Crude Oil Distillation

The first two weeks of February 2009 will be very interesting for Petroleum Geology laboratory work. This week is the Stage 1 crude oil distillation. The source of crude oil is from Petronas, I think.ERB West Complex is located just offshore Sabah.

Firstly, Mr. Jalal the lab assistant poured the crude oil from its big container into a giant beaker for us all to share. And that's Cassidy's shoes. haha. The smell is kind of bittersweet but very strong. Petroleum is generally dark in colour depending on the amount of hidrocarbons and percentage of pollutants present in it. Crude oil rich in resin and asphalt is the darkest just like this one.

The set up manual.

Our set up at the lab.

Mr. Jalal making sure the set up is complete and all the corks are tight enough to prevent gas leaks. That's my team standing by for the experiment.


The first product of distillation. Its a bit cloudy and the smell is very much like being at a petrol station. The first product smells sweet unlike the bittersweet of the crude oil. The sweet scent is from the paraffin and naphtene-rich compounds. The bittersweet scent of crude oil on the other hand is due to the high content of sulphur and nitrogen compounds. Crude oil produced in Malaysia has the sweet scent and this indicates the best quality.

The firs product was obtained at a temperature of 120 degree Celcius and it is called kerosene.


The second product is obtained at 200 degree Celcius, this is what we call the gas oil and diesel that we pump into the car. In order to reach 200 degree Celcius and finish up the experiment early, we had to use two Bunsen burners.


This is the leftover of the crude oil to be used to next week's experiment which is the second stage of crude oil distillation. The first and second product of the distillation in the graduated cylinder is sealed with aluminium foil and kept in the dark to be used next week. (I wonder if anyone will curi the first two to put in their gas tank! :P )

More on crude oil distillation or oil refining

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Its raining again in Kota Kinabalu. Bunny had her rounds on the balcony but its wet. She ran back inside and hide behind the box. Im afraid she'll nibble the cables again. >.<

And this is Bunny tengah buat muka protes because I put her back in the cage since I have to do some revision tonight. She's a fatty-bum now. But still comel... and don't even dare to think about satay arnab, burger arnab or arnab panggang! I'll Kill You!