Petroleum Industry

Petroleum Industry started around 1950, with the first exploration and extraction of this natural resource. The whole Petroleum industry can be described in 3 streams or parts. The Upstream that refers to the exploration and discovery of Petroleum and Gas Sources.
The Midstream that refers to the small portion of the industry that takes care of the handling, storing and transportation of Petroleum and Gas.
And the Downstream, that is commonly generalized as “Petroleum Industry”, that includes the refining of Crude Oil or Petroleum and Gas.

All the Petroleum extracted is transported to a Process Plant where it is refined into other products such as Gasoline, Diesel Oil, Kerosene, Asphalt and others.Through the ages we have relied our lives on many energy resources, Petroleum is one of those, mainly for the wide products there can be extracted from it. There are many Oil companies that manage all the Crude Oil market, therefore they control the sub products market aswell.

Many countries have based their economy on the exploration and extraction of Petroleum, spending millions of dollars on it. The technology used on these operations is not cheap, many countries just extract the Crude Oil and then export it to another country with the capabilities to process it. This is when environmental disasters happen, you must have probably heard about Oil disaster on the sea.

 
Petroleum Processing

It’s all in the carbons, that’s what i always say to explain how Petroleum processing works.
Petroleum is a mixture of several different compounds, all with 1 similar characteristic: They all have Carbons; the more carbons the molecule has, the heavier it is.

Compounds on Petroleum have from 1 carbon atom to probably around 20 carbon atoms, this composition depends on the Source of the Petroleum, as in some parts of the world the oil could be heavy or light.

This difference on the weight of the molecules has a direct effect on its boiling point, The boiling point is where the molecule changes from a liquid state to a gas state.
 This principle is used on huge distillation columns, this is why if you see an oil industry, they have tall columns. These columns are heated on the bottom and as you go higher the temperature decreases, so depending on the height you can extract different compounds of the Oil:

Heavier components such as lubricants, asphalt, kerosene are extracted at the bottom and lighter components like gasoline, propane from the top. This is just a rough example on how Petroleum is refined, it takes several processes and many distillation columns to achieve the final product, also the temperatures and the composition (#of Carbons) are not accurate as some of the final products still have some percentage of some other compounds.

Hope you enjoyed it and if you want more information feel free to Contact Us.

Acids Nomenclature

Let’s deal with these compounds now, many must have heard about acids at some point, on a movie, or in jokes; but everything points to their destructive capability.
The following acids are Oxacids, as they have oxygen in their structure; there is another kind of acids, the hydroacids that only have the Non-Metal and the Hydrogen.

Acids are formed when Non-Metal Oxides (also known as Anhydrides) react with Water.

SO₃      +       H₂O     ------>      H₂SO₄

Acid formulas are a bit tricky to make, but with a little practice it becomes very easy.
First as usual, I'm going to start with the formula writing structure:

H Non-Metal O

As you can see the Hydrogen comes first, then the No-Metal and the Oxygen is last.
Most of the Acids have only subscripts on the Hydrogen and Oxygen but some rare have it on the No-Metal aswell.

H_A Metal_C O_B

There are many ways to figure out the subscripts; I'm going to teach you the easiest one in my opinion.

Write down the elements in the correct order. (2 examples)

H S O                                              H Cl O

  

Now check the valence of the No-Metal you are going to use, is it an EVEN or ODD number. (For valences check this page: Valences)

• If it is EVEN ---->the HYDROGEN’s SUBSCRIPT is 2
• If it is ODD ---->the HYDROGEN’s SUBSCRIPT is 1

            

S ---> Ox # = +2 +4 +6 (Let’s do the formula for the valence +4) H2 S O

Cl ---> Ox # = +1 +3 +5 +7 (Let’s do the formula for the valence +3) H1Cl O   There's no need to write the subscript if its 1

Now here is the trick part: SUM the OXIDATION NUMBER of the Non-Metal with the HYDROGEN SUBSCRIPT

  
Now take this number and divide it by 2, this is now the OXYGEN’s SUBSCRIPT; weird isn't it? but this is the best way to do it.

ACIDS NOMENCLATURE

There are 3 ways of naming Acids.

• TRADITIONAL nomenclature
• IUPAC nomenclature
• STOCK nomenclature

IUPAC and STOCK nomenclature in acids is not used frequently, as it is a bit difficult and general chemical compound markets in the most part use only the TRADITIONAL nomenclature. 

