Question

Most hydrocarbons from petroleum are obtained by

• A. fractional distillation
• B. fractional crystallisation
• C. vaporisation
• D. isomerisation

Answer 1

Answer: (A)

fractional distillation

Petroleum is a mixture of a very large number of different hydrocarbons; the most commonly found molecules are alkanes (paraffin), cycloalkanes (naphthenes), aromatic hydrocarbons, or more complicated chemicals like asphaltenes. They all have a different boiling point and hence fractional distillation is used to get hydrocarbons.