Fractional Distillation of Crude Oil Flashcards
How is crude oil formed?
From the buried remains of plants and animals.
Its a fossil fuel.
Over millions of years what happens to the buried remains of plants and animals?
They turn to crude oil, which can be extracted by drilling and pumping.
Crude oil is a mixture of what?
Hydrocarbons.
What does a mixture consist of?
2 or more elements or compounds that aren’t chemically bonded to each other.
Crude oil is a mixture of many different what?
Compounds.
Most of the compounds are hydrocarbon molecules.
What are hydrocarbons?
Basically fuel such as petrol and diesel.
Made from carbon and hydrocarbon.
In different parts of a mixture what is there?
No chemical bonds.
The different hydrocarbon molecules in crude oil are what?
Not chemically bonded to one another.
If the different hydrocarbons molecules in crude oil aren’t chemically bonded to one another it means what?
They keep their original properties such as condensing points.
The properties of a mixture are what?
Just a mixture of the properties of the separate parts.
The parts of a mixture can be what?
Separated out by physical methods.
EXAMPLE.
Crude oil can be split up into its separate fractions by what?
Fractional distillation.
The crude oil fractions contain molecules with what?
A similar number of carbon atoms to each other.
Crude oil is split into what?
Separate groups of hydrocarbons.
Describe how the fractionating column works.
Works continuously with heated crude oil piped in at the bottom.
The vaporised oil rises up the column and the various fractions are constantly tapped off at different levels where they condense.
