What are the 3 types of fossil fuel?

Coal (solid), crude oil (liquid), and natural gas (gas).

Answer in your head, out loud, or on paper, then tap the card to flip.

What is crude oil?

Crude oil is a mixture of many different compounds, mostly hydrocarbons such as alkanes and alkenes.


It is a fossil fuel.

Answer in your head, out loud, or on paper, then tap the card to flip.

What is crude oil and how is it formed?

  1. Crude oil is formed from the remains of dead plants and animals, particularly plankton/ algae, that were buried in the earth.
  2. Over millions of years, these organic remains were subject to compressed under extreme pressure and heat.
  3. The heat and pressure chemically changed the organic remains into crude oil.

Answer in your head, out loud, or on paper, then tap the card to flip.

Is crude oil renewable? 

No.


Crude oil is a finite (non-renewable) resource as it takes millions of years to form, so can not be reformed in a human's time frame.

Answer in your head, out loud, or on paper, then tap the card to flip.

What is the name of the process we use to separate the components of crude oil?

Fractional distillation is used to separate the different components of crude oil.

Answer in your head, out loud, or on paper, then tap the card to flip.

Outline the process of the fractional distillation of crude oil.

  1. Crude oil is heated to vaporise it into a gas and passed into the fractionating column.
  2. As the gas rises up the column, it cools down, as the column is cooler at the top. 
  3. When the hydrocarbons reach a temperature lower than their boiling point, they condense into a liquid. This liquid is collected in trays and drained out.
  4. The longer chain hydrocarbons condense lower down the fractionating column (where it is hotter) because they have higher boiling points.
  5. The shorter chain hydrocarbons condense at the top of the column because they have lower boiling points.

Answer in your head, out loud, or on paper, then tap the card to flip.

List the components (fractions) of crude oil, starting with highest boiling point component.

  1. Bitumen
  2. Heavy fuel oil
  3. Diesel oil
  4. Kerosene
  5. Petrol
  6. LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas).


(there are others valid answers)

Answer in your head, out loud, or on paper, then tap the card to flip.

What are diesel, kerosene, and petrol used for?

They are used as fuels for vehicles.

Answer in your head, out loud, or on paper, then tap the card to flip.

How are hydrocarbons formed from crude oil used as feedstock by the petrochemical industry?

They can be used to make new compounds.


For example: polymers, solvents, lubricants, and detergents.

Answer in your head, out loud, or on paper, then tap the card to flip.

Why do short-chain hydrocarbons make good fuels?

They are very flammable and volatile, so are easy to combust for energy. 

Answer in your head, out loud, or on paper, then tap the card to flip.

Why are long-chain hydrocarbons bad fuels?

They are not very flammable or volatile. This means they are hard to combust for energy.

Answer in your head, out loud, or on paper, then tap the card to flip.

Do hydrocarbons with long or short chains have a lower boiling point?

Hydrocarbons with shorter chains have lower boiling points.

Answer in your head, out loud, or on paper, then tap the card to flip.

Are hydrocarbons with long or short chains collected at the top of the fractionating column?

Hydrocarbons with shorter chains are collected at the top of the fractionating column.

Answer in your head, out loud, or on paper, then tap the card to flip.

What happens to the temperature as you move higher up the fractionating column?

The temperature is cooler towards the top of the fractionating column.

Answer in your head, out loud, or on paper, then tap the card to flip.