Crude Oil Flashcards
What is a mixture?
A mixture consists of many different compounds that aren’t chemically bonded to each other
What is crude oil?
Crude oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons
What are hydrocarbons?
Hydrocarbons are basically fuels such as petrol and diesel. They’re made of just carbon and hydrogen
How is crude oil split into different fractions?
By fractional distillation ( in a fractionating column)
How does a fractionating column work?
Heated crude oil is pumped into the bottom. The vaporised oil rises up the column and the various fractions are constantly tapped off at the different levels at which they condense
Crude oil is mostly alkanes, true or false?
True
What are alkanes made up of?
Alkanes are made up of chains or carbon atoms surrounded by hydrogen atoms
What are the first four alkanes?
Methane
Ethane
Propane
Butane
What is the rule for alkanes?
CnH2n+2
The shorter the molecules, the more _____ the hydrocarbon is
Runny ( the less viscous )
The ______ the molecules, the more volatile they are. The “more volatile” means they turn into a gas at a lower temperature
Shorter
The _______ the molecules the more flammable the hydrocarbon is
Shorter
Is oil non renewable or renewable?
Non renewable- it will run out one day
What does cracking mean?
Cracking means splitting up long chain hydrocarbons
Cracking is a thermal decomposition reaction which means..
Breaking molecules down by heating them
