Why do oil refineries and such, always have/seem to be burning? Bad for planet and arent they "burning money"?

Question

I just don't get it! I see the refineries always burning oil and that makes me so mad! What's the point? Could it be that oil is even more evil than I thought and it NEEDS to be burning for some reason?! Or are they just stupid?

Answer 1

Some oil is burned to operate the refinery because it takes heat to separate the various components of crude oil.  Other chemicals present in crude oil are simply not usable by any industry so burning it is the safest and cleanest method of disposal.  The refiners try to make use of as much as they can (who wants to burn money?) but that isn't always possible.

Answer 2

From what my geography teacher says, and weve just studied th etopic 'managing resources' they have to be burning all the time because it is really difficult and timeconsuming/money consuming to switch them off when they arent needed. Plus the oil they are burning is used so it isnt really a waste.

Answer 3

I don't know what the refining process is but it is as efficient as technology allows. Anything else would not make business sense.

Answer 4

Most of it is Flu gases or non-recoverables.  By the way, if you think they, Oil companies, are "stupid" look at the recently released fortune 500 list.  Exon and Chevron are in the top 5....not too stupid.

If there is money to be made in the off-gases the oil industry would certainly use it.

Answer 5

It may be possible to get more economic value from the material in the distillation stack. Refiners do look for those opportunities. But every stack is engineered to get what is most wanted, and they will choose to discard what is too costly to recover.

When we get to very low volume and low value fractions, it costs more to build recovery than the recovered product is worth. That can change as a different distillation stack is engineered, simply because engineers may better anticipate what extra fractions they can economically capture.

When we have sour gas coming with the crude, we burn it as a service to those who live close by.

Answer 6

Cool down they are not stupid. U need to do more research. The torch u see burning is burning poisonous gas like H2S. This gas is so deadly u will be in trouble about 200 ppm. Real bad stuff and has killed thousands.

Answer 7

That's not oil, it's natural gas that forms in the pipe line, burning it keeps it from escaping into the atmosphere..

If they just let it go it forms a potentially explosive cloud around the outlet......