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Petrochemical Engineering Course

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Engineering, Construction and Technology

Oil and Gas

Petrochemical Engineering Course

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Petrochemical Engineering Course

Name: Petrochemical Engineering Course
Price: 222 USD

Master the full scope of petrochemical engineering, from crude oil characterization and reaction kinetics to polymer production and process optimization. This course delivers the technical depth and practical tools that working engineers need to design, evaluate, and improve real petrochemical facilities. Build expertise that spans thermodynamics, separation processes, safety management, and digital analytics.

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What you will learn:

This course covers the entire petrochemical value chain, starting with hydrocarbon chemistry and feedstock selection and advancing through steam cracking, aromatics processing, and polymer production. You will apply thermodynamic principles and reaction engineering methods to size reactors and separation units. Process simulation, heat integration, and economic evaluation techniques are included to support full-plant design decisions. Safety management, instrumentation, and environmental compliance are addressed with the same technical rigor as core process topics. You will also gain practical exposure to digital tools, data analytics, and machine learning applications used in modern petrochemical operations.

How you study in practice Petrochemical Engineering Course

How you practice Petrochemical Engineering Course

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Course Content

8 Chapters • 41 LessonsDuration between 4 and 360 hours (you decide)

Chapter 1See details

Foundations of Petrochemical Engineering

Lesson 1 • Safety and Environmental Basics
Introduces hazard identification, process safety fundamentals, and environmental compliance concepts. Establishes a safety-first mindset for all subsequent technical work.
Lesson 2 • Overview of the Petrochemical Industry
Covers industry scale, major product families, and economic drivers. Provides context for all downstream technical content in the course.
Lesson 3 • Hydrocarbon Chemistry Fundamentals
Reviews alkanes, alkenes, aromatics, and functional groups relevant to petrochemicals. Builds chemical literacy needed for process and reaction chapters.
Lesson 4 • Natural Gas and NGL as Feedstocks
Analyzes natural gas liquids, ethane, propane, and condensate as petrochemical feedstocks. Links feedstock selection to product yield and economics.
Lesson 5 • Crude Oil Composition and Characterization
Examines crude oil fractions, assay data, and quality parameters. Connects feedstock properties to downstream processing decisions.

Chapter 2See details

Thermodynamics and Transport Phenomena

Lesson 1 • Phase Equilibria and Vapor-Liquid Systems
Examines VLE, flash calculations, and equation-of-state models. Directly supports distillation and separation design in later chapters.
Lesson 2 • Mass and Energy Balances
Teaches steady-state and dynamic balances for single and multi-unit systems. Forms the quantitative backbone of process simulation and design.
Lesson 3 • Fluid Flow and Pressure Drop
Analyzes Bernoulli principles, pipe flow, and two-phase flow in process piping. Supports pump and compressor sizing in process design chapters.
Lesson 4 • Thermodynamic Laws in Process Systems
Covers the first and second laws applied to reactors and separators. Provides the energy accounting framework used throughout process design.
Lesson 5 • Heat Transfer in Petrochemical Equipment
Covers conduction, convection, and radiation in furnaces and heat exchangers. Enables sizing and performance evaluation of thermal equipment.

Chapter 3See details

Chemical Reaction Engineering

Lesson 1 • Non-Ideal Flow and Residence Time
Examines RTD theory, dispersion models, and bypassing effects. Connects real reactor behavior to performance deviations from ideal models.
Lesson 2 • Reactor Heat Management
Addresses adiabatic temperature rise, heat removal strategies, and runaway prevention. Integrates thermodynamics and kinetics for safe reactor operation.
Lesson 3 • Ideal Reactor Models
Analyzes CSTR, PFR, and batch reactor performance equations. Establishes baseline design tools before introducing non-ideal behavior.
Lesson 4 • Heterogeneous Catalytic Reactors
Covers fixed-bed, fluidized-bed, and moving-bed catalytic reactor design. Directly applicable to reforming, cracking, and hydroprocessing units.
Lesson 5 • Reaction Kinetics and Rate Laws
Covers rate expressions, Arrhenius parameters, and reaction order determination. Provides the kinetic data foundation for all reactor sizing work.

Chapter 4See details

Separation Processes in Petrochemicals

Lesson 1 • Distillation Column Design
Teaches McCabe-Thiele, Fenske-Underwood-Gilliland, and tray hydraulics methods. Core skill for separating olefin, aromatic, and paraffin product streams.
Lesson 2 • Membrane Separation Technologies
Introduces gas permeation and pervaporation membranes for petrochemical applications. Provides modern alternatives to energy-intensive distillation.
Lesson 3 • Liquid-Liquid Extraction
Covers solvent extraction for aromatics recovery and specialty chemical separation. Connects to BTX extraction processes covered in later chapters.
Lesson 4 • Absorption and Stripping Operations
Examines gas-liquid contacting for acid gas removal and solvent recovery. Supports design of amine treating and light-ends recovery units.
Lesson 5 • Adsorption and Molecular Sieve Processes
Analyzes fixed-bed adsorption cycles, breakthrough curves, and PSA systems. Relevant to paraxylene recovery and gas purification applications.

