Chapter 14 Hydrocarbons: A Review

Question 1

What does natural gas consist of?

Answer 1

• primarily methane (90-95%)
• with ethane (5-10%)
• small amounts of propane and butane

Question 2

What is the world’s most significant source of hydrocarbon compounds?

Answer 2

Petroleum (crude oil)

Question 3

What is fractional distillation?

Answer 3

It is to separate the mixture of hydrocarbons from crude oil into “fractions” that have similar boiling points and molecular mass.

Question 4

What are some chemical processes which uses petroleum fractions directly ?

Answer 4

• Catalytic Cracking
• Thermal Cracking
• Hydrocracking
• Catalytic reforming
• These are used to alter the molecular structure of other petroleum fractions.
• This produces more useful hydrocarbon products such as high octane petrol and ethane.

Question 5

What are hydrocarbons?

Answer 5

Hydrocarbons are molecular compounds containing the elements hydrogen and carbon only.

• Some hydrocarbon families include Alkanes, alkenes, cycloalkanes, cycloalkenes and aromatics.