Industrial use of crude oil

Recap of fractional distillation (columns), cracking and reforming of hydrocarbons.

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  • Created by: maddd
  • Created on: 19-04-17 20:39

The process of fractional distillation

Crude oil is initially heated in the refinery furnace, most of which turns to vapour before passing into the bottom of the column. Different fractions (of crude oil) condense at different heights. 

Fractions that condense towards the bottom of the columns have much longer carbon chains and have higher boiling temperatures. Examples of such fractions include bitumen and fuel oil.

Inversely, fractions that are found near the top of the column have smaller carbon chains and have lower boiling temperatures such as refinery gas and petrol, to name a few. 

Seeing as worldwide demand for energy gradually increases with population, it's no wonder that such hydrocarbons are used on such large scales. 

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Process of cracking...

'Cracking' is a process that involves the conversion of long-chain hydrocarbons into much shoerter ones. This process exists in order to meet the increasing demands for shorter-chain hydrocarbons, seeing as they're better fuels and can be made into polymers. 

Hydrocarbons are passed through fractions, in the presence of a heated catalyst (usually, zeolite) which causes the large molecules of hydrocarbons to break into much smaller ones. 

(http://www.rsc.org/learn-chemistry/Content/FileRepository/frg/images//cracking%20hydrocarbons%20on%20a%20microscale%20images%202.JPG)

Normally, the alkane produced is used in more suitable fashion, whereas the alkene produced is used in polymers.

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...and reforming

Reforming is the conversion of straight-chain hydrocarbons into branched-chain and cyclic hydrocarbons. The reason for this is aromatic rings, or cyclic hydrocarbons burn more efficiently than straight-chain alkanes.

Remember that, aside from cyclic compounds, hydrogen gas is also produced during the process of reforming.

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