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Crude oil is the raw material used for making plastics.

Chemistry - Other Uses of Crude Oil (AQA)

Crude oil is more than just fuel. In GCSE Chemistry you explore how its fractions become plastics, fibres, detergents and synthetic rubber used in everyday products.

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Fascinating Fact:

Synthetic rubber such as SBR for tyres is made from styrene and butadiene sourced from crude oil fractions.

In GCSE Science (Chemistry), you learn that crude oil fractions are valuable feedstocks for the petrochemical industry. They are turned into polymers, synthetic fibres, detergents, rubbers and many other everyday materials.

Key Terms

Feedstock: A raw material used by the chemical industry to make other useful substances, such as plastics or detergents.
Petrochemical: A chemical made from crude oil or natural gas that is used to manufacture products like plastics, solvents and synthetic fibres.
Synthetic rubber: A man-made elastic material produced by polymerising hydrocarbons instead of using natural latex from rubber trees.

Frequently Asked Questions (Click to see answers)

What are other uses of crude oil apart from fuels?

As well as fuels, crude oil provides feedstocks for plastics, synthetic rubber, detergents, paints, solvents, synthetic fibres and many everyday products made in the petrochemical industry.

Why is crude oil important to the chemical industry?

Crude oil is important because its fractions contain hydrocarbons that can be cracked and modified to make a wide range of useful chemicals, giving industry a flexible source of raw materials.

What GCSE Chemistry ideas link to other uses of crude oil?

This topic links to fractional distillation, cracking, polymer formation and environmental issues, showing how separated fractions are turned into materials like plastics, rubbers and detergents.

Try These Related Quizzes

1 .

Which of the fractions of oil is most often used to manufacture chemicals instead of being used as a fuel?

Petrol

Naptha

Kerosene

Residue

The naptha fraction comprises molecules that have 6 - 11 carbon atoms in their chain

2 .

Ethanol can be made by fermenting plants or from the ethene obtained by cracking crude oil. What would be a disadvantage of making it from oil?

It comes from a renewable source

It comes from a non-renewable source

It contains more impurities

It doesn't mix as easily with petrol as the ethanol from plants

So although pollution is less, because it too is made from oil, it will no longer be available when oil reserves are exhausted

3 .

Which of the following represents a carbon to carbon double bond in an alkene?

CxC

--CC

C-d-C

C=C

When drawing the structure of alkenes, the symbol for the double bond resembles an equals sign. You only need to know the names of the first two alkenes - ethene and propene

4 .

What is the test used to detect an alkene and what is the result?

Limewater/cloudy

Litmus paper/bleached

Bromine water/colourless

Universal indicator/brown

The orange colour in bromine water is from the bromine molecules. When you add an alkene, the bromine molecules react with the double bond and become attached to the alkene molecules. This is why the colour disappears

5 .

What is the key difference between the alkanes and the alkenes that are produced by cracking, and what is the cause?

Alkenes are much more reactive as they are unsaturated

Alkanes are much more reactive as they are suturated

Alkenes have a smell because their chemical bonds are weak

Alkenes are all coloured compounds because they polarise the light passing through them

It is their increased reactivitiy that makes the alkenes particularly useful. Being unsaturated means there is a double bond between at least one pair of carbon atoms. This is easier to break than the single bonds in the alkanes

6 .

Why is the residue fraction often used for cracking?

It is too sticky to use for anything else

The molecules are very small

It is the cheapest thing to do with it

There is more produced than is used

It also has large molecules which can be cracked in different ways to provide various different chemicals for industry

7 .

What is the general formula for any alkene?

C_nH_2n

C_2nH_n+2

C_nH_2n+2

C_nH₂

Having a double bond means that there will always be 2 hydrogen atoms less in an alkene when compared to the equivalent alkane

8 .

Read the following passage. Which answer gives the missing words in the correct order?

There are two good reasons for cracking oil __________. Firstly, there just aren't enough fuels like petrol or _________ in the original crude oil to meet demand. Secondly, _______ that are needed to manufacture other chemicals are not found in oil but can be made from it. Cracking means the vast majority of crude oil can be turned into useful products and not just burnt as ______.

portions, ethanol, alkanes, fuels

fractions, diesel, alkenes, fuels

elements, diesel, alkanes, water

compounds, petrol, alkenes, hydrogen

Cracking is an important process as it enables us to use virtually everything in crude oil

9 .

Ethanol can be added to petrol used in car engines. Why is this?

It makes cars travel faster

It is a good way of getting rid of the ethanol that we don't need

It makes the fuel easier to burn than just using petrol on its own

It burns more cleanly, reducing air pollution

Another reason is that petrol reserves are limited and diluting it with ethanol will make it last longer

10 .

During the cracking of alkanes from crude oil, one of the products is:

an alcohol

an aldehyde

an alkene

an alkyne

Alkenes can be used to make any of the other 3 chemcals mentioned in this question, which is why they are a great starting point for making other products from crude oil

You can find more about this topic by visiting BBC Bitesize - Crude oil, hydrocarbons and alkanes - AQA

Author: Kev Woodward (PGCE, Science & Chemistry Teacher, Quiz Writer)