Did you know? Crude oil will be fed into a distillation process and Vacuum fractions are used as cracker feedstock.

Did you know….?? Refinery: The distillation process

In the refining process the first step is crude oil, or atmospheric, distillation, separating the crude oil in several fractions based on their difference in boiling point. The crude oil runs through a furnace and heated to around 385 °C where the crude oil will partly evaporate (i.e. the ‘lighter’ hydrocarbon components) and then pumped into a distillation tower, or column. 

The remaining liquid (‘heavy’) part of the crude oil, often called residue, will be pumped to a high vacuum distillation of vacuum flash distillation. Under very low pressure conditions the residue part of the crude oil will be further separated into a vacuum gas oil, or waxy distillate fraction, and the remaining residue called vacuum residue (or: asphalt). 

Vacuum distilled fractions will typically be fed into a secondary process, or cracking, to produce more gasoline and gas oil components.