What We Do: The Refining Process
Chevron El Segundo is committed to producing the finest fuels through its refining process. Whether pumped through pipelines or shipped thousands of miles in tankers, crude oil arrives at our Refinery in its rawest form.
It is the job of the people who work here to convert that crude oil into fuel we can use -- gasoline for cars, jet fuel for airplanes, diesel for trucks and trains, propane and butane for home heating and barbecues, and fuel oils, coke, and certain chemicals for industrial use.
The refining process starts in the distillation towers. Here, liquids and vapors are separated into components according to weight and boiling point. The lighter, more valuable fuels are separated from the heavier products. From the crude units, nearly all of the products are then treated to remove sulfur and nitrogen, primarily by "hydrotreating." Hydrotreating uses hydrogen to bind with sulfur and nitrogen. In fact, we make the hydrogen for use in this process on-site in two hydrogen plants.
The resulting sulfur is recovered and sold for industrial uses. The nitrogen is converted to ammonia for sale to the fertilizer industry and for use in the Refinery. The remaining nitrogen is converted back to harmless nitrogen gas, which is a key component of the air we breathe. The carbon dioxide we recover is sold for uses such as beverage carbonation.
Only about 40% of crude oil is comprised of the ingredients for the high-quality fuels we produce. The remaining components of crude are heavy, poor performing fuels. To convert the heavy fuels to usable transportation fuels requires a relatively new process known as conversion or cracking. Using cracking units, the large molecules in heavy fuels are converted into smaller molecules, which we can use to make the transportation fuels you need.
At Chevron's El Segundo Refinery, we have three main types of cracking units:
- The Coker is a thermal cracking unit. It heats the heaviest portion of the crude to a high temperature, causing it to crack into lighter materials. The light materials produced are gasoline, jet fuel and diesel. The light fuels boil off, leaving behind a solid coal-like material called petroleum coke. Petroleum coke is transported to the Port of Los Angeles, where it is shipped to Asia and Europe to be used in heating and manufacturing.
- The Fluidized Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCC), or "cat cracker," cracks the heavy material into gasoline, the most demanded transportation fuel.
- The Hydrocracking Unit is another catalytic cracking unit. Chevron's patented hydrocracking process is called an ISOMAX Unit. The catalyst in the ISOMAX is designed to crack heavy material into jet fuel. The Chevron El Segundo Refinery supplies nearly 40% of the jet fuel used at Los Angeles International Airport.
After the molecules have been cracked, these fuels are still not ready to power an automobile or jet engine. The molecules must be arranged and rearranged to burn cleanly and with better performance. The Catalytic Reforming and Alkylation processes all result in higher octane fuels which are designed to meet these needs.
Finally, after more than 200 hydrocarbons and additives have been blended into the fuel, the finished products are held in storage tanks, ready to be shipped via tanker, truck or pipeline to our customers.
What is in a barrel of oil?
To some, a barrel of crude may look like a gooey liquid who's only redeeming virtue is to be eventually refined into gasoline.
Researchers broke down a typical barrel of domestic crude oil into what may be produced. By the way, the average domestic crude oil has a gravity of 32 degrees and weighs 7.21 pounds per gallon.
Here's what just one barrel of crude oil can produce:
- Enough liquefied gases (such as propane) to fill 12 small (14.1 ounce) cylinders for home, camping or workshop use.
- Enough gasoline to drive a medium-sized car (17 miles per gallon) over 280 miles.
- Asphalt to make about one gallon of tar for patching roofs or streets.
- Lubricants to make about a quart of motor oil.
- Enough distillate fuel to drive a large truck (five miles per gallon) for almost 40 miles. If jet fuel fraction is included, that same truck can run nearly 50 miles.
- Nearly 70 kilowatt hours of electricity at a power plant generated by residual fuel.
- About four pounds of charcoal briquettes.
- Wax for 170 birthday candles or 27 wax crayons.
There are enough petrochemicals left in that same barrel to provide the base for one of the following:
- 39 polyester shirts
- 750 pocket combs
- 540 toothbrushes
- 65 plastic dustpans
- 23 hula hoops
- 65 plastic drinking cups
- 195 one-cup measuring cups
- 11 plastic telephone housings
- 135 four-inch rubber balls
The lighter materials in a barrel are used mainly for paint thinners and dry-cleaning solvents and they can make nearly a quart of one of these products. The miscellaneous fraction of what is left still contains enough by-products to be used in medicinal oils, still gas, road oil and plant condensates -- a real industrial horn of plenty.
Quality Improvement
Our quality improvement program is a large part of our commitment produce the finest fules. This Refinery-wide program is designed to ensure that the transportation fuels we produce meet your expectations for performance, are delivered on time and at an acceptable cost, and are manufactured safely and in an environmentally sound way. At its foundation is a climate of mutual respect and teamwork that fosters continual improvement.