• Question: How do you make petrol?

    Asked by macintoshisbetterthanpc to David, Helen, Ian, rhysphillips, Sarah on 23 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Sarah Cook

      Sarah Cook answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Distill crude oil and its one of the light fractions

    • Photo: Ian van der Linde

      Ian van der Linde answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      We dig crude oil (which is the thick black sludgy stuff) from the ground, and then heat it up and collect what evaporates first, second and third as we increase the temperature. Petrol is a mixture of heptane and octance, among other things. The heptane will evaporate off at one temperature and get collected, and the octane at another temperature. Lots of the other stuff in crude oil is useful too, so this will be collected and used for other things.

    • Photo: Rhys Phillips

      Rhys Phillips answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      By extracting crude oil out of the ground and heating it up – the stuff for petrol will eventually come be extracted from it.

    • Photo: Helen Fletcher

      Helen Fletcher answered on 23 Jun 2011:

      Crude oil is processed through what is called a cracking plant where the oil is heated until it breaks apart into it’s different components. these form layers that can be fractionated off from one another.

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