Petroleum Processing and Research

Hydrotreating and Hydrocracking

Hydrotreating is a refinery process for reducing sulphur, nitrogen and aromatics while enhancing cetane number, density and smoke point. Hydrocracking is a catalytic chemical process used in petroleum refineries for converting the high-boiling constituent hydrocarbons in petroleum crude oils to more valuable lower-boiling products such as gasoline, kerosene, jet fuel and diesel oil. In modern petroleum refineries Hydrotreaters are the most commonly processed unit. The world’s hydrotreating capacity is nearly half as large as the world’s crude distillation capacity. There are more than 1300 hydrotreating units in more than 700 refineries around the globe. Atypical Western petroleum refinery uses at least three hydrotreaters– one for naphtha, one or two for light gas oil, and one or two for heavy gasoil and/or vacuum gas oil

Hydrotreating is more common than hydrocracking, but the number of partial-conversion in hydrocrackers is increasing as refiners build new units to meet clean fuel regulations.

Both hydrotreating and hydrocracking uses high-pressure hydrogen to catalytically remove contaminants from petroleum fractions. Both achieve at least some conversion, and they use the same kinds of hardware.