The problem with crude oil is that it contains hundreds of different types of hydrocarbons, all of which are mixed together. It is necessary to separate different kinds of hydrocarbons in order to extract useful substances from them. Fortunately, there is a simple way to separate these substances, and that is petroleum refining. The petroleum refining process begins with the fractionator. With the increase of hydrocarbon chain length, its boiling point will gradually increase, so it can be completely separated by distillation. The refinery is like this-in one part of the refining process, crude oil is heated and hydrocarbon chains with different lengths are separated at different evaporation temperatures. Each chain with different length has different properties and corresponds to different uses. In order to understand the diversity of crude oil composition and why oil refining is so important to society, please look at the following products produced from crude oil:
petroleum gas
Used for heating, cooking and manufacturing plastics, small molecular alkanes (1-4 carbon atoms), commonly known as methane, ethane, propane and butane, with boiling range below 40℃, are often liquefied into LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) under pressure.
Naphtha or light petroleum
An intermediate product to be further processed into gasoline is a mixture of alkanes with 5-9 carbon atoms, and the boiling range is 60- 100℃.
petrol
Liquid engine fuel, mixture of alkanes and cycloalkanes (5- 12 carbon atoms), boiling range =40-205℃.
paraffin
Fuel for jet engines and tractors; Raw materials for manufacturing other products, liquid, mixture of alkanes (10- 18 carbon atoms) and aromatics, boiling range = 175-325℃.
Diesel oil or fractional diesel oil
Used as diesel oil or heating oil; Raw materials for manufacturing other products, alkanes with liquid carbon number greater than or equal to 12,
Boiling range =250-350℃.