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| Petroleum Processing Machinery
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Petroleum, also called crude oil, is a thick, flammable, yellow-to-black colored liquid. Petroleum was first found oozing out of rocks on earth's surface. Hence, its name comes from the latin words petra, meaning rock, and oleum, meaning oil. Currently, petroleum is among our most important natural resources. We use gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel fuel to run cars, trucks, aircraft, ships, and other vehicles. Home heat sources include oil, natural gas, and electricity, which in many areas are generated by burning natural gas. Petroleum and petroleum-based chemicals are important in manufacturing plastic, wax, fertilizers, lubricants, and many other goods. Thus petroleum processing is extremely important to optimize the use of petroleum.One of the most undesirable impurities found within a gas stream is water vapor. Water vapor itself is not a problem, however, the liquid or solid phases which precipitates from the gas during compression or cooling is. In its liquid phase, water accelerates corrosion inside the system and acts as an anti-catalyst for later catalytic processes; in its solid state, ice, water can plug valves, things, and even gas lines. Therefore, in order to prevent major difficulties, all fuel gas transported in pipelines must be at least partially dehydrated. Any time a molecule bonds to the outside of a compound, the process is termed adsorption. This is different from absorption in that during absorption, the molecule penetrates the compound. Materials are concentrated on the surface of a solid as a result of forces existing at this surface, whether the forces are pressure, weight, or other intermolecular forces. The greater the surface area of the adsorption material or desiccant, the greater amount of particles or impurities adsorbed. Therefore, most solid desiccant adsorbers use desiccants that are irregular granules or preformed spheres or tablets in order to increase the surface are of the desiccant. Cryogenics is a branch of thermodynamics dealing with the effects and creation of very low temperatures. The temperatures that are associated with cryogenics are generally below 150 f. However, in the petroleum industry, cryogenic temperatures are considered to be below 50 f. The reason for this is that -50 f is approximately the minimum temperature that can be reached with a propane refrigeration system. The key to cryogenic gas processing is using the proper combination of pressure with low temperature. When the proper combination is achieved, a very complete product recovery can be made. The rest of the process applied to the inlet gas is the removal of water. This is done by cooling the gas through a two branch process. The inlet gas is divided such that approximately half flows through a gas exchanger where cooling is accomplished by using cold residue gas.
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