4B.1 Alkanes from crude oil

Question 1

what are the 3 main ways to convert crude oil into fuel

Answer 1

1. craking
2. fractional distillation
3. reforming

Question 2

what is fractional distillation

Answer 2

it is the process used to separate a liquid mixture into fractions by boiling and condensing

Question 3

describe the process of fractional distillation

Answer 3

the crude oil is heated up in a furnace, turning most of the group oil into vapor, the crude oil is then fed to a collum near the bottom. there is a heat gradient in that collum with the higher temperatures near to the bottom and the cooler temperature near the top. the vapor would then go through a series of bubble caps as it passes through the collum, different fractions (within the collum) would have different condensing points with having different heights, where the molecules with bigger chains and higher boiling stay towards the bottom and the molecules with smaller chains and lower boiling points stay towards the bottom. some molecules in the crude oil would be dissolved gasses and they would go up the collum without condesing. and some fractiosn\ would go through fractional distillation again since they contain many compounds

Question 4

what is cracking

Answer 4

the breakdown of molecules into shorter ones by heating with a catalyst

Question 5

what is the process of cracking

Answer 5

when a large chain of hydrocarbon passes through a heated catalyst, usually zeolite. this would cause the large molecules to break into at least 2 smaller ones

Question 6

what is a zeolite

Answer 6

it is a catalyst for cracking made up of aluminum, oxygen, and silicon

Question 7

in cracking one product molecule always as to be

Answer 7

an alkene

Question 8

what is reforming

Answer 8

the conversion of straight chains hydrocarbons into branched-chain or cyclic hydrocarbons

Question 9

why do use reforming

Answer 9

because fuels with branched-chain burn more efficiently than fuels with straight chains