How to Convert Oil to Diesel Fuel or Gasoline

Pipes like these are common at oil refineries.

Wouldn't it be great if you could convert crude oil to diesel fuel or gasoline in your own garage or backyard? Sure it would. But unfortunately, that's virtually impossible. Conversion of crude oil into gas or diesel is a long, expensive process that takes a good deal of time and money--and heat--and can only be accomplished at a professional refinery by trained experts utilizing complicated machinery.

Things You'll Need

• Crude oil
• Refinery
• Chemical additives

Instructions

1. Vaporize the crude oil. This is done at an oil refinery by pumping the oil through very hot furnaces. After the oil has been vaporized, the result is a combination of both vapors and liquids that are then discharged into distillation towers, which are the tall, narrow columns you typically see at oil refineries. The various types of resulting vapors and liquids are then segregated from one another.

2. Separate the liquids and vapors according to density and boiling point. The lightest liquids, including gasoline and liquid petroleum gas, generally vaporize and then rise to the top of the tower. Medium-weight vapors, including kerosene and diesel oil, stay in the middle of the towers. Heavier liquids, called gas oils, separate between the middle and bottom of the towers. The heaviest liquids, which have the highest boiling points, settle at the bottom as tar-like substances. They're all then condensed back into liquid form, sorted and funneled through pipes.

3. Convert the raw liquids into refined ones. There are multiple ways to do this, but the most common is called "cracking." During cracking, heat and pressure are applied in a reactor and a variety of furnaces to break the heavy hydrocarbon molecules of the various raw liquids into various lighter molecules. Cracking is what's used to convert gas oils into automotive fuel, jet fuel and diesel fuel.

4. Remove any impurities from the liquids. After the cracking process, newly-made gasoline, diesel and other liquids still contain impurities like nitrogen and sulfur. And due to state and federal emissions standards in the United States, these liquids have to be further refined and purified before they can be used as fuels. This purification is done through chemical additives such as ethanol. It's not until after the purification process that the fuels can be legally used.

Tips & Warnings

• This process is too dangerous to be attempted by anyone but trained professionals.

References

• What Is a Refinery?