Crude oil

 Crude oil is found in the earths crust. Millions of years ago small animals and plants fell to
the bottom of the sea and their remains were covered by mud. The mud turned to rock and
puts high pressures on the dead animals and plants. Rocks around them also heat. As long as
there was no air or oxygen present the heat and pressure would chemically change them
into petroleum which is also known as crude oil.
 Naturally oil will float above the surface but sometimes it is trapped underneath
impermeable rock and cannot move above the surface forming an oil reserve. This is where
we get most of our oil from. We extract the oil by drilling an oil well deep into the crust to
the site of the oil using an oil rig and the oil is pumped up in a controlled manner due to the
valves
 Crude oil is a mixture of a wide variety of constituents. It consists primarily of hydrocarbons,
which are chemicals composed of hydrogen and carbon. As well as a wide variety of other
substances like benzene, chromium, iron, mercury, nickel, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, toluene,
and xylene.
 We get all the different substances of crude oil by using fractional distillation in a
fractionating column. Separating different substances based on there boiling points and by
using a clever system to prevent back flow.

Percentage of crude oil /%

Fraction Percentage of crude oil /%
Refinery gas 2
Petrol 22
Paraffin (kerosene) 17
Diesel Refinery gas Petrol 24
Paraffin (kerosene) Diesel
Residue (fuel oil,bitumenResidue
etc. (fuel oil,bitumen etc. 35

A pure substance has a fixed boiling point and will burn at exactly that temperature. By using this
information we can tell that each fraction is a mixture of different compounds and not a pure
substance. There is not one exact boiling point but a range of them. For example, diesels boiling
point is 220-350 degrees Celsius. On the other hand a pure substance like water boils at exactly 100
degrees Celsius. Using this we can tell it is pure.