Chemicals from oil

The experiments in this section illustrate how useful chemicals can be obtained from crude oil e.g. fractional distillation and cracking. Experiments investigating the properties and uses of hydrocarbons, such as alkanes and alkenes, are also included.

While we are still at an early stage with this website it's probably more useful to look at the page with our complete list of experiments in alphabetical order. See the list on About this website.

We are starting with GCSE-level experiments.

Experiments

• Cracking hydrocarbons on a microscale

  In this experiment long chain alkanes in paraffin are broken down to a smaller alkane and ethene by catalytic cracking.

• The fractional distillation of crude oil

  This experiment simulates the industrial fractional distillation of crude oil in the laboratory.

• Cracking hydrocarbons

  A mixture of alkanes is cracked by passing the vapour over a heated catalyst. Tests for unsaturation are used to show the presence of alkenes in the products.

• Identifying the products of combustion

  A simple demonstration to identify the gaseous products of the combustion of hydrocarbons.