Crude Oil - Uses, Shortages and Alternatives.

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CRUDE OIL

What is crude oil used for?

Crude oil is fractionally distilled to be used as other useful fuels to make cosmetics and plastics and much more. This is done my fractional distillation which is where the crude oil is heated to make it evaporate it then cools down which causes it to condense and then it can be used as more useful fuels.  

Crude oil is used to make allot of different things here are just a few:

Petrol - for fuelling cars/ motor vehicles etc. And to operate machinery.

Fertilisers/Pesticides-  

Heating oil- Used to heat houses.

 

Alternative Fuels

The main fuels that are used around the world are oil, petrol, gas and coal. An alternative fuel is a fuel that doesn’t use any of these fuels.  A few examples of alternative fuels could be biodiesel, LPG, Natural gas and Fuel cell. Biodiesel is produced from the oil of crops such as waste oils from cooking and rapeseed. This fuel uses a major reduction of carbon emissions compared to other fuels. LPG is a blend of propane and butane which is produced from oil refining and methane gas fields. This does have slightly higher carbon emissions than diesel but it has 80% lower nitrous oxide emission. Natural Gas is mainly made from methane which is extracted from oil and gas fields. This has 80% less nitrous oxide emissions than diesel like LPG bust natural gas has a 5% reduction of Carbon emissions compared to carbon. Fuel cells use hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity.

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Nuclear energy is another form of an alternative fuel where water is heated into steam through a nuclear fission. This process is a very clean way of making electricity but its downfall id the danger of the high levels of radiation and also the chance that the reactor could explode. Although the cannabis plant has a bad name for its self it’s not all bad because if you take hemp out of a cannabis plant it can be used to make alternative materials such as nylon.

One of the alternatives that can be used for an alternative to petroleum based ...

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