Explain Fractional distillation of petroleum.
Crude oil, is a mixture of large number of compounds. As we heat the crude oil, the lighter hydrocarbons are the first to boil off. They are collected as the first fraction, which a mixture of hydrocarbons with similarly low boiling points.
On increasing the temperature fraction by fraction the mixture of products are obtained.
The products obtained are:-
Gasoline 46%, Heating Oil 20%, Kerosene 8%, Propane 7%, NGL 6%, Still gas 4%, Petroleum coke 2% etc.