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Crude Oil

Crude oil is a non-renewable (finite) resource.

Fossilised plankton

Fossilised plankton

  • Crude oil is made from the fossilised remnants of ancient plankton.
Found in rocks

Found in rocks

  • Crude oil is found in rocks and is used to produce fuels and other important chemicals.
Mixture of compounds

Mixture of compounds

  • Crude oil is a mixture of lots of different compounds that are not chemically combined.
  • Most of the compounds in crude oil are hydrocarbons.
Most compounds are hydrocarbons

Most compounds are hydrocarbons

  • Hydrocarbons are molecules made up of only hydrogen and carbon atoms.
  • Hydrocarbons differ in their size, which can change the properties of the hydrocarbon.
Alkanes

Alkanes

  • Most of the hydrocarbons in crude oil are alkanes.
    • In alkanes, carbon atoms bond to four atoms (hydrogen or carbon).
    • Alkanes have quite low reactivity, but they combust quite well. This makes them useful as fuels.
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