Refinery Equipments Used in Oil and Gas

Oil and Gas refinery is an industrial plant that comprises a wide set of equipment used in refining or transformation of crude oil into different petroleum products i.e diesel, liquified petroleum gas (LPG), kerosene e.t.c. This is the second stage in the oil and gas production cycle following the extraction process.

This process requires a huge amount of capital to acquire the necessary equipment, which are discussed below.

Heat Exchanger

Heat exchanger is an equipment used within cracking units when oil and water are being separated. The heat exchanger is used for transferring heat from one fluid to another. It performs heating and cooling functions depending on the situation on ground.

There are several types of heat exchangers and they are classified according to the direction of liquid flow. They are parallel ways, cross ways, and countercurrent ways. For the parallel way, both fluids move in the same direction. For cross-way, fluids flow in a perpendicular direction, while counter-current way make fluids move in the opposite direction.

Piping System

In any refinery, the piping system is the most crucial equipment for the transportation of oil and gas to their processing unit. This is because the efficiency of a plant depends on how oil and gas components can be moved easily through the processing, blending, and value addition stage.

Compressor

Compressor is a source that produces emission to the atmosphere during the production, processing, storage, and transmission of oil and gas. The compressor helps to increase the pressure of natural gasses and allows them to be transported from the production site to all desired destinations.

The compressor requires constant maintenance because the emission begins to increase as it begins to degrade. This equipment can be applied for all aspects of natural gas development. In the drilling stage, a compressor can also be used at the wellhead to compress fluid removal.