ly, a petroleum refinery acted almost exclusively as a supplier of energy for a variety of purposes. Even Economic progress and consumption of energy are the manufacture of petrochemical basic building very closely related to one another. A higher stan- blocks brought about no fundamental change in this dard of living always brings with it high energy con- respect. sumption per capita. An active economy needs The distribution of the products between those energy in one form or another. Our present stage of serving the production of energy, i. e. those that are development would be impossible without coal, burned, and those that are utilized for other purposes, Water power, petroleum or natural gas. is no doubt of interest but not easy to answer. Per-In Europe, coal and petroleum are keen competitors haps the following figures reflect the position fairly besides the fact that coal in some countries is favour- accurately. Of 100 parts of an average crude oil, ed by tax regulation. Petroleum is being used to an 3 parts are used for petrochemicals, 5 parts for asphalt ever-increasing extent to fulfill the needs of the con- and similar products, 7 parts for lubricating oils, sumer. Traffic and transport as well as most of space- greases, cutting oils, various special oils, paraffin, heating, have been converted to petroleum or natural etc., the remaining 85 parts are available for congas. Power stations and industry, in addition to signi- version into the various forms of energy. ficant amounts of coal, draw to an increasing extent The fundamental task of petroleum refining has on petroleum or natural gas as a source of energy. undergone no revolutionary hange in the course of The annual increase rate of these two large con- the past ten years, nor has the number of manufactursumers are met by petroleum products. ed products greatly increased. But there have been It is the major task of petroleum refining to manu- many changes in product quality. facture from crude petroleum by means of suitable processes, many widely-differing finished products that will fulfill the requirements of a wide range of 2. New Processes and Recent Developments equipment producing energy of one form or another.
The spectrum required is extremely wide, including A review of the past, and particularly of the interat one end high-grade gasoline required for high- val between the fifth and sixth World Petroleum Conspeed internal combustion engines with steadily in- gress, shows the following. creasing compression ratios, and at the other, simple The development of continuous distillation was distillation residues used as a heavy fuel oil for steam characteristic of the nineteen twenties. Thermal crackboilers and for large diesel engines. ing and thermal reforming came into their own in the Petroleum processing is an industry of raw mate- thirties, while the years around 1940 showed a rials for the production of
