Crude oil and fractional distillation

What is crude oil

A fossil fuel, mixture of lots of hydrocarbons

How is crude oil formed?

Via remains of dead plants and animals (plankton) that died millions of years ago and buried in the mud, the high temperatures in the ground turns this into crude oil = soaked into the rocks and stored fro millions of years

Where do we get crude oil from?

From drilling into rocks and sucking it up to the surface

What kind of resource is crude oil?

Finite resource, will run out (non renewable)

How do we separate the hydrocarbons from the crude oil?

Fractional distillation

What is fractional distillation?

A process of heating something up and separating the hydrocarbons by taking advantage of their different boiling points

What is the process of fractional distillation?

1. Heat the oil in a chamber until its turned into a gas

2. Pass the mixture in a fractioning column

3. The gas (heated up oil) will gradually rise up and once it reaches a point where it is cooler than their boiling point it will condense into a liquid

What is the main property of the fractionating column?

It is hot at the bottom and gradually cooler at the top

What will the hydrocarbons with the most chains do in the fractionating column?

They have the highest boiling point so they will drain out of the column the quickest as it is not hot enough to keep it in its gaseous state

The hydrocarbons that leave the fractionating column the earliest produce what?

Bitumen (tar on the roads) and Heavy Fuel oils (Heating oil, fuel oil, or lubricating oil)

The hydrocarbons that leave the fractionating column the latest produce what?

Diesel, kerosene, petrol

Which fractions makes the best fuels?

Petrol, kerosene, diesel - they're the most flammable

What are petrochemicals?

Products derived from oil and natural gas -> feedstock

What is feedstock used for?

Solvents, polymers, lubricants, detergents