Making crude oil useful

Why are fossil fuels finite resources?

Fossil fuels are called a ...... resource?

Which specific difficulties are associated with the finite nature of crude oil?

What is crude oil?

Crude oil is a mixture of many types of oil. What can these types of oil be referred to as?

What is a hydrocarbon?

Crude oil is heated at the bottom of a fractionating column. Draw a diagram of this fractionating column.

Oil that doesn't boil sinks as a thick liquid to the bottom. What is this oil called?

Does bitumen have a very low or a very high boiling point?

What happens to the other fractions containing mixtures of hydrocarbons with similar boiling points?

The column is cooler at the top. Do fractions with higher or lower boiling points 'exit' towards the top column?

Why can crude oil be separated?

What are the forces between the molecules called?

What are intermolecular forces?

What happens to the intermolecular forces during boiling?

What happens to the molecules of the liquid when these forces are broken?

Why is a lot of energy needed to break the forces between large molecules, such as those of bitumen and heavy oil?

Consequently, do these fractions have high or low boiling points.

Why do these fractions have high boiling points?

Why is less energy needed to break the forces of smaller molecules, such as petrol?

Consequently, do these fractions have high or low boiling points?

Why do these fractions have low boiling points?

What problems can transporting oil cause?

Why may there be political problems related to the extraction of crude oil, particularly where the UK is dependent on oil and gas from politically unstable countries?

Why is there a conflict between the needs for making petrochemicals and for making fuels?

What is a fraction called naphtha in high demand for?

What is the process of cracking?

What is special about an alkene molecule?

What does this double bond make it useful for?

What else can cracking helps oil manufacturers to do?