Show science takes over when oil arrives at Ar in spite of 0 the scientific fic device devices that have been developed to make their jobs easier develoz the geologist ogist and the driller must still fiah fight a per boal zonal and primitive batt battle w with i b the secret rive earth ta had find crude oil and brine bring it to the surface but when tankers or pipelines deliver their black cargo to the refinery the story of oil moves into a world of the most advanced science and technology A refinery w which to a layman may res resemble e able an artists c conception of a city on mars is a highly complex machine for tearing apart the heavy molecules of oil and rebuilding them to a pattern bet ter suited to our needs of little use t to 0 anyone when it enters the first distillation unit the crude oil I 1 splits pa I 1 ts into hundreds of products ranging from familiar gasoline to the mysterious ethy lenes prepy lenes and buty lenen lenes that form the raw materials for the expanding petrochemical industry the steps in the refining process are fundamentally simple when crude is heated in a distillation til lation unit most of the oil vapor izes this vapor is fed in near the bottom of a tall fractionating tower As the vapor rises rim passing up through boles holes in a series of trays it cools upon coming in contact with liquid hydrocarbons pumped onto the top trays the molecules with the highest boiling point return to the liquid state first the lower the boiling point the higher the vapor molecules rise before they liquefy As the liquids condense on the trays they are drawn off these cuts as they are called are then used as the charge for further processes A typical series of cuts from uch such a distillation process may be reading from bottom to top heavy reduced crude heavy gas on il furnace or diesel oil kerosene or heavy naphtha and gasoline or r light n naphtha a to increase the yield of gas iline the lighter and heavier cuts can be changed in one or two basic directions I 1 the h e molecules I 1 in n the heavy cuts can be combined or rebuilt heat will crack track the beava ayd in tee the oil la in the suri dimples ples cracking units the charge is brought to a high temperature the beavie m molecules j break dowid and the components are separated in a fractionating tiona ting tower similar to the one used in the distillation unit the process works but it dor does not give the operator sufficient control over the proportions of heavy and light products that emerge to improve their control research chemist chemists and engineer engineers developed a new method of cracking cal called catalytic cracking in one buch such process called fluid cracking the oil is heated and mixed with a finely divided catalyst resembling white flour nour not even scientists understand the bow or why but the analyst ata lyst a catalyst is any sl istance which aids aid or controls a chemical reaction without itself bein being changed has the effect of breaking the heavy oil molecules apart more nearly ai the engineers want them broken then the components are se parted out in the inevitable fractionating tower the light gases produced in catalytic tracking cracking of heavy oils can be converted into liquid fuels by polymerization or in a poly unit tor for example buty lenes or enes from which impurities puri ties have been removed are guri heated to degrees and charged into a reactor witt a catalyst this particular catalyst looks like dog food but it wor s like magic turning out a respectable flow of high octane gasoline lubricating oil is made by refining in the tha most literal sense of the word an oil on of the right chemical properties and viscosity is taken off at the fractionating tower and pul pu through a long and often complicated series of treatments to remove unwanted chemicals waxes and tars when it is sufficiently pure chemicals may be added which inhibit oxidation and reaction with metal surfaces enable the oil off to stand up better under heat beat and pressure or do a better job of lubrication at low temperatures Gre greases aes are made by mixing mi in oil with soaps of various kinds I 1 Lime m base greases made from lime tat fat water and oil were the first greases made they are good for general use but except for certain specialty greases cannot stand up under high temper temperature aWre soda base greases made of sodium hydroxide fat and oil will stand higher temperatures than the lime urne base but they absorb water which in many cases is not desirable aluminum base greases made of aluminum and aid oil are an water resistant resl resh stant tant but will not riot stand up under high temperature i lithium base grease greases an are usually made of lithium hydroxide acid and oil they are water resistant si and will stand high temperature temperatures era ture tures up to degree sax as well a ai low temperature temperatures down to minus degrees if a synthetic oil I 1 is used to replace mineral oil barium or strontium can be substituted stil tor for lithium with ome some mail small improvement in high temperature resistance lithium barlum and strontium greases are multipurpose multi purpose greases but their fr bases price comes high there are also mixed soap base greases and non soap base greases such as those made with carbon black silica gel or bentone the latter are used mostly for industrial purposes greases too have their additives to improve performance lead sulphur chlorine and phosphorous oui compounds increase the resistance 0 of f grease 9 ease to pressure inorganic fillers such as graphite soapstone talc and metal powders also aids aid its resistance to pressure oxidation inhibitors such as certain of the amines abines and phenols phenois prevent deterioration and may increase the effective life of grease from wo to per cent metal de activators slow down the reaction of the bearing metal with the grease and rust and corrosion in hibi tors keep water from reaching the bearing surface few industries Indu are as research minded as the oil industry Ind astry not only are laboratories labor tories spending millions of dollars per year striving to make better fuels and lubricants ri they are doing much of their basic research in the field of petrochemicals petro chemicals as well thanks to this research oil has become one of our most important raw materials as well as our most versatile source of power the ne williston chamber of commerce states that oil on has paid to the bank of north dakota a total of in addition it has given to university and state school lands a total of these sums came from lease rentals tease lease bonus and royalties |