Crude oil

• Crude oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons
• Heated crude oil goes into a fractionating column, and the hydrocarbons evaporate until they reach a temperature that is lower than their boiling point, and they condense and separate into fractions
• The main fractions of crude oil are:

  • refinery gases
  • gasoline
  • kerosene
  • diesel
  • fuel oil
  • bitumen
• The higher you go in the fractionating column, the lighter in colour, less viscous and lower boiling point the fractions become
• A fuel is a substance that when burned, produces heat energy
• Complete combustion produces carbon dioxide and water as products
• Incomplete combustion produces carbon/carbon monoxide and water as products
• Carbon monoxide is poisonous because it binds to red blood cells more strongly than oxygen does, so there's no room left for oxygen to be transported around the body
• Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas
• Carbon causes soot, leading to respiratory problems
• In car engines, the temperatures are high enough to allow nitrogen and oxygen in the air to react, forming oxides of nitrogen
• The combustion of some impurities in hydrocarbon fuels leads to the production of sulphur dioxide
• Sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen contribute to acid rain by rising into the atmosphere and react with water to form acidic pollutants
• Long chain alkanes are not in as high demand as short chain alkanes
• To separate long chain alkanes into short chain alkanes, heat to c700 degrees with a zeolite catalyst and a short chain alkane and an alkene will be produced