Petroleum refining

“ EXCLUSION.— The term “planned refinery outage” does not include any necessary and unplanned removal of a refinery, or any unit of a refinery, from service as a result of a component failure, safety hazard, emergency, or action reasonably anticipated to be necessary to prevent such events. (3) REFINED PETROLEUM PRODUCT.— The term “refined petroleum product” means any gasoline, diesel fuel, fuel oil, lubricating oil, liquid petroleum gas, or other petroleum distillate that is produced through the refining or processing of crude oil or an oil derived from tar sands, shale, or coal. ”

“ Petroleum coke, because of its purity, is in demand for use in certain metallurgical processes and for the manufacture of battery carbons and arc-light pencils. Fuel oils obtained as by-products of petroleum refining satisfy the fuel needs of many industrial plants, railroads and ocean steamers. Road oils, as the name implies, are employed for minimizing dust on streets and highways; and artificial asphalt, a product of certain types of petroleum, has in many localities superseded the use of other forms of asphalt for paving purposes. ”

“ Kerosene oil, Refined petroleum, Paraffin oil. Most of the burning oils now in the market are derived from American petroleum. That obtained from natural petroleum is now manufactured solely in America. The native petroleums vary greatly in properties, and numerous methods of refining are employed by the manufacturers. The Canadian petroleum contains sulphuretted hydrogen, which imparts to it a very disagreeable smell, and is difficult of removal. Some make use of both acids and alkalies, others employ alkalies alone, and steam is applied at various degrees of heat. ”

“ The vast production and low price of crude oil had thrown the manufacture of petroleum into the hands of corporations controlling immense capital, and establishments in which the oil is handled in quantities proportionate to the enormous demand. Meantime a method of refining petroleum bad been generally introduced, by which a large proportion of the total burning-oil produced consisted of mixed or cracked oils. Such a proportion of high-test oils as were demanded by the market was made, but the great bulk of the distillate had been converted into a cracked or mixed oil. ”

“ The seam of coal wherein the oil was discovered was one of the deeper seams, and by no means one of the best in the district. At that time, the flow produced more than 5 tons of crude oil per week, and inasmuch as England then was not inundated with American petroleums, great possibilities were seen in the discovery. But almost before the refining of the crude had settled down to be a commercial undertaking, the plans of operation were upset, for a serious explosion occurred at the colliery, which rendered necessary the closing of the pit. ”

“ From 1913 to 1917, the annual production of petroleum in Mexico increased from 21,000,000 barrels to 56,000,000 barrels, and the potentialities of future production in that country have been demonstrated to be almost beyond comprehension. The output, originally considered valuable only as a source of fuel oil, is now yielding, by modern refining methods, increasingly important percentages of illuminating oils and gasoline. The only obstacles to enormously increased production are unsettled political conditions and inadequate facilities for marine transportation. ”

“ Must he be deprived of it because other manufacturers cannot produce their wares as cheaply? Refining petroleum is no exception to the ordinary rule and a transformation in its methods and results was as inevitable as human progress and the changes of the seasons. ”

“ Owing to the enormous cost of handling coal, wood, and other crude fuel, and of removing the ash resulting from such fuel, it has been demonstrated in practice by the use of crude oil that the expense connected with the burning of brick can be reduced fully 60 per cent. This large saving is made by converting crude petroleum into gas and utilizing this fuel, either directly in the arches of the kiln or by converting the crude oil into gas in a gas producer, and drawing this fuel gas from the producer and burning the same as required in kilns of suitable construction. ”

“ A short stop at Miller Farm, a whiff of refinery-smells and in five minutes Shaffer is reached. The board-station is on the right hand, landings on the left form a semi-circle hundreds of feet in length, freight-cars jam the double track and warehouses dot the bank. The flat-about thirty rods wide-contains the mushroom-town, bristling with the undiluted essence of petroleum-activity. Three-hundred teamsters are unloading barrels of oil from wagons dragged by patient, abused horses and mules through miles of greasy, clayey mud. Everything reeks with oil. ”

“ The very best of our engineering talent have been so successfully concerned with this problem that fuel oil is now used in nearly every steam plant on land and sea, for both stationary and locomotive use. Petroleum-enriched water gas is much superior in cost and quality to the illuminant it is displacing, and now requires considerable oil. Smelting with oil will soon be an accomplished fact in spite of many difficulties, and oil engines such as the Diesel also utilize the crude. ”

“ Of a truth, we to-day live in an age of Oil, for the products of petroleum are inseparable from our daily life. Refined petroleum breathes the breath of power to the internal combustion engine which claims a realm of its own on land and sea, in the air, and under ocean waters; it also gives artificial light to countless millions in all corners of the world under a variety of circumstances and dissimilar conditions, while the wheels of industry unceasingly revolve consequent upon oil lubrication. ”

“ This product, called a distillate, was treated with chemicals, washed with water, and run off into the tin-lined tank, where it was allowed to settle. Anybody who could get the apparatus could "make oil," and many men did—badly, of course, to begin with, and with an alarming proportion of waste and explosions and fires, but with experience they learned, and some of the great refineries of the country grew out of these rude beginnings.
Luckily not all the men who undertook the manufacturing of petroleum in these first days were inexperienced. ”

“ Oils are also artificially produced from the so-called waste-products of the gas-works, but in some parts of the world the process of their manufacture has gone on naturally, and a yearly increasing quantity is being utilised. In England oil has been pumped up from the carboniferous strata of Coalbrook Dale, whilst in Sussex it has been found in smaller quantities, where, in all probability, it has had its origin in the lignitic beds of the Wealden strata. Immense quantities are used for fuel by the Russian steamers on the Caspian Sea, the Baku petroleum wells being a most valuable possession. ”

