Fueling Curiosity: The ABCs of Refining
Do you ever stop and consider the complex systems required to support society today? The cars on the road, the planes in the sky, and most of the everyday items around your home all rely on a hidden world of incredible engineering.
This book is a window into that world.
A refinery is essentially a giant, high-tech recycling center and chemistry lab combined. Refineries take raw, heavy crude oil straight from the earth and carefully separate, clean, and reshape it into the precise fuels and materials that keep our modern society moving.
Fueling Curiosity’s goal is to introduce young minds and parents alike to the foundational concepts of engineering, refining, and industrial logistics.
Fueling Curiosity’s goal is to introduce young minds and parents alike to the foundational concepts of engineering, refining, and industrial logistics. While the illustrations are friendly and simplified, the science behind them is real. Use this book as a starting point to ask questions, explore how things work, and spark a lifelong interest in STEM.
Beyond the ABCs: Refining Explained
This section is written for parents, educators, and curious adults. It expands on the ABCs by explaining how real refineries operate, why tradeoffs exist, and how decisions affect production, cost, and fuel quality.
D – Distillation
Distillation separates crude by boiling range without changing the molecules themselves. Poor separation at this stage increases the workload and cost of downstream units. As an example, precise temperature control allows refineries to push the lightest part of diesel into gasoline or the heaviest part of gasoline into diesel, depending on the market.
Excerpted with permission (from “A Note to Parents & Educators”) from Fueling Curiosity: The ABCs of Refining by Taylor Bloomquist. Click on the link to purchase.
For more information, visit Fueling Curiosity.
The Great Refinery Run Game
