Question

The refining of petroleum to produce gasoline involves which of the following? (Hint: You will need to read about petroleum refining.)

	A.	Separation of mixtures of hydrocarbons.
	B.	Physical separation.
	C.	Changing the chemical properties of hydrocarbons in the cracking and reforming processes.
	D.	All of the above.

Answer 1

Crude petroleum oil is basically a mixture of many hydrocarbons. Distillation is the primary method in refining petroleum. Distillation is a physical process. So, we are basically separating a number of hydrocarbons by a physical process. Now, many hydrocarbons are very heavy and consists of many carbon atoms. So, these long chain hydrocarbons are broken into lighter hydrocarbons by a process named cracking. Also, reforming is used to convert the hydrocarbons of low octane ratings into high octane liquid profucts.

So, we can say that, all the above process are used in the process of petroleum refining.

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