Welcome To Crude Academy

What This Is

Crude Academy is a plain-English introduction to oil refineries, with topics drawn from my own experience working in them. The articles and videos range from broad overarching themes down to the specific, sometimes overlooked, technologies and practices that make a plant run.

How It's Organized

The content is split into three modules. Module 1 is the foundation: a light introduction to the chemistry of hydrocarbons, followed by what comes into the refinery (crude) and what comes out (gasoline, diesel, and other products). The chemistry will make more complex refinery topics easier to understand, because you will have a feel for how to describe and talk about hydrocarbon molecules.

With that foundation in place, the other two modules go deeper into how a refinery actually works. Module 2 covers the refinery processes themselves: distillation, cracking, reforming, hydrotreating, and how the units fit together. Module 3 is the hardware side: pumps, compressors, valves, instrumentation, electrical, and the inspection and maintenance that keep the plant running safely.

Track Your Progress

Create an account and mark articles as read as you go. Your dashboard will show progress per module, so you always know where you left off.