and Demirbas, 2015; Aysu et al., 2015).
Main crude oil components are listed in Table 2. The conversion processes have focused on reducing
the length of some hydrocarbon chains. Primary purpose of conversion processes is to convert low valued
heavy oil into high valued petrol. For example, catalytic reforming is a conversion process. The purpose
of the reformer is to increase the octane number of petrol blend components (Demirbas et al., 2015c,
2015d).
Treatment is the final process of refining, and includes combining processed products to create var-
ious octane levels, vapor pressure properties, and special properties for products used in extreme envi-
ronments (Yue et al., 2015). Another importing treatment is the removal of sulfur from diesel fuel, which
is necessary for it to meet clean air guidelines (Demirbas et al., 2015b).
 PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 409

Figure . Simple block diagram of a common crude oil refinery.

The heavy oil refining requires rigorous and comprehensive chemical, engineering, and computer
processes. Before the refining process begins, the stored heavy crude oil is cleaned of contaminants such
as salt, sand, and water (Wei et al., 2014; Demirbas, 2015).

3. End-user products of crude oil blends and optimization of valuable blends

Gasoline and diesel oil are the most important crude-derived liquid fuels. Gasoline is a complex mixture
of over 500 hydrocarbons that may have between 5 and 12 carbons. Gasoline is a blend of hydrocarbons
with some contaminants, including sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, and certain metals. The four major con-
stituent groups of gasoline are olefins, aromatics, paraffins, and napthenes. It consists mostly of aliphatic
hydrocarbons, enhanced with iso-octane or the aromatic hydrocarbons toluene and benzene to increase
its octane rating.

Table . Main crude oil fractions.

Component Boiling range, K Number of carbon atoms

Natural gas <  C to C

Liquefied petroleum gas – C to C
Petroleum ether – C to C
Ligroin (light naphtha) – C to C
Gasoline – C to C , and cycloalkanes
Jet fuel – C to C , and aromatics
Kerosene – C to C , and aromatics
No.  diesel fuel – C to C , and aromatics
Fuel oils >  C to C , and aromatics
Lubricating oils >  > C
Asphalt or petroleum coke Nonvolatile residue Polycyclic structures
410 A. DEMIRBAS AND H. S. BAMUFLEH

Table . Major components of gasoline.

Component Composition, wt%

n-Alkanes
C .
C .
C .
C .
C– .
Total of n-alkanes .
Branched alkanes
C .
C .
C .
C .
C .
C .
C -C .
Total of branched alkanes .
Cycloalkanes
C .
C .
C .
Total of cycloalkanes .
Olefins
C .
Total of olefins .
Aromatics
benzene .
toluene .
xylenes .
ethylbenzene .
C - benzenes .
C - benzenes .
Others .
Total aromatics .

The density of gasoline is 0.71–0.77 kg/L. Gasoline is more volatile than diesel oil, Jet-A or kerosene,
because of not only the base constituents, but also the additives that are put into it. The final control of
volatility is often achieved by blending with butane.
The typical composition of gasoline hydrocarbons (% volume) is as follows: 4–8% alkanes; 2–5%
alkenes; 25–40% isoalkanes; 3–7% cycloalkanes; l–4% cycloalkenes; and 20–50% total aromatics (0.5–
2.5% benzene). Additives and blending agents are added to the hydrocarbon mixture to improve the
performance and stability of gasoline. These compounds include antiknock agents, antioxidants, metal
deactivators, lead scavengers, antirust agents, anti-icing agents, upper-cylinder lubricants, detergents,
and dyes. Table 3 shows the major components of gasoline.
Diesel fuel is produced by distilling raw oil that is extracted from bedrock. Diesel fuel consists of
hydrocarbons with between 9 and 27 carbon atoms in a chain as well as a smaller amount of sulfur,
nitrogen, oxygen, and metal compounds. It is a general property of hydrocarbons that the autoigni-
tion temperature is higher for more volatile hydrocarbons. The hydrocarbons present in the diesel fuels
include alkanes, naphthenes, olefins, and aromatics. In addition other substances are added to improve
the characteristics of diesel fuel. A good diesel fuel is characterized by low sulfur and aromatic content,
good ignition quality, the right cold weather properties, low content of pollutants, and also the right
density, viscosity, and boiling point.
The main purposes of crude oil blending are to optimize commercial value, upgrade or reduce oil
consumption to meet specifications, and facilitate oil movement. The distillate products of crude oil vary.
Two multicomponent crude oils are generally used in blends (Enekwe et al., 2012). The crude oil blending
means is usually a process of mixing two or more raw materials in order to have crude of intermediary
physical properties (Adebayo et al., 2011). More various crude oil can be processed at the same time. The
 PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 411

original design of refinery limits the selection of crude oil. Product demand and processing technology
also affect the selection of crude oil. There are all crude oils have their own unique density/temperature
relationship which will change the definition from adaptation and feed as a blend stocks vary. Traditional
blender temperature compensation techniques rely on standard calibration curves based on crude oils
that are completely different to the blend being processed.
Simulation software, such as linear programming modeling, is often used to estimate the rate com-
ponents that provide a low cost mix. In general, the basics of this software are a database containing
historical analytical analyzes and other analytical data that have been blended with different blends and
a variety of components. The blending processes are dynamic processes, associated with fluctuations in
feed properties. Integrated blending processes are applicable to crude oil blending, gasoline blending,
diesel fuel blending, and fuel oil and bunker oil blending.
Crude oil refineries are not uniform in both design and optimization. Cost of crude oil may be more
than 90% of total processing cost in a refinery. Crude oil is not a homogenous material and mixture of
many different hydrocarbon compounds, elemental matter, and pollutants (Al-Sasi and Demirbas, 2016;
Demirbas, 2016a, 2016b, 2016c; Rehan et al., 2016).
The aim of blending of crude oils and refinery products is to increase the refined margins without
affecting the required physical properties of the blends. The optimization of in crude oil blends and
maximization of low-cost refinery intermediates in final blends are the basic processes for achieving this
goal of using cheap crude oils.
The highest degree of blending optimization requires continuous updating of the simulation model
by adapting to real-time analytical trends.
Optimized functions of effective crude blending simulation software includes (a) measuring physical
properties of component streams to be blended, (b) measuring the blend properties, (c) determination
and control of the ratio of blend components to achieve a well-defined blend specification, (d) prices of
feedstock and final blends, (e) cost of various blend compositions, (f) internal and external volumes of
final blends required by the consumers, (g) ratio limits, (h) check component availability, and (i) alarm
and control systems (Popoola et al., 2012).

4. Conclusion
The composition of crude oil depends on its origin or geographical location. Crude oils can be differen-
tiated into various individual fractions at different boiling ranges in the refinery. The contents of crude
oil can be separated into valuable compounds with a series of refinery unit processes.
The aims of optimization models of crude oil refinery for both limited and unlimited feedstock and
market value of known products prices. The optimization of crude oil refinery in the context of feedstock
and market condition can be achieved using the mathematical models.
The refinery has undertaken an increasing importance to permit optimum operation of the raw mix-
ture refineries, with the margins gradually shrinking with refinery operations, along with cost increases
in the refiner base raw feedstocks.

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