Crude oil Flashcards
What is crude oil?
A mixture of hydrocarbons
What is a hydrocarbon?
A compound made from hydrogen and carbon only
How can you separate hydrocarbons?
Through fractional distillation
How does fractional distillation work?
Because the different hydrocarbons have different boiling points, when you put them in a fractioning column and heat them, they will all condense at different levels, so you can collect the different types
Which hydrocarbons are collected at the bottom of the column?
The ones with the longest chains
What are alkanes?
All the fractions of crude oil
What is the formula for an alkane?
C(n)H(2n+2)
What are the first five alkanes?
Methane, Ethane, Propane, Butane, Pentane
What are the properties of different lengths of hydrocarbons?
The longer the hydrocarbon, the less runny, the less volatile and the less flammable it is
Why is petrol useful as a fuel?
Because it has a high boiling point, so is a liquid
What is crude oil used for?
Fuels and plastics
Why is crude oil such a good fuel?
It is cheap, readily available, reliable and safe
Why is crude oil bad?
Oil spills harm wildlife, and burning it releases harmful gases which contribute to global warming, dimming and acid rain
How does hydrocarbon release carbon dioxide?
It reacts with oxygen
How is acid rain caused?
Sulphur dioxide reacts with clouds to form a dilute sulphuric acid which falls with rain and corrodes things
How can you reduce sulphur emissions?
By removing sulphur from fuels before they are burnt and simply reduce our use of fossil fuels
What does carbon dioxide cause?
Climate change such as global warming
What do particles cause?
Global dimming
What is biofuel? What are its pros and cons?
Ethanol produced from plant materials
Pros are it is carbon neutral
Cons are engines need to be converted to use it and it wastes food and land space
What is biodiesel? What are its pros and cons?
It is a type of biofuel produced from vegetable oils that can be mixed with diesel
Pros are it is carbon neutral and engines don’t need to be converted
Cons are it is expensive and wastes food and land space
What is hydrogen gas? What are its pros and cons?
It is simply hydrogen made from the electrolysis of water
Pros are it is a renewable source and is very clean
Cons are engines would need to be converted, it isn’t widely available and it is hard to store
