Transcript Crude Oil - Boardworks

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
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© Boardworks Ltd 2011
Links to the 2011 specifications
AQA
3.2.4.1 – Crude oil
Edexcel
Topic 5.2 – Describe crude oil as a complex mixture
of hydrocarbons
OCR Gateway
C1a – Making crude oil useful
OCR 21st
C2 – Material Choices
Century Science
How Science Works
The content in this presentation can help illustrate how scientists:
• evaluate the use of contemporary scientific and technological developments and their
benefits, drawbacks and risks
• consider how and why decisions about science and technology are made, including
those that raise ethical issues, and about the social, economic and environmental effects
of such decisions.
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© Boardworks Ltd 2011
What is crude oil?
Crude oil is a fossil fuel that comes directly from the Earth’s
crust. It is a complex mixture of hundreds of compounds.
The compounds in a mixture are not chemically combined
together, meaning they can be separated by methods such
as fractional distillation.
Crude oil is used to make fuels
for transport, heating and
generating electricity. It is also
used to make plastics and
hundreds of petrochemicals.
Oil rigs or drilling platforms are used to drill through the sea
bed to obtain crude oil from sedimentary rocks. It is then
pumped to an oil tanker terminal or an oil refinery on land.
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© Boardworks Ltd 2011
Problems with crude oil
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Deepwater Horizon
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© Boardworks Ltd 2011