Chapter 5See details

Steam Cracking and Olefin Production

Lesson 1 • Cold Train and Product Fractionation
Covers demethanizer, deethanizer, C2 splitter, and C3 splitter sequencing. Produces polymer-grade ethylene and propylene meeting purity specifications.
Lesson 2 • Cracked Gas Compression and Treating
Examines multi-stage compression, acid gas removal, and drying of cracked gas. Prepares the gas stream for cryogenic separation in the cold train.
Lesson 3 • Quench and Heat Recovery Systems
Covers transfer-line exchangers, quench oil towers, and dilution steam generation. Explains energy recovery strategies that reduce overall utility consumption.
Lesson 4 • Steam Cracking Fundamentals
Covers pyrolysis chemistry, severity parameters, and feedstock-yield relationships. Establishes the technical basis for furnace design and operation sections.
Lesson 5 • Cracking Furnace Design and Operation
Analyzes radiant coil design, residence time, and steam dilution ratios. Directly links furnace parameters to olefin selectivity and run length.

Chapter 6See details

Aromatics Production and Processing

Lesson 1 • BTX Extraction Processes
Covers sulfolane, Morphylane, and similar solvent extraction processes for benzene, toluene, and xylene recovery. Links extraction efficiency to solvent properties.
Lesson 2 • Xylene Isomerization and Paraxylene Recovery
Covers xylene isomerization catalysts, SMB adsorption, and crystallization for paraxylene. Produces high-purity paraxylene for polyester fiber and PET resin markets.
Lesson 3 • Benzene and Styrene Production Routes
Examines ethylbenzene synthesis and dehydrogenation to styrene. Connects aromatics feedstocks to high-volume polymer intermediates.
Lesson 4 • Catalytic Reforming Technology
Examines naphtha reforming chemistry, catalyst systems, and reactor configurations. Produces the reformate feed for downstream aromatics extraction.
Lesson 5 • Toluene Disproportionation and Transalkylation
Analyzes TDP and transalkylation reactions for maximizing benzene and xylene yields. Integrates with xylene isomerization to optimize aromatics complex output.

Chapter 7See details

Polymer and Intermediate Chemical Production

Lesson 1 • Polyethylene Production Processes
Analyzes LDPE, HDPE, and LLDPE production via high-pressure and Ziegler-Natta routes. Connects polymer microstructure to process conditions and catalyst choice.
Lesson 2 • Vinyl Chloride and PVC Production
Covers EDC cracking, VCM purification, and suspension PVC polymerization. Addresses chlorine balance and HCl recovery in the integrated process.
Lesson 3 • Acetic Acid, Acrylonitrile, and Caprolactam
Analyzes methanol carbonylation, propylene ammoxidation, and cyclohexanone oxime rearrangement. Covers three high-volume intermediates with distinct reaction chemistries.
Lesson 4 • Ethylene Oxide and Glycol Production
Examines silver-catalyzed ethylene oxidation and EO hydration to MEG. Produces key intermediates for polyester, antifreeze, and surfactant industries.
Lesson 5 • Polypropylene and Elastomer Production
Covers bulk, gas-phase, and slurry polypropylene processes and EPDM rubber production. Links catalyst stereospecificity to isotactic polypropylene properties.

Chapter 8See details

Process Design, Integration, and Optimization

Lesson 1 • Process Simulation Tools and Methods
Introduces steady-state simulation, thermodynamic package selection, and convergence strategies. Enables quantitative flowsheet analysis and design optimization.
Lesson 2 • Process Optimization Strategies
Examines linear programming, nonlinear optimization, and real-time optimization systems. Connects simulation models to plant-wide performance improvement.
Lesson 3 • Heat Integration and Pinch Analysis
Applies pinch technology to minimize utility consumption in petrochemical complexes. Directly reduces operating costs and carbon intensity of the plant.
Lesson 4 • Process Flowsheet Development
Covers block flow diagrams, PFDs, and P&IDs for petrochemical plants. Builds systematic flowsheet documentation skills used in engineering and operations.
Lesson 5 • Economic Evaluation of Process Designs
Covers capital cost estimation, operating cost analysis, and profitability metrics. Enables engineers to compare process alternatives on an economic basis.
Lesson 6 • Sustainability and Carbon Footprint Reduction
Addresses life cycle assessment, carbon accounting, and low-carbon process modifications. Prepares engineers to meet evolving environmental performance targets.

Certification

Your valid completion certificate

This course is for you:

Chemical engineer: wants structured expertise across the full petrochemical production chain.
Refinery process engineer: seeks to expand skills into downstream chemical manufacturing roles.
Recent engineering graduate: building practical knowledge to accelerate early career progression.
Environmental or safety professional: needs deeper process context to strengthen technical credibility.
Career changer from energy sector: transitioning into petrochemical engineering with transferable technical background.
Plant operations supervisor: aiming to move into process engineering or technical advisory positions.

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