Petroleum is taken by trucks, railroads, ships, or pipelines to places called refineries.
A single barrel of oil can supply us with many things. Study the graph below.
A refinery actually changes the petroleum into many useful products.
The process of refining is really very simple.
In fact, it works very much like steam coming off
a tea kettle. When water is heated, it turns to a vapor called steam. It
resembles a small cloud. If a cold object comes in contact with the steam, the vapor turns
back to water. This is called condensation.
The exact same thing happens in a refinery. The petroleum or crude oil is heated. Then the vapor
goes into a fractionating tower. It takes the crude oil and breaks it into parts or fractions. In
this fractionating tower, the lightest vapors rise to the top while the heavier vapors stay at the
bottom. Several pans collect the vapor as it turns back into liquid. Different liquids are formed
at different levels of the tower.
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Top Layer
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Gasoline
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Middle Layers
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Kerosene
Diesel Fuel
Heating oil
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Lower Layer
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Lubricating oil
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Very Bottom Layer
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Sludge (asphalt)
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The vapor that condenses at the very top of the tower is used not only for gasoline and
kerosene, but also for a variety of products. These products are
called petrochemicals. Chemists change the molecules in the petroleum
and create many new products. Many of these
petroleum products are found in the home.
Isn't it amazing that all of these things come from petroleum? Even more amazing is the fact that
these products were directly related to the boom that shook the world, Spindletop!
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