Product

Typical VDU side-cut structure (top to bottom)

1. Vacuum Diesel (VD) / Vacuum Distillate / Wash oil — the lightest side cut from the Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU), roughly the TBP range ~350–430/450 °C (atmospheric equivalent). It’s the overlap/tail of the diesel boiling range that couldn’t be recovered in the atmospheric column.

2. Light VGO (LVGO) — ~380/400–470 °C

3. Medium/Intermediate VGO (MVGO / IVGO) — ~470–510 °C (only drawn in units with three VGO grades)

4. Heavy VGO (HVGO) — ~500–560/580 °C (endpoint set by metal/asphaltene contamination and downstream unit constraints)

Density Values

Typical densities for vacuum gasoil cuts (at 15 °C, straight-run material from a VDU):

Key points

• Density climbs steadily with boiling range because heavier cuts contain progressively more aromatics and naphthenics (higher density per carbon number) and fewer paraffins.

• The crude source matters a lot: VGO from a paraffinic crude (e.g., WTI, some West African) can sit at the low end (~0.88–0.90 for HVGO), while VGO from heavy, aromatic, high-sulfur crudes (e.g., Maya, Urals, Middle East heavy) can push HVGO to 0.94–0.96 g/cm³.

• A full-range VGO (LVGO+MVGO+HVGO composite) typically assays around 0.90–0.93 g/cm³ (~20–25 °API).

• Don’t confuse these with cracked gasoils (LCGO, HCGO from FCC/cokers), which are much more aromatic and denser — often 0.95–1.05 g/cm³.