Blog 8.1 Hydrocarbon properties and uses (Due Thursday March 15th)

Hydrocarbons (alkanes, alkenes and alkynes) are very important substances that we use for many things. We drill for and pump crude oil which is a mixture of lots of different hydrocarbons. You need to answer these questions about hydrocarbons, you will have to do some research to be able to answer these questions. Please ignore the temptation to copy and paste your findings into your blog.

First answer these questions:

What is crude oil? What components are in the mixture of crude?

How to we separate the components of the mixture? What physical properties do we use to do that separation?

How do the properties of hydrocarbons change based on their size? How does this influence the boiling point of something small like methane compared to something large with 30 C's or more?

Research one or more of the following of interest to you.  Write 2-3 paragraphs summarizing your findings.

a.     The discovery of oil in the US and the location of the first drilling for oil ever done.

b.     How oil is drilled out of the ground.

c.      The extraction of oil from “oil shale” and “oil sand” deposits.

d.     The refining process used to extract particular components out of “crude oil.”

e.      The likelihood of finding natural gas, oil or coal deposits in Western NY.

f.       Why oil prices have been rising lately, and how the global oil trade is run.