In the producing phase what goes differently for diesel and petrol considering that both are produced from crude oil?

Question

In the producing phase what goes differently for diesel and petrol considering that both are produced from crude oil?

In: 12

Answer 1

Crude oil is a mixture of different hydrocarbons. All the way from methane to tar. But these have different boiling points. Methane is even a gas at room temperature while tar remain very solid at even high temperatures. So the oil refinery put the crude oil into a distillation column where it is heated to a boil at the bottom and then gradually cooled as it goes up the column. Heavy hydrocarbons will condense near the bottom while light hydrocarbons will get all the way to the top. The condensed hydrocarbons is then collected at different elevations in the column. Diesel will collect lower in the column, then parafin, and the next level up will be petrol.