Petroleum Refining in Nontechnical Language, Fourth Edition

William Leffler’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.

Customer Reviews:

The FIRST book you want to read about Petroleum Refining!

By A Customer - May 30, 2001

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

A Good Introduction to the Topic of Petroleum Refining

By Gregory McMahan - July 18, 2006

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... read more

Good for basics, sometimes oversimplifying

By Christian Kupper - July 11, 2000

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.