Crude Oil and Fuels

Crude oil is a fossil fuel.

It is a mixture of a very large number of compounds.
It formed (along with natural gas) when tiny bodies of plants & animals were compressed
under sediments at high temperatures, millions of years ago.

• A mixture consists of two or more substances

not chemically combined together.
- The properties of each substance in the mixture
are unchanged.
- Each of the different liquids mixed
in crude oil will still have its own
boiling point.

Thinking points:
Why are we dependent on crude oil?
What are the consequences?
Are there alternatives?
 Burning fuels.
Coal is mostly carbon, but the various fractions from crude oil contain hydrocarbons. Natural gas is the
smallest hydrocarbon, methane.

When burned in oxygen, hydrocarbons give off heat, in an exothermic reaction.

The products of burning are carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O).
Different fuels will release different amounts of heat energy per gram
CO2 + H2O
that is burned.

Thinking points:
HEAT ENERGY
What about the increasing % of CO2 in the atmosphere EVOLVED.
and the rise in average global temperatures?

What might be other properties of a useful fuel

Fossil fuel + oxygen.
 Equations for the burning of
fossil fuels.
Coal is mostly carbon : carbon + oxygen carbon dioxide

✔
balanced
C + O2 CO2

An equation for the oxidation of methane, natural gas, CH4 :

methane + oxygen carbon dioxide + water

✔
still balanced
notnot balanced
balanced
CH4 + 2 O2 CO2 + 2 H2O
4 hydrogen
4 oxygen atoms atoms intotal.
in both products, the reactants
But onlybut
oneonly
pair2on
in the
the left
products.
of the equation.

Insufficient oxygen means carbon Incomplete combustion can occur in faulty gas
monoxide (CO) or even CARBON may appliances & other heating appliances.
be formed instead of CO2.
This can be dangerous.
Carbon monoxide is a toxic gas. It lowers the ability of the blood to carry oxygen round
the body to where oxygen is needed.
When a fuel burns & tends to produce a lot of carbon, we say its burning is “sooty”.
 We also produce sulphur dioxide
by burning fossil fuels.
Burning most types of coal and oil
releases sulphur dioxide which
dissolves in water to produce an acid

The sulphur can be removed

from these fuels before they are burnt or the
sulphur dioxide removed from the waste
gases before they enter the atmosphere.

Both these treatments increase the cost of

the electricity that is generated.

In the recent past, acid rain has killed all

life in some lakes and affected forests as
shown in the photograph