Oil refinery
An industrial facility that separates crude oil into fractions and converts them into fuels, lubricants, and chemical feedstocks.
Fractional distillation: A separation process that sorts a liquid mixture by differences in boiling point. Atmospheric and vacuum distillation divide crude oil into streams with different boiling ranges.
Crude oil: A naturally occurring liquid mixture of hydrocarbons and other compounds found in underground reservoirs. It is the variable feedstock whose composition shapes refinery processing choices.
Gasoline: A volatile liquid fuel used mainly in spark-ignition internal-combustion engines. Gasoline is assembled from several refinery components, often including cracked and reformed streams.
Petroleum industry: The global system of exploring for, producing, transporting, refining, and selling petroleum. Refining is the transformation stage between crude production and product markets.
Fluid catalytic cracking: A process that breaks heavy hydrocarbons into lighter products using a circulating powdered catalyst. It turns heavy gas oil into gasoline-range molecules and other valuable products.
Hydrocarbon: A chemical compound composed only of carbon and hydrogen atoms. Most crude oil and its products are mixtures of hydrocarbons.
Diesel fuel: A liquid petroleum fuel used primarily in compression-ignition engines. Refineries produce diesel-range material and treat it to meet sulfur and performance standards.
Air pollution: The presence of substances in the atmosphere at levels that harm health or ecosystems. Combustion, flaring, and process releases make refinery emissions a local air-quality concern.
Hydrocracking: A catalytic process that breaks heavy hydrocarbons with hydrogen to produce lighter, saturated molecules. It upgrades heavy refinery streams into diesel, jet fuel, and other clean products.
Petroleum fraction: A group of petroleum compounds collected over a boiling-point range during distillation. Refinery streams are often classified and routed by their boiling ranges.