William Leffler's Petroleum Refining in Nontechnical Language, Fourth Edition is designed to give the reader an overview of key refining topics by using relevant analogies, easy-to-understand graphs, formulas, and illustrations. New to this edition is important information on the nature of crude oil and raw materials and a comprehensive discussion on what sets crude oil and oil products price differentials. Also new is a chapter on lubricants as well as the latest technologies employed by refiners. Each chapter was carefully written in nontechnical language to give the reader a basic understanding of the refining industry. The book can be used for self-study, as a classroom textbook, or as a quick reference.

Contents:

• Preface
• The evolution of petroleum refining
• From the oil P\patch to the refinery
• Crude oil characteristics
• Distilling
• Vacuum flashing
• The chemistry of petroleum
• Refinery gas plants
• Cat cracking
• Alkylation
• Cat reforming
• Hydrocracking
• Isomerization
• Residue reduction
• Gasoline
• Distillate and residual fuels
• Hydrogen, hydrotreating, and sulfur plants
• Asphalt
• Lubricants
• Ethylene plants
• Simple and complex refineries
• Solvent recovery of aromatics
• Fuel values�heating values
• Answers to the exercises
• Glossary
• Index