“ It is true hundreds of inferior refineries have been dismantled, not because they were frozen out by a crushing monopoly, but because they lacked requisite facilities. The refineries in vogue when the Standard was organized could not stay in business a week, if resurrected and revived. A team of pack-mules might as well try to compete with the New York Central Railroad as these early refineries to meet the requirements of the petroleum-trade at its present stage of perfection. ”

“ In 1916, many plants shifted from coal to fuel oil, because of the inability of the railroads to deliver coal. We have developed an oil-burning navy and are rapidly developing an oil-burning merchant marine. Ships and factory furnaces are competing with the internal-combustion engines of millions of automobiles and the hungry lamps of the countryside for the diminishing reserves of petroleum. Already the supply of crude petroleum is hard pressed by the demand for fuel oil. Already approximately one-half of the original petroleum supply of the United States is gone. ”

“ Sixty miles of pipes connect these piers and refineries with the wells. The most notable feature of all these steamers is, that they are worked entirely with oil-fuel. Newcastle coal will soon cease to find a market on the Black Sea or the Mediterranean—it may even be driven out of the Red Sea, as the use of petroleum refuse in engines becomes better understood. Already it is the only fuel in use on the Caspian, either in the mercantile marine, in the Russian gunboat flotilla, or on the railways. ”

“ Many years ago, fuel oil made its serious début, but at that time the supply of the product was very uncertain, and, consequently, progress in passing from the old to the new form of power-raising was slow. To-day, however, matters have materially changed. The crude oil output has been immeasurably increased, and many fields whose production of crude oil is essentially suited for fuel purposes have been opened up. ”

“ In view of the difficulty which has been experienced by many drivers in sufficiently lubricating the pistons without causing the car to emit clouds of smoke, it may well be asked, "Why cannot an unburnable oil be used and thereby eliminate this trouble?" This is out of the question, for the mineral oils now used are obtained from petroleum and are cousins of kerosene, gasoline, benzine, and many of the other highly-inflammable liquids that need but the touch of a match to burn almost with the rapidity of an explosion. ”

“ The country might even do worse than to nationalize benzol, taking over the whole of the output as a corollary to the compulsory distillation of all bituminous coal. As the alternative it might undertake to purchase what the trade could not sell, for naval purposes, inasmuch as in the Senior Service the consumption of petroleum oils has reached an impressive figure from the increasing use of oil fuel, practically the whole of which at present has to be imported. ”

“ This new process adds to the hope, that in spite of the wonderful growth in the use of gasoline, there may not be any shortage in the future. It indicates an increased production of gasoline from the present production of petroleum—an output of 50,000,000 barrels instead of 2.5,000,000, as under the present methods. It will render free for use to all, the results of that efficient and intelligent research which has heretofore been only at the command of the wealthy. ”

“ And even if the supply of petroleum were far less limited than the experts estimate it to be, even if there were enough of it to last for many decades to come, the fact that it is practically the one lubricant of the industrial world makes it a social crime to burn it as a substitute for coal. Without it, every railroad wheel would run hot and stop; the great turbines in our ships and modern power plants move on bearings that are smothered in petroleum oil. ”

“ The ease with which oil fuel is handled is remarkable, for vessels of the largest size—that is, those using oil instead of coal for power purposes—could replenish their stores within a few hours at any oil port. In the transport of petroleum by the modern tankers, the taking on board of a full cargo is accomplished in about a single day, thanks to the most improved means of pumping oil from the shore tanks through flexible pipes. ”

“ And in no sphere of commercial and industrial activity has greater progress been made during the past few decades than in regard to the multiplication in the uses of the products of petroleum. The avenues for advantageous consumption are constantly increasing, and this to such an extent that the production of crude petroleum—enormous though this is—has been outstripped by the demands for the refined product. ”

“ It has added untold millions to the wealth of the country and conferred incalculable benefits upon humanity. To-day refined petroleum lights more dwellings in America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia than all other agencies combined. ”

“ Petroleum as a Fuel and Gas-Producer.—The use of gasolene in gas-machines is well known, and sometimes naphtha has been used to enrich coal-gas, by decomposing its vapor at a cherry-red heat, so as to produce a gas rich in heavy hydrocarbons, which is mixed with the coal-gas. Crude petroleum has also been conducted continuously into red-hot cast-iron retorts, whereby it is decomposed and rich gas formed. ”

“ Given the one allowance that oil fuel can be procured at anything approaching a reasonable figure—and there is no reason why, in normal times, this reasonable price should not be prevalent all over the world—then petroleum offers many advantages over its older competitor, coal. The ease with which large quantities can be handled, the simple method of operating anything which is fired by petroleum as fuel, and the fact that its heat-giving units are far higher than those of coal, will ever be the chief factors governing its popularity. ”

“ As we have stated, products analogous to those derived from cannel coal are obtained by the destructive distillation of bituminous shales and schists, and lignites or brown coals. On the Continent the production of shale oils has of late years declined considerably, owing to their unsuccessful competition, in point of price, with the American petroleum oils. The oil obtained from bituminous shale or from coal is generally of higher specific gravity than that procured from petroleum; it is deeper in colour, and not so pleasant in smell. ”

“ This astatki, or heavy petroleum refuse, is an excellent liquid fuel, and is at least twice as good as ordinary coal for steam-raising purposes. The light lubricating oils, intermediate oils, and kerosene or ordinary lamp oils are all being used at the present time instead of coal-gas in the cylinder of the internal-combustion engine. In some cases the heavier oils are converted into an oil-gas, which, when cooled, is admirably adapted to drive gas-engines. ”