PRACTICAL PETROLEUM REFINING OPERATIONS: Process Fundamentals, Unit Operations, and Troubleshooting for Plant Engineers - Softcover

WHITMORE, GRAHAM R.

Softcover

ISBN 13: 9798161947500

Publisher: Independently published, 2026

Synopsis

To someone new to it, a refinery can look like an impenetrable network of towers, drums, furnaces, and reactors joined by an endless tangle of piping. This guide was written to make that complexity understandable, one process unit at a time, from the perspective of how a refinery is actually operated rather than how it looks on a wall-sized flow diagram.

Much of the available material sits at two extremes. Theory-heavy texts explain the chemistry but stop short of the control room, while site procedures say what to do without explaining why. New process engineers, operators moving into technical roles, and students preparing to enter the industry are left to bridge that gap themselves, often under pressure and without a clear map of how the units connect.
This book closes the distance between principle and practice, and treats the refinery as one integrated system. It builds the fundamental theory behind each unit, then connects that theory directly to the decisions an engineer makes on the job: what a control variable does, why a yield shifts when a temperature is raised, how to read the early signs of an upset, and where the real operating constraints lie.

What you will gain:

• Follow crude oil from characterisation through separation, conversion, treating, and blending, and see how each step adds value
• Reason about any major process unit using shared engineering principles, even one you have never seen before
• Interpret the control variables, yields, and quality limits that govern day-to-day operation
• Recognise the early symptoms of common upsets and think through their likely causes
• Carry units through realistic calculations with the dimensional discipline that separates a defensible number from a dangerous guess
• Apply every method yourself through end-of-chapter practice problems with complete, worked solutions

Crude origins, composition, and assay interpretation; refinery configurations and process flow integration; desalting and preheat trains; atmospheric and vacuum distillation; fluid catalytic cracking; catalytic reforming and aromatics; hydrotreating and hydrodesulfurization; hydrocracking; alkylation, isomerization, and light-ends processing; delayed coking and residue upgrading; product blending and specification control; utilities, hydrogen, and sulfur systems; and process safety, troubleshooting, and reliability.

Written for new process and plant engineers, operators building a deeper technical foundation, technical trainees, and engineering students entering the industry. It assumes curiosity and a willingness to follow a calculation, but not prior refining experience.

Open the book and begin building the operating intuition to understand any refinery unit, one clearly explained process at a time.

Edition details

• Publisher: Independently published
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 13: 9798161947500
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 359