The lectures give an up-to date and essential knowledge on compositions, properties and applications of crude oils and hydrocarbon fractions obtained through refining processes. Chemical, technological and economical aspects of the industrial processes involved in the oil refining and hydrocarbon fraction conversion are considered together with computing methods suitable to evaluate the influence of the process variables in the petroleum refining by distillation.

Aim of the course is to provide a basic knowledge about the chemical and technological evaluation of crude oils and its fractions in order to be used as raw materials for industrial processes either for fuels or chemicals production.
The student has to learn about the analytical, scientific and technological methods useful for the oil characterization and must acquire a clear picture of the refinery processes involved in the transformation of petroleum into commercial hydrocarbon mixtures. At the end of the course, it is expected that the student is able to plan a full characterization of a crude oil, either for economical or technological purposes, and has the capacity to evaluate the suitability of a hydrocarbons mixture to be used as a raw material for fuels production or for chemical transformations through petrochemical processes.

Student should have an average background on basic concepts of physics, economics, mathematics and chemistry and skilled in the use of widespread word and data processing software.

Hydrocarbons (10 hrs). Chemical structures. Structures, conformations, configurations and isomers. IUPAC nomenclature and trivial names. Aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons classification and properties. Functional groups and organic molecules: carboxylic acids, esters, ethers, thiols, aldehydes, ketons, amines, amides, alkyloyl chlorides, alkyl chlorides. Fuels and chemicals from hydrocarbons. Theoretical evaluation of the combustion heat. Environmental dispersions and degradation of heavy hydrocarbons. Air pollution by light hydrocarbons. Safety criteria in hydrocarbon handling. Flash point and flammability limits.
Crude oil and natural gas (8 hrs). Petroleum composition and chemical classification. C/H ratio. Sulfur, nitrogen and oxygen compounds in petroleum. Naphtenic acids recovery. Inorganic components. Natural gas composition, classification and sulphur content. Natural gasoline, LPG. Hints about coal and petroleum reservoirs origins. Hydrogen and sulphur industrial production from petroleum.
Oil distillates (10 hrs). ASTM, TBP and EFV distillation curves. Distillate yields. Mean boiling points. Key fractions. Sulphur content by combustion. Density and boiling point correlation with chemical composition. Correlation index. Property diagrams. Diagrams of distillate iso-properties. Residuum classification. Properties and composition of commercial gasoline, kerosene, jet fuel, diesel, lubricants, waxes and lubricants. Standard methods of characterisation.
Petroleum refining (10 hrs). Principles of distillation processes. Vapour-liquid equilibrium diagrams. Ideal and real behaviour of liquid mixtures. Separation of azeotropic mixtures. Oil distillation processes at atmospheric pressure and under vacuum. Overlapping of distillation curves. Sulfur removal from gaseous and liquid fractions. Hydrocarbon conversion by catalytic cracking, alkylation, oligomerisation, isomerisation, catalytic reforming. Blending and additives for commercial fractions. Olefins from thermal cracking. Aromatics by liquid-liquid extraction.
Simulation of crude oil distillation (12 hrs) Introduction to a professional process simulation software (Aspen Plus). Set up of the distillation column. Definition of the pseudocomponent composition from the oil distillation curve. Optimization of an atmospheric crude distillation unit.
Industrial chemical processes (10 hrs). Schemes of industrial chemical processes. Separation units. Reactors. Chemical equilibrium and kinetics. Catalysts. Influence of temperature and pressure on conversion and yield. Examples of industrial processes for commodities production. Petrochemical industry: raw, base, intermediate and end user products.

Lectures are integrated with numerical exercises: students are asked to solve simple problems connected with the topics of the lesson. A cycle of computing practice is developed in a computing laboratory (LAIB) to design distillation equipments through a process simulator (Aspen Plus). Aim of the practice is to become friendly with computing software suitable to design equipments in the field of petroleum processing. The distillation of a two component liquid mixture and a crude oil at atmospheric pressure are simulated with the goal to optimize the process variables and to reach designed properties of the products. Evaluation of the simulation ability will be performed by analysis of a written report on the obtained results.

Before each lecture, related texts and exercises will be available on the course site of the web. Besides the subject explained in the lesson, will be stored on the site also chapters of technical books useful for a best comprehension and deepening of the lesson topics. Materials requiring periodic updating will be available before the end of the course.

It is based on a written exam about theoretical issues, description of industrial processes and simple calculations. The exam, usually carried in a LAIB, will be followed by an oral discussion on the exam report and on the computing distillation practice.