What Is Distillation? Its Types and Crude Oil Distillation

To produce petroleum products, an oil refinery must do a series of processes, one of which is distillation. Distillation is a process of separating and distilling used in various industries, such as food, petrochemical, and many more.

This article discusses the process of distillation, especially for petroleum, its function, and its types. Thus, read the complete information below!

What Is Distillation?

Distillation is a process of heating and condensing a component in a liquid. This process is a separation method used to increase the concentration of a certain component in a mixture or to get an almost pure component.

To obtain the desired result, distillation utilizes the distinct boiling points of each component in the mixture and forces one of them to vaporize.

However, is distillation a chemical reaction? The answer is no, distillation is a physical separation process and not a chemical reaction. This process is carried out in a specific laboratory or unit and uses quite a lot of mixtures. That's why it is always running and requires constant composition.

The History of Distillation

Distillation has a long history of a thousand years, starting from ancient civilization to eventually becoming one of the reliable separation methods these days. Thanks to its long history, distillation has evolved. Here is the history of distillation that you can learn about:

1. The Beginning of Distillation

The initial history of distillation started during the Egyptian, Chinese, and Mesopotamian civilizations. Around 2,000 BC, those civilizations began to implement distillation to make medicines.

Then, the Babylonian civilization used this process to produce aromatic oils and perfumes, while the Egyptians used it to extract oil from plants.

2. The Influence of Muslim Alchemists

From the 8th to the 14th century, during the Islamic Golden Age, distillation underwent several evolutions. An Arab scientist named Jabir ibn Hayyan developed the technology of elixir, or concentrated essence, from the distillation process.

3. Renaissance

The history of distillation continued into Europe in the Middle Ages when monks used distillation to make medicines. Later, the process continued to spread in Europe and was developed for commercial use.

4. Distillation Popularity in the 15th–16th Centuries

Distillation grew in popularity in Europe and was almost utilized in every inch of this continent. After being developed for making medicines, distillation was used to make distilled spirits, like brandy and whiskey. Those spirits were spread across Europe, such as to Spain and France, and arrived in America via colonialism.

5. Distillation and Industrial Revolution

During the 18th–19th centuries, the Industrial Revolution emerged and influenced the development of distillation. During this time, many technologies were innovated for more efficient and quality distillation results.

6. Distillation and the Modern Era

Recently, small-scale distillation has started to come back with the growing demand for high-quality and unique spirits. Distillation at this scale involves experiments with flavors and ingredients, and so the technology is getting updated.

Types of Distillations

There are several types of distillations you must know, as follows:

1. Simple Distillation

Simple distillation is carried out by heating the mixture to the boiling point and directly condensing the vapor. This method is only effective for mixtures that have very different boiling points (at least 25 degrees Celsius).

2. Steam Distillation

Steam distillation is used to separate heat-sensitive components. The process introduces steam into the mixture to partially vaporize the components. As a result, the transfer rate can be higher without high temperatures. This distillation is often used to make essential oils.

3. Vacuum Distillation

Vacuum distillation is suitable for separating mixtures of liquids having very high boiling points. Because the boiling point is high, high temperatures cannot handle the distillation process, so it uses lower pressure. When the pressure is low, the components will boil at a lower temperature. Then, vapor is formed, condensed, and collected.

4. Fractional Distillation

Fractional distillation is applied to mixtures that have the same boiling point. The process involves evaporation and condensation that occur in a fractionation column.

The Process of Crude Oil Distillation

To process crude oil into petrochemical and other industrial products, you can do fractional distillation. In the context of crude oil, fractional distillation, performed in oil refineries, separates crude oil (a mixture of hydrocarbons) into a variety of different products based on molecular weight.

Fractional distillation is the first step of refining crude oil. The separated, different components are called fractions. Here are the steps of fractional distillation for crude oil:

The mixture is heated at high temperatures and pressures.
The mixture produces vapors.
The vapors enter fractional distillation columns filled with trays. The trays contain many holes that allow vapors to pass.
The trays increase the contact time between the liquid and vapor, allowing the liquid to form at various heights of the column. For your information, the columns have different temperatures, with the hottest at the bottom and the coolest at the top.
Vapor rises and cools along with the course.
The substance in the vapor will reach a height where the column temperature is equal to its boiling point. Consequently, the substance will condense and turn into a liquid.
The trays on the fractionation column will collect the liquid and flow it into the condenser.
In the condenser, the liquid will cool down, flow into the tank, and continue to the next stage of processing.

The result of fractional distillation is called crude oil fractions, which are categorized into three kinds according to the properties: light, medium, and heavy fractions.

Light fractions include naphtha, gasoline, jet fuels, paraffin, and kerosene. Next, medium fractions include diesel and gas oil. Moreover, heavy fractions include heavy gas oil.

In addition to those three fractions, there are two components resulting from the distillation: volatile gases like propane and butane, as well as very dense tar that cannot evaporate to the top of the distillation tower, like bitumen.

That concludes the information about distillation. Distillation is the process of separating components for many purposes; one of them is refining crude oil. The petroleum passing the distillation will be processed further to be chemical and consumer products.

Regarding chemicals, Chandra Asri Group, as a prominent chemical solution company in Southeast Asia, provides high-quality chemicals from crude oil refining, such as olefin, butadiene, polyethylene, and so on.

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