Petroleum Refining in Nontechnical Language, Fourth Edition (Hardcover)

by William Leffler (Author) "If you have somehow been charmed by the ads of my publisher or beguiled by the word-of-mouth ravings of a colleague about the efficacy of..." (more)
Key Phrases: alky plant, flasher bottoms, calcinable coke, Nontechnical Language, West Texas (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
William LefflerÂ’s Petroleum Refining in Nontechnical Language, Fourth Edition is designed to give the reader an overview of key refining topics by using relevant analogies, easy-to-understand graphs, formulas, and illustrations. New to this edition is important information on the nature of crude oil and raw materials and a comprehensive discussion on what sets crude oil and oil products price differentials. Also new is a chapter on lubricants as well as the latest technologies employed by refiners. Each chapter was carefully written in nontechnical language to give the reader a basic understanding of the refining industry. The book can be used for self-study, as a classroom textbook, or as a quick reference.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 270 pages
• Publisher: PennWell Corp.; 4 edition (November 13, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593701586
• ISBN-13: 978-1593701581
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #96,206 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The FIRST book you want to read about Petroleum Refining!, May 30, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Petroleum Refining in Nontechnical Language Third Edition (Pennwell Nontechnical Series) (Hardcover)

If you're new to the "nontechnical" sector of Petroleum Refining this should be your first stop for industry knowledge! Leffler's captivating writing style will lead you naturally from the beginning to the end of the refining process, thoroughly and concisely explaining all of the important and essential points along the way. It's definately a MUST READ!

David Morris, SPHR.........Director Human Resources

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Introduction to the Topic of Petroleum Refining, July 18, 2006

By	Gregory McMahan (Tottori, Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Petroleum Refining in Nontechnical Language Third Edition (Pennwell Nontechnical Series) (Hardcover)

My boss at work gave me this book in an effort to get me up to speed on the industries we monitor. Having absolutely no background in oil and natural gas (beyond some general remarks dropped here and there in my undergraduate engineering curriculum), I found the text to be very informative, albeit in a non-technical way. Potential readers of this text should note that the information is highly focused- the author only covers refining of petroleum, and not other topics of interest, such as oil field exploration and development or petrochemicals manufacturing.

I have to agree with some of the previous reviewers who correctly pointed that some of the information contained in the book, at least from a rigorous technical standpoint, was not entirely correct. However, that was not the intent of the text. The goal of this text is to introduce the key concepts of the petroleum refining industry, and explain them in a way that say, for example, the personal secretary to an oil executive would understand. I found myself having to consult some of my core textbooks in chemical engineering after reading various topics in the book for more detailed technical information. Those of you looking for the hard-core, quantitative, technical information related to this information, such as chemical processes and process economics, will be disappointed with this text. However, those of you who have a technical or scientific background but no real knowledge of the oil industry even at the rudimentary level (like myself) will find this book to be a good starting point for basic explanations of key concepts.

That said, I see the book as being very useful for those contemplating involvement in some way with the petroleum refining industry, or trying to make some sense of what industry insiders often say to outsiders. If the author takes it upon himself to correct the numerous errata in the book, I would definitely see this text being suitable for a lower division seminar course or survey course on one aspect of the petroleum industry.

In sum, this book more than lives up to its title. My only other complaint is the chapters in the book devoted to additives such as TAME and MTBE. Since they are no longer added to most fuels in the US, future editions might want to drop detailed coverage of this topic (but perhaps refer to them in a historical context). Mr. Leffler did an excellent job of demystifying an obscure but extremely important subject. For those of you with a non-technical background, I advise you to read this book one chapter at a time and bounce the key ideas off of an industry insider. For those of you with a technical background but no real knowledge of the oil industry, I strongly advise you to to read this book and then consult other relevant titles from PennWell Publishing (who incidentally publish the highly informative Oil & Gas Journal, as well as other publications on the oil and natural gas industries).

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for basics, sometimes oversimplifying, July 11, 2000

By	Christian Kupper (Zug Schweiz) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Petroleum Refining in Nontechnical Language Third Edition (Pennwell Nontechnical Series) (Hardcover)

This is a very good publication for anybody who wants to understand the basics of refining without too much chemistry or engineering details. Easy to understand, but sometime I would wish for a deeper discussion of the processes. It is a MUST for nontechnical staff in refineries (eg. finance) and it gives enough background for good discussion with engineers.