Petroleum and Cracking Hydrocarbons

Fractional Distillation -  This is the process of seperating crude oil in to more useful FRACTIONS (hydrocarbons). 

PROCESS:
Crude oil is vapourised to 300 degrees celcius. The vapourised crude oil goes to in to the bottom of the fractioning column. The larger hydrocarbons do not vapourise at all because their boiling points are too high and so they form a gooey residue at the bottom. As the crude oil vapour goes up the fractioning column, it gets cooler and so a temperature gradient is produced. The boiling points of alkanes increase as they get bigger and so each fraction condenses at a different point in the fractioning column and is drawn off at a specific level. The…