Page 24 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book

Hydrocarbons
The word petroleum comes from the Latin wordspetraandoleum,meaning“rock”and“oil”, respectively. Petroleum is a “catch-all” name for
a range of hydrocarbon gases, liquids and some solids, which form in the rocks of the Earth’s crust.
Petroleum is usually a complicated mixture of liquids, solids and dissolved gases. The liquid form of petroleum is referred to as crude oil. The gases associated with petroleum are called natural gas. From these liquids and gases come the fuels that power the modern world and the raw materials for plastics, fertilisers, drugs and a wide range of other essential materials.
 Crude oil is a brown, often sulphurous-smelling liquid.
This sample is from the second well ever drilled in Texas.
 Natural gas is predominantly made of the hydrocarbon methane, CH4
2
2
2
2
4
4
4
4
 The laboratory apparatus shown in the diagram on the right looks like this.
Also...
The most common carbon-based compounds contain simply hydrogen and carbon, derived from living tissue. These are called hydrocarbons and they are the basis of most fuels such as coal, oil and gas.
Other groups of carbon-based compounds include alcohols such as ethanol, the substance found in all alcoholic beverages; acetone, which can dissolve many plastics; and esters, which smell of fruits.