What Are The Products of Oil Refineries?
An oil refinery’s main purpose is to process crude oil in order to create more useful products. Some of the major products of oil refineries include gasoline, kerosene, liquid petroleum gas, diesel fuel, fuel oils, and naphtha. The uses of these products range from transportation to generating mechanisms that we use everyday. When the crude oil is broken down and undergoes the entire refining process, the products listed above each relate to a particular use that is essential to our society. Starting with perhaps the most basic product after the refining process is complete, gas, can be used for propane and butane. These two products are used for cooking and they also allow many household products to operate such as dryers and stoves in North America. Next, petrochemistry manufactures many products and raw material that we use such as plastic and rubber. Petrochemistry is the latest industry that is apart of the refining process as it became popular in the 1940’s during WWII in order to process new synthetic materials that were efficient and less expensive than previous materials. Petrol, also known as gasoline, is the product that we use across the globe to operate our vehicles. The United States is among the top leaders for petrol usage in the world as it accounts for 44% of petrol consumption. The combustible hydrocarbon liquid, kerosene, is primarily used as jet fuel, but can also be used as heating fuel. It is obtained from petroleum distillation at very high temperatures. On average, kerosene costs about $39.00 per one million BTU’s for heating in the United States. Diesel fuel is another product that derives from the refining process. It is produced from petroleum and used by large trucks and tanks, but some cars operate off of diesel fuel as well. Usually the fuel economy for diesel powered cars is better than petroleum powered cars because with diesel, there is a higher energy per-liter content. Finally, the densest products of oil refineries are heavy fuel oil, or bitumen. Bitumen is composed of polyclyctic aromatic hydrocarbons and is used mainly for paving roads. Canada accounts for the majority of the world’s supply of bitumen.