2: Alkanes and Pollution Flashcards
Fractional Distillation Thermal + Catalytic Cracking Incomplete + Complete Combustion Nitrous Oxides Ground Level Ozone Catalytic Converters Sulfur Dioxides and Flue Gases Acid Rain
What is an alkane?
A saturated hydrocarbon.
Describe how fractional distillation works.
The crude oil is vapourised.
The hydrocarbons start to evaporate.
The short chain hydrocarbons evaporate first, condense and are drained off, but the long chain hydrocarbons have a high boiling point and take longer to evaporate. Some remain as a viscous liquid.
List the 9 crude oil fractions in order from lowest to highest boiling point.
Liquefied Petroleum Gas
Petrol
Naphtha
Kerosene
Diesel
Lubricating Mineral Oil
Fuel Oil
Wax and Grease
Bitumen
What is cracking and why is it done?
Splitting long chain hydrocarbons into short chains because they are more useful.
Give an equation for the cracking of decane into 2 products.
Decane -> Ethene + Octane
Give an equation for the cracking of decane into 3 products.
Decane -> Ethane + Pent-2-ene + Propene
Name 2 types of cracking.
Thermal and Catalytic.
What temperature and pressure does thermal cracking use?
1000C and 70 atm.
What types of molecules does thermal cracking mostly create?
What are these products useful for making?
Alkenes.
Useful for making polymers.
Name the catalyst used in catalytic cracking.
Zeolite catalysts.
Broadly state the pressure and give the temperature for catalytic cracking.
Slight pressure, high temperature of 500C.
What is complete combustion?
There is sufficient O2, so the molecule is completely burned so CO2 and water is produced.
Give an equation for complete combustion of C3H8.
C3H8 + 5O2 -> 3CO2 + 4H2O
What is incomplete combustion?
There’s not enough oxygen so the molecule doesn’t burn properly.
Give and equation for incomplete combustion of C3H8.
C3H8 + 3.5O2 -> 3CO + 4H2O