1. What is crude oil?
Crude oil - .

2. What is crude oil?
Crude oil - Oil we find underground.

3. What is crude oil?
Crude oil - Oil we find underground. It is formed from partially decayed plants and animals, under mud, millions of years ago.

4. What is crude oil?
Crude oil doesn’t always look the same, it depends where it’s from. It can vary from black to colourless.

5. What is crude oil?
…but usually it looks like thin, brown treacle.

6. Crude Oil formation

7. Drilling for oil In some places, rock traps oil so it cannot escape.
Oil wells are drilled through the rock and the oil is pumped to the surface.

8. Drilling for oil

10. Separating crude oil
Crude oil is made up of a mixture of hydrocarbons.
Hydrocarbons are compounds that are made up of hydrogen and carbon atoms only.
Because crude oil is a mixture, the long chains need to be separated before they are useful.

11. Separating crude oil
The hydrocarbons that make up the crude oil mixture vary in size.
The larger the hydrocarbon the higher it’s boiling point.

12. Separation of crude oil
The hydrocarbons in crude oil are separated using fractional distillation.
This happens at an oil refinery in a tower called a fractionating column.
In the fractioning column the hydrocarbons in crude oil are separated as they have different boiling points.

13. The Fractional Distillation of Crude Oil
Average number of C atoms in chain
Fraction
Boiling pt. 3
Liquid petroleum gas
< 25oC
40oC
Petrol (gasoline)
25 – 60oC 8
Naphtha
60 – 180oC 10
Paraffin
180 – 220oC 12
Diesel 20
220 – 250oC
Fuel oil 40
250 – 300oC
Lubricating oil 80
300 – 350oC
Bitumen
120
> 350oC
350oC
Heated Crude Oil

14. Properties of the fractions

15. Use your diagram to help you!