Making crude oil useful Flashcards
What are fossil fuels?
Finite resources because they are no longer being made or are being made extremely slowly
What does non-renewable mean?
They are being used up faster than they are being formed
Name difficulties associated with the finite nature of crude oil
- All the readily extractable resources will be used up in future
- Finding replacements
What is crude oil?
A mixture of many oils which are all hydrocarbons.
What is a hydrocarbon made up of?
Molecules containing carbon and hydrogen only
What are molecules?
a group of atoms bonded together that can take part in a chemical reaction.
What are atoms?
An atom a fundamental piece of matter. (Matter is anything that can be touched physically.) Everything in the universe (except energy) is made of matter, and, so, everything in the universe is made of atoms.
where is crude oil heated?
at the bottom of a fractionating column
What is bitumen?
Bitumen is an example of an oil that sinks as a thick liquid to the bottom. Bitumen has a very high boiling point,
what do other fractions containing mixtures of hydrocarbons with similar boiling points do?
they boil and their gases rise up the column.
What happens at the top of the boiling tower?
the column is cooler at the top. Fractions with lower boiling points exit towards the top of the column, such as LPG or petrol.
Why can crude oil be separated?
because hydrocarbons in different fractions have different sized molecules
What are the forces between the molecules? and how are they broken?
intermolecular forces are broken during boiling
The molecules in the column…
separate from each other as molecules of gas
give an example of an oil that contains large molecules and what is needed to break the forces between the molecules?
Bitumen and heavy oil are examples, they have strong forces of attraction. Meaning a lot of energy is needed to break the forces between the molecules. These fractions have high boiling points.
