BRAINCAKEFractional Distillation of Crude Oil
Crude oil is a mixture consisting mainly of alkane hydrocarbons, with different chain lengths. It is separated into useful fractions by fractional distillation.
The crude oil is heated until most of it vaporises and the vapour is passed into the bottom of a fractionating column. The column is hot at the bottom and cooler at the top, so there is a temperature gradient.
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More in Alkanes
- Cyclic Alkanes
- Naming Alkanes
- Structural Isomers
- Physical Properties
- Fracking
- Thermal Cracking
- catalytic Cracking
- Combustion
All 20 lessons in Alkanes · All AQA AS-level Chemistry topics