Oil Refining Webquest

Written by: chemteacher • Edited by: Donna Cosmato
Updated Oct 26, 2009

Use this webquest to extend student knowledge of mixture separation. Tie concepts learned in the classroom to real-world economic situations. Take this teachable moment to help students understand the intensive process required to get gasoline ready for use, as well as other petroleum products.

Introduction

In this webquest you will be looking at the how, what, when, why and where of oil refining. The How Stuff Works Website has an abundance of information that you will cull through. Go to the website, read through the information, and answer these questions:

List at least 4 items that are produced by petroleum. (gasoline, crayons, plastics, heating oil, jet fuel, kerosene, synthetic fibers, tires)
Watch the Whytellmewhy video about Alaska's abundance of oil. In your own words, explain why Alaska is so oil-rich. (Two-hundred plus million years ago, conditions in Prudoe Bay were conducive to crustaceans & microscopic organisms growing and dying in a shallow sea. They were buried quickly and heated, but not too much. The end result was petroleum.)

Crude Oil

This section corresponds with page 2, all about Crude Oil.

3. What is crude oil? (Crude oil is natural petroleum, the raw ingredient straight from the ground.)

4. What are hydrocarbons? (Molecules comprised of hydrogen and carbon atoms are hydrocarbons.)

5. Why are hydrocarbons exciting to chemists? (Hydrocarbons are rich in energy and come in a wide variety of forms.)

From Crude Oil

Now visit this page.

6. What is the problem with crude oil? (The problem is that it is impure. Scientists need to separate the many different types of hydrocarbons.)

7. What is oil refining all about? (separating the mixture of hydrocarbons into its components, or fractions.)

8. Describe what happened in an oil refinery. (Heavier hydrocarbons boil at higher temperatures. Chemists use this principle to separate the hydrocarbons from each other. As a mixture is heated, the lightest hydrocarbons boil off first. They are collected. They have been separated from the mixture. This process is repeated until the whole mixture has been sorted.)

9. List the 8 products that come from crude oil and their boiling points.

Answer:

• Petroleum gas, less than 104 F

• Naptha, 140 to 212 F

• Gasoline, 104 to 401 F

• Kerosine, 350 to 616 F

• Diesel, 482 to 662 F

• Lubricating Oil, 572 to 700 F

• Fuel Oil, 700 to 1112 F

• Asphalt & Tar, greater than 1112 F