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Topic 6B Alkanes, taught by a specialist chemistry teacher.

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Lesson 1 of 4

Alkanes from Crude Oil

This virtual lesson focuses on the industrial origins of alkanes, exploring how they are obtained and processed from crude oil.

The lesson opens by establishing the nature of crude oil as a complex mixture of hydrocarbons, before covering how it is separated using fractional distillation. The role of the fractionating column, differences in boiling points, and the collection of fractions including refinery gases, petrol, kerosene, and diesel are all explained.

Cracking is then introduced as a key industrial process used to convert long-chain hydrocarbons into shorter-chain alkanes and alkenes. The reasons why cracking is necessary are explained alongside the conditions required, including the use of high temperature and catalysts.

The lesson concludes with reforming, where hydrocarbons are rearranged to produce branched alkanes and aromatic compounds, improving fuel quality by increasing the octane rating. This links industrial chemistry directly to real-world fuel applications.

This lesson provides essential insight into how alkanes are produced, modified, and optimised for use as fuels and chemical feedstocks.

Next: Alkanes as Fuels

Specification points for Topic 6B

6.10understand that alkane fuels are obtained from the fractional distillation, cracking and reforming of crude oil
6.11know that pollutants, including carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen and sulfur, carbon particulates and unburned hydrocarbons, are formed during the combustion of alkane fuels
6.12understand the problems arising from pollutants from the combustion of fuels, limited to the toxicity of carbon monoxide and the acidity of oxides of nitrogen and sulfur
6.13understand how the use of a catalytic converter solves some problems caused by pollutants
6.14understand the use of alternative fuels, including biodiesel and alcohols derived from renewable sources such as plants, in terms of a comparison with non-renewable fossil fuels
6.15know that a radical:i
6.16understand the reactions of alkanes with:i
6.17understand the limitations of the use of radical substitution reactions in the synthesis of organic molecules, in terms of further substitution reactions and the formation of a mixture of products
6.23understand that heterolytic bond fission of a covalent bond results in the formation of ions

Alkanes from Crude Oil

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