A fossil fuel that we get from deep under the ground, a mixture of lots of different compounds
Crude oil
Nearly all of the compounds are hydrocarbons which contain only hydrogen and carbon
The most common type of hydrocarbons are alkanes
Formation of crude oil
1. Remains of dead plants and animals, particularly plankton, buried in mud
2. High pressures and temperatures under the ground turned this organic biomass into crude oil
3. Crude oil soaked into the rocks and was stored for millions of years
Crude oil is a finite resource, if we continue to extract and use it at the current rate we will run out of it
Fossil fuels
Non-renewable fuels like coal, oil and gas
Fractional distillation of crude oil
1. Heat the crude oil until most of it has turned into a gas
2. Pass the gaseous mixture into a fractionating column which is hot at the bottom but gets cooler towards the top
3. Hydrocarbons with the longest chains condense first at the bottom
4. Shorter chain hydrocarbons condense further up the column
5. Shortest chain hydrocarbons stay as a gas
Fractions from fractional distillation
Bitumen and heavy fuel oil (longest chains)
Diesel, petrol, kerosene (medium chains)
LPG (propane and butane, shortest chains)
Fractions from fractional distillation
Longer chain hydrocarbons are less flammable and often poor fuels
Shorter chain hydrocarbons are more flammable and make the best fuels
Cracking
Process to break down longer chain hydrocarbons into smaller ones
Petrochemicals
Substances from crude oil used as feedstock (raw materials) for the petrochemical industry to make things like solvents, lubricants, polymers and detergents
Periodic trends refer to patterns or regularities observed within the periodic table that can be explained by changes in the electronic structure of atoms.
