Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Whats Really In Your Tank?



Gasoline is not a simple chemical compound like water or ethanol. It is a mixture of hundreds of different compounds. The reason for this is that gasoline is made from crude oil. Crude oil, or petroleum, is made up of thousands of different compounds, and the exact compounds present and their relative amounts differ depending on where the petroleum is produced. For example, oil produced in West Texas differs remarkably from oil produced in the Middle East. After the oil is produced (or taken out of the ground via oil wells), it is shipped to an oil refinery, where it is separated into different products, including gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel fuel, among others.

1 comment:

  1. This was another very informative post that touches upon knowledge that most people don't know. I knew that crude oil was what composed gasoline, etc., and knowing that crude oil is made from different bioligical remains of ancient creatures, I deduced that oil around the world should be different. However, I did not know that gasoline, jet fuel, etc. are made from extracted products of crude oil. Instead I assumed that it was basically the same substance with a different ratio of chemicals that were either added or removed from crude oil.

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