TRADITIONAL NOMENCLATURE
 
You need to learn a little system of prefixes and suffixes (for the oxidation numbers)

Hip----ous	--ous	---ic	Per-----ic
	+2	+4	+6
+1	+3	+5	+7

Note that the suffix does not depend on the number but on how many valences the element has.

EXAMPLE

Name this Acid

HClO₄

Remember how to make Acid formulas? Now we just need to go backwards to figure out which oxidation number the metal is using. Take the oxygen subscript, multiply it by 2 and subtract the Hydrogen subscript.

Now that we know which it is, let’s find the correct suffix to use. It has 4 oxidation numbers:

+1 ----> Hip-----ous

+3 ----> -ous

+5 ----> -ic

+7 ----> Per------ic

Traditional nomenclature has this writing structure:

[ELEMENT NAME][SUFFIX] Acid

So we just need to fill the name of the Non-metal and the suffix

PerChloric Acid

Coming up! Acids Exercises

Metal and Non Metal Valences Page

A very important part of learning the basics of Inorganic Nomenclature is learn the valences properly, but this is a slow process so it doesn't matter if you don't know them by memory the first week.

So for those needing that little extra help when doing their Nomenclature Exercises here i have a table with the most common elements and their valences, Enjoy.

Metal and Non-Metal Valences

Energy Sources: Petroleum

Have you ever wondered where Gasoline comes from? You use it everyday on your car but how much do you know about its origin and processing.

Petroleum, or Oil how it is called in some countries, is a liquid consisting of many organic compounds, these compounds have various molecular structures and were formed beneath the Earth’s surface.

Million years ago plants and animals in the oceans died and got trapped under several layers of soil and sand; Time, pressure and Heat turned these rests of animals and plants into oil.

Oil is a nonrenewable energy source; it took millions of years to make and seconds to be consumed.

Origin

On Earth there are Carbon-based lifeforms, that includes us, animals and plants; following the Lavoisier Law of Mass conservation, that mass cannot be destroyed but only TRANSFORMED, all the rests of animals and plants trapped under layers and layers of soil and sand suffered changes.

The real origin of oil is uncertain, there are only theories about how it formed.
My favorite is the one that says that tiny animals and plants started to deposit at the bottom of the oceans.

This decomposed matter was eventually covered by layers of sand.

The conditions of pressure and heat, added to the lack of oxygen worked together to promote the formation of liquid petroleum and gas.

Composition

The composition of Oil is different depending on the source, that is where it was extracted from. Usually it contains around 84% of Carbon and 11% of Hydrogen, the rest are mostly Sulfur and Nitrogen.

There are 4 major groups that are present on Petroleum, depending on their Molecular Structure.

Paraffins

Paraffins are Organic Molecules consisting on C-H linked together by simple bonds, all are lineal and can be branched.

Olefins

Olefins have the same structure than Paraffins, but C-H are linked together by double bonds.

Naphthenes

These organic compounds have C-C and C-H bonds, but the structure have simple bond rings,  mostly

Aromatics

Aromatic compounds are similar as Naphthenes, but the only difference is that they have double bond rings, and rings are made out of 6 carbons.

 

There are other organic compounds that have Nitrogen and Sulfur within their structure.
Fuels and many other products are extracted from this complicated mixture, along with some Gases like methane that are dissolved in the mix.

COMING NEXT!! Petroleum Industry

Hydroxides Exercises

Let’s get you on that practice side now.

Name these hydroxides with all 3 nomenclatures:

NaOH

Sodium has a valence of +1

Sodium Hydroxide                <--- Traditional

Sodium MonoHydroxide       <--- IUPAC

Sodium(I) Hydroxide             <--- Stock

Ca(OH)₂

Calcium has a valence of +2.

Calcium Hydroxide               <--- Traditional

Calcium diHydroxide            <--- IUPAC

Calcium(II) Hydroxide          <--- Stock

Al(OH)₃

Aluminum has a valence of +3

Aluminum Hydroxide                  <--- Traditional

Aluminum TriHydroxide              <--- IUPAC

Aluminum (III) Hydroxide           <--- Stock

Pb(OH)₄

Lead has a valence of +4 in this hydroxide.

Plumbic Hydroxide                   <--- Traditional

Lead tetraHydroxide                <--- IUPAC

Lead(IV) Hydroxide                 <--- Stock

CuOH

Copper has a valence of +1

Cuprous Hydroxide              <--- Traditional

Copper DiHydroxide           <--- IUPAC

Copper(II) Hydroxide          <--- Stock

Coming up! Acids Nomenclature