USES AND IMPORTANCE OF PETROLEUM (CRUDE OIL)
Good Day Everyone
As I have mentioned in my #introduction I am studying petroleum technology: therefore, I just wanted to share the importance of crude oil with you #guys.
It's #summertime, and the smell of asphalt is in the air because potholes are being filled all over the place. Asphalt, if ever begin at much thought, what this stuff is? Well, it's really integral to our modern life – we drive our #cars on that, #airplanes take off on it – but what is it?
It's actually a mixture of a substance called bitumen plus some gravel. But what is bitumen? Well, for that we go to #petroleum. Remember the Beverly Hillbillies, the old TV #show? When Jed Clampett fires a gun, goes into the ground, and up comes some bubbling crude, and he becomes a millionaire? Well, yeah, it becomes a #millionaire because petroleum is so important to our lives.
Petroleum is a mixture of hundreds and hundreds of different compounds – the end product of the decomposition of organic matter that sits in the ground for years, millennia, under lots of pressure. However, it can be purified, it can be refined. Refineries will take this stuff, heat it up, and separate the components by virtue of the different boiling points. Off comes gasoline, then off comes aviation fluid, then, for example, oil that we use lubricating stuff, other petroleum distillates like this. All of that comes from petroleum.
And what is left behind when everything else boils off is a black cruddy mess that's called bitumen. And you mix that with some gravel and some sand, heat it all up, and presto, you have asphalt – that's what we use for paving of roads. So now you know a little bit about what asphalt is, appreciate it.
But there are some risks with it for people who work in the industry because this also contains a number of compounds that are potentially carcinogenic – polyaromatic hydrocarbons. Now, this is not a problem for the average person, but for someone who is out there paving all the time, inhaling the stuff – well, that could be an issue. But this is a product of petroleum.
Most people don't know how #wonderful petroleum is in terms of everything that it gives us. We already saw oil, gasoline, aviation fluid – all of that. But you know what? All of our plastics also come from petroleum. So what you do is you take some petroleum and do a little bit of magic, and presto, you have plastics – all of that from petroleum.
So next time when you're out there smelling the asphalt, try to appreciate it. And of course, appreciate the petroleum that it comes from and everything else that it gives us.
I think that's enough for now, Hope you enjoyed reading it! Thank you for your time. I wish you all safe and well always.
Make sure you smile often. 🤗