Crude oil as a mixture
Crude oil (petroleum): a hydrocarbon mixture in which alkanes make up the largest share.
- Its alkanes can have straight or branched carbon chains.
- The mixture contains hydrocarbon molecules of different sizes and therefore a range of boiling points.
- Separating the mixture groups together hydrocarbons with similar properties, making the crude oil more useful.
The method used to separate these groups is fractional distillation.