Petroleum

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Petroleum
Chapter 10 Notes
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Petroleum

• Fossil fuel
• Formed hundreds of millions of years ago from
  dead plants animals which were subjected to
  great heat and pressure
• Found buried in layers of clay, mud, silt, or
  sand, often at the bottom of water (which may be
  gone now)

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Petroleum

• Fuels made from petroleum provide nearly half the
  energy used in the world
• Petroleum is also responsible for the production
  of thousands of products we use in our everyday
  lives

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Petroleum

• Non-renewable resource
• Cannot be replaced at the rate at which it is
  being used

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Petroleum

• Petroleum is sometimes found as a solid in rocks
  sand, but more often it is in liquid form
• This liquid can come in a variety of colors
  (black, dark brown, green, red, yellow, even
  colorless)
• It also has a variety of thicknesses that control
  its viscosity the rate at which it flows
• These depend on the substances that make up the
  petroleum

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One form of petroleum, CRUDE OIL, cannot be used
right from ground.

• Petroleum must first be separated into its useful
  parts by fractional distillation

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Fractional Distillation

• Liquid is heated until it vaporizes (changes into
  a gas)
• Then the gas is cooled until it condenses
  (changes back into a liquid)
• Since different parts or fractions boil at
  different temperatures, each fraction will
  vaporize thus condense at a different time

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• Fractional distillation (a.k.a. refining) occurs
  in fractionating towers
• At the refinery, towers may rise up to 30 meters
  tall and be heated to 385o C the temp. at which
  petroleum vaporizes

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FractionatingTower
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The Process

1. Hydrocarbons have different boiling points
   according to the number of carbon atoms and how
   they are arranged
2. The crude oil is heated and the resultant vapors
   rise up the tower

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1. The vapors cool as they rise and condense onto
   trays
2. The lightest compounds condense at the top of the
   tower and are taken off as LPG (liquefied
   petroleum gas)

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Products from distillation

• Liquid gas
• Gasoline, jet fuels, diesel fuel
• Fuel oil, kerosene
• Chemical petroleum plastics, fabrics
• Lubricants
• Wax
• Asphalt

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