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Why don't people realize that Oil, other than gasoline, is needed to produce 6000 or more...?
...everyday products??
This is just a general question to make people think!
One 42-gallon barrel of oil creates 19.4 gallons of gasoline. Below is just some of the things that oil is used:
Solvents Diesel Motor Oil Bearing Grease Ink Floor Wax Ballpoint Pens Football Cleats Upholstery Sweaters Boats Insecticides Bicycle Tires Sports Car Bodies Nail Polish Fishing lures Dresses Tires Golf Bags Perfumes Cassettes Dishwasher Tool Boxes Shoe Polish Motorcycle Helmet Caulking Petroleum Jelly Transparent Tape CD Players Faucet Washers Antiseptics Clothesline Curtains Food Preservatives Basketballs Soap Vitamin Capsules Antihistamines Purses Shoes Dashboards Cortisone Deodorant Footballs Putty Dyes Panty Hose Refrigerant Percolators Life Jackets Rubbing Alcohol Linings Skis TV Cabinets Shag Rugs Electrician's Tape Tool Racks Car Battery Cases Epoxy Paint Mops Slacks Insect Repellent Oil Filters Umbrellas Yarn Fertilizers Hair Coloring Roofing Toilet Seats Fishing Rods Lipstick
From Crude Oil
The problem with crude oil is that it contains hundreds of different types of hydrocarbons all mixed together. You have to separate the different types of hydrocarbons to have anything useful. Fortunately there is an easy way to separate things, and this is what oil refining is all about.
The oil refining process starts with a fractional distillation column.
Different hydrocarbon chain lengths all have progressively higher boiling points, so they can all be separated by distillation. This is what happens in an oil refinery - in one part of the process, crude oil is heated and the different chains are pulled out by their vaporization temperatures. Each different chain length has a different property that makes it useful in a different way.
To understand the diversity contained in crude oil, and to understand why refining crude oil is so important in our society, look through the following list of products that come from crude oil:
* Petroleum gas - used for heating, cooking, making plastics
o small alkanes (1 to 4 carbon atoms)
o commonly known by the names methane, ethane, propane, butane
o boiling range = less than 104 degrees Fahrenheit / 40 degrees Celsius
o often liquified under pressure to create LPG (liquified petroleum gas)
* Naphtha or Ligroin - intermediate that will be further processed to make gasoline
o mix of 5 to 9 carbon atom alkanes
o boiling range = 140 to 212 degrees Fahrenheit / 60 to 100 degrees Celsius
* Gasoline - motor fuel
o liquid
o mix of alkanes and cycloalkanes (5 to 12 carbon atoms)
o boiling range = 104 to 401 degrees Fahrenheit / 40 to 205 degrees Celsius
* Kerosene - fuel for jet engines and tractors; starting material for making other products
o liquid
o mix of alkanes (10 to 18 carbons) and aromatics
o boiling range = 350 to 617 degrees Fahrenheit / 175 to 325 degrees Celsius
* Gas oil or Diesel distillate - used for diesel fuel and heating oil; starting material for making other products
o liquid
o alkanes containing 12 or more carbon atoms
o boiling range = 482 to 662 degrees Fahrenheit / 250 to 350 degrees Celsius
* Lubricating oil - used for motor oil, grease, other lubricants
o liquid
o long chain (20 to 50 carbon atoms) alkanes, cycloalkanes, aromatics
o boiling range = 572 to 700 degrees Fahrenheit / 300 to 370 degrees Celsius
* Heavy gas or Fuel oil - used for industrial fuel; starting material for making other products
o liquid
o long chain (20 to 70 carbon atoms) alkanes, cycloalkanes, aromatics
o boiling range = 700 to 1112 degrees Fahrenheit / 370 to 600 degrees Celsius
* Residuals - coke, asphalt, tar, waxes; starting material for making other products
o solid
o multiple-ringed compounds with 70 or more carbon atoms
o boiling range = greater than 1112 degrees Fahrenheit / 600 degrees Celsius
You may have noticed that all of these products have different sizes and boiling ranges. Chemists take advantage of these properties when refining oil. Look at the next section to find out the details of this fascinating process.
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Burning crude oil itself is of limited use. To extract the maximum value from crude, it first needs to be refined into petroleum products. The best-known of these is gasoline, or petrol. However, there are many other products that can be obtained when a barrel of crude oil is refined. These include liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), naphtha, kerosene, gasoil and fuel oil. Other useful products which are not fuels can also be manufactured by refining crude oil, such as lubricants and asphalt (used in paving roads). A range of sub-items like perfumes and insecticides are also ultimately derived from crude oil.
Furthermore, several of the products listed above which are derived from crude oil, such as naphtha, gasoil, LPG and ethane, can themselves be used as inputs or feedstocks in the production of petrochemicals. There are more than 4,000 different petrochemical products, but those which are considered as basic products include ethylene, propylene, butadiene, benzene, ammonia and methanol. The main groups of petrochemical end-products are plastics, synthetic fibres, synthetic rubbers, detergents and chemical fertilisers.
Considering the vast number of products that are derived from it, crude oil is a very versatile substance. Life as we know it today would be extremely difficult without crude oil and its by-products.
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