Crude Oil & Fractional

Distillation
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Crude Oil £%@

• Crude oil is a fossil fuel and one of the most important

substances in the world. It is a mixture of hundreds of
different compounds.
• It is used to make fuels for transport, heating and
generating electricity.
• It is also used to make plastics and hundreds of different
types of chemicals.
• Every day, the world uses over 70 million barrels of
oil.
• If you filled bath tubs with this amount of oil and put them
end-to-end, they would stretch round the Earth 7.5 times!
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Crude Oil £%@

• The modern oil industry began in the mid-19th century

when kerosene was distilled from crude oil and used as
a cheap and clean-burning fuel for lamps.
• Gasoline was a by-product in
kerosene production, and was initially used as a solvent.
• It wasn’t until the development of the internal
combustion engine and gasoline-powered cars in the
late 19th century that gasoline became highly valuable.
This led to a great increase in the demand for crude oil,
which has continued to this day.
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Crude Oil £%@

• Crude oil is made from the remains of marine

animals.
• As the remains become buries by sand (usually in
the oceans) the increased pressure and
temperature results in their breakdown.
Crude Oil Reserves

• There are over 1 trillion (1 million million) barrels of

crude oil in proven oil reserves.
• At current rates, this will last about 44 years, but
the amount of oil used in the world increases each
year.
• There is a lot of debate over whether or not there is
still a significant amount of oil still to be found.
Crude Oil
• Crude oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons.

• The predominant hydrocarbons in crude oil are

alkanes.
Crude Oil
• Crude oil itself has no real use but it can be
processed or refined.
• The first step is to separate compounds in the oil
into groups called fractions.
• Each fraction contains a mixture of compounds
with a similar number of carbon atoms (i.e. similar
boiling point).
• The number of carbons in a chain can vary from 1 to
well over 50 atoms.
Fractional Distillation
• The more carbon atoms in a hydrocarbon molecule,
the larger the molecule.

• This is because the intermolecular forces between

large molecules are stronger than the
intermolecular forces between small molecules.
• More energy is needed to break the forces between
large molecules, and so the boiling point is higher.
Boiling point & chain length
Fractional Distillation
• Fractional distillation is a process used to
separate a mixture of liquids that have
different boiling points.
• When the mixture is heated, liquids with a low
boiling point evaporate and turn to vapour.
• Liquids with a higher boiling point remain as
liquid. The vapour can then be separated from
the liquid.
• Fractional distillation is used to separate crude
oil into fractions with different boiling points. It
can be done industrially and in the laboratory.
Fractional Distillation – process
1. Oil is heated to about 450 °C and pumped
into the bottom of a tall tower called a
fractionating column, where it vaporizes.
2. The column is very hot at the bottom but
much cooler at the top. As the vaporized oil
rises, it cools and condenses.
3. Heavy fractions (containing large
molecules) have a high boiling point and
condense near the bottom of the column.
4. Lighter fractions (containing small
molecules) have a lower boiling point and
condense further up the column
The fractions
Refinery gases
Gasoline
Naphtha
Kerosene
Diesel oil
Lubricating oil
Fuel oil
Residue
 Fractional distillation in the lab
Fractional distillation fractions collected
of crude oil can be previously (at lower
done in the temperatures)
laboratory by
heating crude oil
and collecting the
vapour produced
at different
temperatures.

mineral wool
soaked in
crude oil
cooling water
 Catalytic Cracking
The amount of each type of fraction obtained by fractional
distillation does not usually match the amount of each
fraction that is needed.
Crude oil often contains more
heavier fractions than lighter
fractions. Lighter fractions are
more useful and therefore
more desirable.

The large hydrocarbon molecules

in the heavier fractions can be
broken down into smaller, more useful,
molecules to meet demand
for raw materials for fuels and plastics.
Catalytic Cracking
Large hydrocarbon molecules can be broken down into
smaller molecules using a catalyst. This is called catalytic
cracking, and is an example of a thermal decomposition
reaction.
The hydrocarbon molecules are
heated until they turn into
vapour, and then mixed with a
catalyst. The molecules break
apart, forming smaller alkanes
and alkenes.

Alkenes are reactive molecules

that are used to make plastics and
other chemicals.
Cracking e.g. decane
Decane from the naphtha fraction can be cracked to form
pentane (for use in petrol), propene and ethene.

decane
(C10H22)

+ +

pentane propene ethene

(C5H12) (C3H6) (C2H4)
 Cracking in the lab
Catalytic cracking can be done in the laboratory by heating
mineral wool soaked in oil with a catalyst, producing a gas.
aluminium
oxide catalyst gaseous product

mineral wool
soaked in oil