Fossil Fuels, they are remains of plants or animals that have died a million or more years ago and slowly
developed into fuels that are used today.
These can consist of:
● Petroleum / Crude Oil
● Coal
● Natural Gas
Crude Oil also known as 'Petroleum' was developed years ago by dead animals that fell to the ocean
floor and then buried under sediment and under high temperatures and high pressure it slowly
converted to petroleum.
Methane is produced in a similar way but the high pressure and high temperature caused these
compounds to break down into a gas.
Coal is the remains of plants and vegetation that got buried with sediment over time and under constant
high heat and pressure formed coal over the millions of years.
Hydrocarbons are elements that only have carbon and hydrogen.
There can be different structural formulas for different organic compounds, when the structure of a
compound is built in a circular way its prefix is 'cyclo' and then the name of a circle and then can be
paired up with alkane or alkene to form a cyclo-hexane as an example. Another different structure is the
normal straight chain structure. Finally, the last type of structure is the branched, one branch means
methyl and two branches means ethyl and so on. The three carbons connected together means pentane
as there are three carbons making it pent and alkane adding the prefix ‘ane’.
, Crude Oil is considered to be a fini non-renewable source, meaning that it’s going to eventually
run out as we humans are using it up at a rate faster in which it can be produced.
Petroleum has lots of different hydrocarbons, together they are not as useful but using a
process called refining we can split petroleum into much more useful hydrocarbons.
Refining Petroleum works by using fractional distillation, it is distilled into different fractions;
each fraction consists of hydrocarbons with similar chain lengths meaning that the size differs
from hydrocarbons in terms of how much carbon and hydrogen atoms it has. In each fraction
hydrocarbons have similar chemical properties and boiling points.
The process goes as the following :
● Crude Oil enters the fractionating column and is heated and vapours of different
hydrocarbons start to rise.
● As there are very high temperatures at the bottom of the fractionating column and cool
temperatures at the top. Hydrocarbons with very high boiling points would immediately
condense back to a liquid lower down in the fractionating column and be tapped off.
● Hydrocarbons with very low boiling points would rise up the column and then condense
back to a liquid after cooling down to below their boiling point.
Hydrocarbons that are smaller in chain length are collected at the top. Hydrocarbons that are
larger in chain length are collected at the bottom.
Explanation :
developed into fuels that are used today.
These can consist of:
● Petroleum / Crude Oil
● Coal
● Natural Gas
Crude Oil also known as 'Petroleum' was developed years ago by dead animals that fell to the ocean
floor and then buried under sediment and under high temperatures and high pressure it slowly
converted to petroleum.
Methane is produced in a similar way but the high pressure and high temperature caused these
compounds to break down into a gas.
Coal is the remains of plants and vegetation that got buried with sediment over time and under constant
high heat and pressure formed coal over the millions of years.
Hydrocarbons are elements that only have carbon and hydrogen.
There can be different structural formulas for different organic compounds, when the structure of a
compound is built in a circular way its prefix is 'cyclo' and then the name of a circle and then can be
paired up with alkane or alkene to form a cyclo-hexane as an example. Another different structure is the
normal straight chain structure. Finally, the last type of structure is the branched, one branch means
methyl and two branches means ethyl and so on. The three carbons connected together means pentane
as there are three carbons making it pent and alkane adding the prefix ‘ane’.
, Crude Oil is considered to be a fini non-renewable source, meaning that it’s going to eventually
run out as we humans are using it up at a rate faster in which it can be produced.
Petroleum has lots of different hydrocarbons, together they are not as useful but using a
process called refining we can split petroleum into much more useful hydrocarbons.
Refining Petroleum works by using fractional distillation, it is distilled into different fractions;
each fraction consists of hydrocarbons with similar chain lengths meaning that the size differs
from hydrocarbons in terms of how much carbon and hydrogen atoms it has. In each fraction
hydrocarbons have similar chemical properties and boiling points.
The process goes as the following :
● Crude Oil enters the fractionating column and is heated and vapours of different
hydrocarbons start to rise.
● As there are very high temperatures at the bottom of the fractionating column and cool
temperatures at the top. Hydrocarbons with very high boiling points would immediately
condense back to a liquid lower down in the fractionating column and be tapped off.
● Hydrocarbons with very low boiling points would rise up the column and then condense
back to a liquid after cooling down to below their boiling point.
Hydrocarbons that are smaller in chain length are collected at the top. Hydrocarbons that are
larger in chain length are collected at the bottom.
Explanation :
