Abstract This paper presents an overview of the process whereby crude oil is turned into gasoline in a refinery. The paper gives a breakdown on all the components used in the process. It then looks in detail at the four steps used in the process: separation, upgrading, conversion and blending.
From the Paper "The various constituents of crude oil have one big difference in their physical properties that can be used to separate them, i.e., their boiling point. Distillation is a process wherein a liquid is boiled to a point that it vaporizes and then it is collected and cooled down again to get it in liquid form again. However, if the original mixture that was being boiled consisted of two of more liquids with boiling points that are sufficiently far away, it would be possible to boil and vaporize one of them and then collect only that liquid at the other end. This is the process called fractional distillation. In the separation stage, this is the principle that is fundamentally at work."
