BRAINCAKEAlkanes from Crude Oil
Crude oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons, mostly alkanes, with chains from one to over fifty carbon atoms. It is formed from the remains of sea creatures over millions of years, so it is a finite, non-renewable resource.
A mixture is not useful as it is, so crude oil is separated into fractions by fractional distillation. A fraction is a mixture of hydrocarbons with similar chain lengths and a similar range of boiling points.
1. Crude oil is heated in a furnace to about 350 °C, so most of it vaporises.
2. The vapour passes into a tall fractionating column, which is hot at the bottom and cooler at the top (a temperature gradient).
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Key terms in this lesson
- london forces
- Weak intermolecular forces caused by instantaneous dipoles inducing dipoles in neighbouring molecules, present between all molecules.
More in Alkanes
- Alkanes
- Cracking
- Reforming
- Combustion of Alkanes
- Oxides of Sulfur
- Oxides of Nitrogen
- Catalytic Converters
- Alternative Fuels
All 14 lessons in Alkanes · All Edexcel AS-level Chemistry topics