THE CENTURY OF PETROL - Petroleum.cz

petrol distillation bottoms containing petroleum
and mazut (atmospheric distillation
residue), that was imported from Romania,
in order to avoid paying greater customs
duties (under the rules then in force,
the tariffs imposed on raw materials were
lower than those on finished products).
Electrification after World War I substantially
reduced the demand for candles and
lighting kerosene. On the other hand, the
rapid development of the automotive and
aviation industries required refineries to
substantially expand their capacity to
make automobile and aircraft fuels (gasoline,
aviation-grade kerosene, diesel fuel),
while continuing the production of oils.
The technology used at that time in refineries
was at first as simple as before the
war. Batch distillation processes were
used for redistillation of petroleum and its
products, the oil distillates being refined
with concentrated sulphuric acid. In addition,
filter presses were used in paraffin
production, and the final refining process
was based on the use of bleaching clay.
In the 1930s, the technological processes
in all Czech refineries began to be modernised,
reflecting the development elsewhere
in the world. In the refineries in Kolín,
Pardubice, Moravská Ostrava, as well
as the Apollo Refinery in Bratislava, Slovakia
(established in 1895) batch distillation
was replaced by the more efficient
vacuum batch distillation process, later
replaced by the continuous vacuum pipe
distillation technology.
The first thermal cracking plant in Czechoslovakia
was built in Apollo Bratislava,
using a US licence. This allowed produc-
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tion of higher-octane gasoline and petroleum
coke from the heavy distillation bottoms.
A new state-owned refinery, using
the vacuum-distillation process, was built
at Dubová, Slovakia, in 1935. It processed
low-paraffinic petroleum from the stateowned
oil fields at Gbely and refined the
crude petrol imported from Romania. This
state-owned refinery was the only exception:
otherwise all the refineries in Czechoslovakia
had foreign owners (a US owner
held the refinery in Kolín, a Swiss-Dutch
owner held that in Pardubice, a French owner
was in Bratislava, and an international
group managed the refinery in Ostrava).
Ethanol/petrol blends were important alternative
liquid engine fuels, the use of
which was extensively encouraged in the
inter-war period.
Supported by the mighty agrarian lobby,
and following French and German patterns,
Czechoslovak refineries began
producing ethanol/petrol blends (50 % ethanol,
30 % benzene, and 20 % petrol). Until
1932 this product competed with the hydrocarbon
based gasoline originated from
pure petrol produced only from crude oil.
In the crisis period between 1929 and
1936, Czechoslovak law imposed the
mandatory addition of 20 % anhydrous
ethanol to petrol. Addressing the economic
situation in the wood distillation industry
the law also required that part of
the ethanol (3 %) be replaced by anhydrous
methanol. As a result, with the development
of motoring, as much as 50 kilotons
of ethanol were added annually to
petrol (in 1935, this represented 20 % of
total motor gasoline consumption).
Ethanol/petrol and benzene blends as motor
fuel were used until the early 1950s.
Besides motor gasoline, refineries also
manufactured diesel fuel, which was produced
as a liquid fraction of hydrocarbons
with boiling points at 220 to 370 °C
in the petroleum distillation processes
(winter and summer grade).
All the Czechoslovak refineries produced
spindle and bearing oils with pour points
slightly below 0 °C, achieved through
pressure filtration of paraffin. Lubricating
oils with a lower pour point were produced
from the imported low-paraffinic petroleum
– for example, Bustenari Medium
from Romania. Quality engine oils could
only be produced by mixing imported
components. Vacuum Oil Company in Kolín
imported components for its Mobil oils
from its affiliates. Fantovy závody in Pardubice
blended its Fantolin motor oils
Billboard, circa 1925