Oil is part of our lives. Both for the generation of energy and for the fuel of all types of vehicles, devices, etc. And for the formation of plastics. It is a compound that is present in more things in our daily lives than we think. However, do we know what is oil? In this article we are going to tell everything about oil from what it is to how it is formed and what uses it has in our society.
Do you want to know more about it? Keep reading because we tell you everything 🙂
What is and how is oil formed?
It is a mineral oil that has a black or very dark color. It has a lower density than that of water and, therefore, when a disaster like the Prestige occurs, the oil remains floating in the water. It has a characteristic smell that is sure to attract more than one. It is made up of a mixture of hydrocarbons with oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur in different amounts. This compound is only found in sedimentary rocks since its formation resides there.
It is formed through the raw material that is composed of remains of living organisms distributed among aquatic, terrestrial and plant beings. All these animals and plants that died were leaving their composition and degrading giving rise to what we know today as oil. The remains of living beings have been attacked by the action of anaerobic bacteria that consumed all the oxygen and left only the carbon and hydrogen molecules that are present. This is the reason why it is only composed of hydrocarbons.
The pressure exerted by sediments that are located above the lower layers of the Earth causes the expulsion of all the liquid present in the layers where the sedimentary rocks are located. This liquid is what we know as oil. After the action and pressure of the sedimentary rocks, it is able to travel tens of kilometers on slopes that it finds a pore rock through which to enter the holes. This rock where the liquid is deposited and stored is called storage rock.
It is from this storage rock where all the so-called crude oil is extracted.
Crude oil
This compound that we call crude oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons and other species with up to 40 carbon atoms. The simplest hydrocarbon it is made of is methane, made up of one carbon and four hydrogen atoms. This crude as it is extracted from warehouse rock It has no industrial or fuel use. It is necessary to put it through a refining process. The most identifying characteristic of crude oil is its high energy content.
Refining is an operation that consists of the fractional distillation of all the elements. Thanks to this process, different products can be obtained, depending on the temperature at which it is made. For example, some of the products obtained at different temperatures are ethane, methane, butane, propane, which are gaseous; liquid products such as gasoline, fuel oil and kerosene; and solid substances such as tar and paraffin.
All products must be subjected to different temperatures for their production. Thus, Oil has quite a few uses, not only in the energy industry, but also in the chemical industry.
In order not to make any environmental impact on cities or natural environments, extraction points and oil fields are located far from the places where they are consumed. Crude oil is transported thanks to the construction of pipelines that are located in the well where it is extracted to the nearest refinery. There are times when crude must be transported by sea. On these occasions, tankers or oil tankers are used.
The transport of these substances through the sea can cause certain disasters due to accidents. Imagine that a ship carrying crude hits a rock and all the oil is released. The environmental impact it causes on the sea is enormous. It would affect both the quality of the water and the living beings that inhabit that area.
Main uses
As oil has many products depending on the temperature at which it is refined, there are also many uses it can have. The first use is domestic or industrial fuel. Who has not had a bottle of butane at home or has used some type of paraffin stove.
Another use is as fuel and lubricant. The vast majority of fossil fuels of all vehicles in the world are made from oil. Depending on the type of vehicle and engine, one refined or another is made to serve in different places.
Oil is also used as basic raw material in the petrochemical industry. It is the basis of all plastic products in the world. Plastic bags are made from petroleum. What's more, any type of plastic comes from oil.
In order to satisfy market demand, some techniques have been implemented that help transform the structures of many of the products obtained during refining so that other types of substances more demanded by society can be obtained. To modify these products we find techniques such as cracking and polymerization.
In cracking it is possible to break a heavy molecule that has many carbon atoms and form lighter molecules. For example, from fuel oil other types of gases and gasoline can be obtained. On the other hand, through polymerization, several molecules found in a simpler compound called a monomer can be joined to form more complex and larger molecules called polymers. We have as an example ethylene to form polyethylene. Polyethylene is the material of tetrabricks.
I hope that with this information you know more about oil and all its uses in the industry.