Petroleum Refining: Technology and Economics

My husband is in the refining consultant business and to him this book is one of the best summary of all important technology and economics matters related to petroleum refining.

This is the second edition of a review book on petroleum refining that technology and economics. The table of contents is: Preface 1. Introduction 2. Refinery Products 3. Refinery Feedstocks 4. Crude Distillation 5. Coking and Thermal Processes 6. Catalytic Reforming and Isomerization 7. Catalytic Cracking 8. Hydrotreating 9. Catalytic Hydrocracking and Hydroprocessing 10. Alkylation and Polymerization 11. Product Blending 12. Supporting Processes 13. Lubricating Oils 14. Petrochemical Feedstocks 15. Cost Estimation 16. Economic Evaluation Appendicies Definition of Refining Terms Physical Properties Catalyst Costs U.S. Bureau of Mines Routine Analyses of Selected Crude Oils Economic Evaluation Example Problem Photographs Yield and Cost Data Figures Author Index Subject Index. The book is 10.25 inches by 7.5 inches by 1.0 inches. 414 pages.

Oddly, only one reference book proved adequate, in my opinion, in explaining refinery science: "William Leffler's "Petroleum Refining." The others, including "Petroleum Refining, Technology and Economics," by James Gary, Glenn Handwerk, and Mark Kaiser, "Refining Processes Handbook," by Surinder Parkash, and even the venerable "Petroleum Processing Handbook," by Bland and Davidson. Leffler wins out because his process descriptions are fairly detailed compared to the others. Where this text, by Gary, Handwerk, and Kaiser fails is its lack of detailed process design information. For example, I was somewhat disappointed in the section on hydrotreating. This process involves removal of nitrogen and sulfur and alkylation of alkenes, phenols and benzenes from a feed of gas oils recovered from a pipestill. Tables provided showed the expected performance for the catalyst beds; some discussion was presented of the differences between fixed bed reactors and moving bed reactors. Only scant information was provided on reactor design. Even though it might have risked going into detail about a particular catalyst at the expense of others there was no exploration beyond mere statements of information such as hydrogen consumption and space velocity requirements. A good example of the failure to provide detail design information is the authors' reluctance to provide hydrogen consumption information in section 9.5. Instead, the reader is referred to a monograph written by W.L. Nelson in 1971 for the Oil and Gas Journal. Why not present the data? This situation highlights the primary problem with this text and the others: a lack of process design information. This book would have to grow by another hundred pages to meet his ambitions goal of providing a good reference for petroleum refining. Only Leffler meets this goal ¯ and, he does it without the science and engineering required in the other references. Unless you want incomplete details on the subject of petroleum refining, buy Leffler, not this text. However, of the others, this is a good reference book for the subject. Be prepared to fill in the copious quantities of gaps in information. Maybe, you should buy Leffler and this text. If this review was helpful, please add your vote. Thanks

Oddly, only one reference book proved adequate, in my opinion, in explaining refinery science: "William Leffler's "Petroleum Refining." The others, including "Petroleum Refining, Technology and Economics," by James Gary, Glenn Handwerk, and Mark Kaiser, "Refining Processes Handbook," by Surinder Parkash, and even the venerable "Petroleum Processing Handbook," by Bland and Davidson. Leffler wins out because his process descriptions are fairly detailed compared to the others while balancing a need to be understood by the non-technically educated. Where this text, by Gary, Handwerk, and Kaiser fails is its lack of detailed process design information. For example, I was somewhat disappointed in the section on hydrotreating. This process involves removal of nitrogen and sulfur and alkylation of alkenes, phenols and benzenes from a feed of gas oils recovered from a pipestill. Tables provided showed the expected performance for the catalyst beds; some discussion was presented of the differences between fixed bed reactors and moving bed reactors. Only scant information was provided on reactor design. Even though it might have risked going into detail about a particular catalyst at the expense of others there was no exploration beyond mere statements of information such as hydrogen consumption and space velocity requirements. A good example of the failure to provide detail design information is the authors' reluctance to provide hydrogen consumption information in section 9.5. Instead, the reader is referred to a monograph written by W.L. Nelson in 1971 for the Oil and Gas Journal. Why not present the data? This situation highlights the primary problem with this text and the others: a lack of process design information. This book would have to grow by another hundred pages to meet his ambitions goal of providing a good reference for petroleum refining. Only Leffler meets this goal ¯ and, he does it without the science and engineering required in the other references. Unless you want incomplete details on the subject of petroleum refining, buy Leffler, not this text. However, of the others, this is a good reference book for the subject. Be prepared to fill in the copious quantities of gaps in information. Maybe, you should buy Leffler and this text. If this review was helpful, please add your vote. Thanks

I am an investment analyst and used this book to get up to speed on an unfamiliar industry. I found it to be clear, well organized, and containing all the info I needed to understand the dynamics driving the business and the lingo. There was more engineering and scientific info than I needed for my purposes, but it was useful to thumb through those chapters to get a high level understanding of the issues. Highly recommended for people new to the industry.