Fractional Distillation of Crude Oil Flashcards
What are crude oil?
A complex mixture of hydrocarbons (molecules composed ONLY of hydrogen and carbon)
How are crude oil formed?
Remains of animals and plants -dead millions of year ago- that were subjected to high heat and pressure
Why is crude oil so important?
It is our main source of hydrocarbons and used as a feedstock (raw material) for the petrochemical industry.
Why should we not use too much crude oil?
because it is a finite resource- once used up it won’t replace at the rate we use it.
So it won’t last forever.
What hydrocarbons from crude oil?
Long chains, or rings of hydrocarbon that mostly are alkanes.
What are fractions?
A fraction is a mixture of liquids (in this case hydrocarbons) with a relatively narrow (restricted) boiling point range of molecules, and simpler i.e. those with a similar number of carbon atoms and hydrogen atoms in the chain.
Why do we break crude oil into fractions?
Within each fraction obtained from crude oil the hydrocarbon molecules have a similar number of carbon atoms and similar physical properties.
Why can we use fractional distillation to separate hydrocarbon chains in crude oil?
as it is a MIXTURE we can evaporate different hydrocarbons as they will have different chain lengths so different boiling points.
