Separating crude oil

Separating crude oil

Crude oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons and it can be used to produce many useful materials. It can be separated into different fractions using fractional distillation and some of these can be used as fuels. 

Crude oil forms naturally over millions of years from the remains of living things. Most of the compounds in crude oil are hydrocarbons which are compounds that contain hydrogen and carbons only, joined together by bonds called covalent bonds. 

There are different kinds of hydrocarbons but most in crude oil are alkanes. 

The alkanes are a family of hydrocarbons…