Why do we need to process crude oil before we use it?
Why do we need to process crude oil before we use it?
Petroleum refineries change crude oil into petroleum products for use as fuels for transportation, heating, paving roads, and generating electricity and as feedstocks for making chemicals. Refining breaks crude oil down into its various components, which are then selectively reconfigured into new products.
Does crude oil need to be processed?
Each time hydrocarbons require processing, energy is required. As a further complication, crude oil from different places in the world has a different mix of heavy and light hydrocarbons. This means that crude oil may need more or less treatment, depending on where it comes from.
Is crude oil useful in its raw form?
Crude oil is a finite resource that is found in the Earth’s crust. Crude oil is an important source of: fuels such as petrol, diesel, kerosene, heavy fuel oil and liquefied petroleum gases.
Why does crude oil need to be refined?
Crude oil is a highly variable mixture of heavy and light hydrocarbons that need to be separated in a refinery to turn them into usable products. For these different reasons it is impossible to develop a universal boiler or engine capable of running on all crude oils. Infographics Refining: From Crude Oil to Petroleum…
Why is crude oil not used in industrial applications?
Raw or unprocessed crude oil is not generally useful in industrial applications. Crude oil is a mixture of different oils (the difference being the number of carbon atoms in the chains that make up the oil). Different crude oils from different sources have different mixes of these oils so the first problem is that not all crude oils are the same.
What makes crude oil different from other oil?
Some crudes are black and viscous and contain a lot of heavy molecules; others are brown, more fluid and lighter. Each also contains a certain amount of dissolved gas and highly corrosive products, such as sulfur or acids, which can sometimes be toxic.
Why is it dangerous to burn crude oil?
It’s dangerous to try to burn crude before these lighter component parts are separated at the refinery. Once the dirt and really light components are separated, the remaining oil is a mixture of very different molecules from tiny ones to huge, as molecules go.
