Coal and Petroleum Test - 8

Petroleum is a fossil fuel as it is obtained by the decomposition of the remains of plants and animals under the sea over millions of years.

Usually petroleum and natural gas occur at the same place. Petroleum occurs as liquid, whereas natural gas is in the gaseous state above petroleum.

Petroleum is a thick, black colored, viscous liquid which is a rich source of different, useful and expensive products like kerosene, petrol, diesel etc., as gold, hence it is called as black gold.

The most common sources of energy used in automobiles are petroleum and diesel.

In the oil wells along with petroleum, natural gas also exists. It comes out first when an oil well is drilled through rocks.

Petroleum is refined by the process of fractional distillation as the constituents of petroleum products are in the liquid state and differ in their boiling points.

During fractional distillation, crude petroleum that is obtained from the earth's crust is heated to a temperature of about 400−500^oC. The different constituents present start separating out at different heights of the fractionating column depending upon their boiling points.

Solid fuels leave more smoke and ash on burning because they contain a large number of impurities.

Fractional distillation is a method of separation of liquid substances based on their different boiling points.

Gasoline is one of the products obtained during the fractional distillation of petroleum. Gasoline works as petrol. Hence, it is used as fuel in vehicles.