Alkanes

Question 1

Catalytic converter

Answer 1

A device fitted in a car to reduce the amount of emissions from an internal combustion engine. They use expensive metals like platinum and rhodium as the heterogeneous catalyst. The catalyst is mounted on a ceramic honeycomb to maximise the surface area

Question 2

Catalytic cracking

Answer 2

A type of cracking that takes place at a slight pressure, high temperature and in the presence of a zeolite catalyst and is used mainly to produce motor fuels and aromatic hydrocarbons

Question 3

Combustion of alkanes

Answer 3

• Combustion of alkanes releases energy
• During combustion, the hydrogen in the fuels are oxidised
• Alkanes undergo complete or incomplete combustion
• Water and carbon dioxide are the only products of the complete combustion, whereas carbon monoxide and carbon particulates can be produced in incomplete combustion.

Question 4

Cracking

Answer 4

A process which involves breaking C-C bonds in alkanes to produce shorter chained alkanes and alkenes

Question 5

Crude oil

Answer 5

A finite resource found in rocks. It is the remains of an ancient biomass consisting mainly of plankton that was buried in mud. Most of the compounds in crude oil are hydrocarbons

Question 6

Fractional distillation

Answer 6

A method of separating a mixture of substances according to their different boiling points. Commonly used to separate crude oil into different fractions

Question 7

Hydrocarbons

Answer 7

Compounds made up of carbon and hydrogen atoms only

Question 8

Saturated

Answer 8

Organic compounds are saturated if all the carbon-carbon bonds are single C-C bonds. Alkanes are saturated hydrocarbons

Question 9

Thermal cracking

Answer 9

A type of cracking that takes place at high pressure and high temperature and produces a high percentage of alkenes