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The word “petroleum” is used rather loosely around the world. Actually, petroleum refers to crude oil which is drilled through oil wells that’re either onshore or offshore. It is the basic component of petroleum products. As a matter of fact, several ancient civilizations such as Sumerians and Egyptians, among others, were the first to discover petroleum.
Since the word petroleum is used to refer to a lot of things, especially related to fuel, let’s understand what the word actually means.
The word ‘petroleum’ is a combination of two Latin words- Petra (rock) and Oleum (oil). This signifies that petroleum is a kind of oil that is available from rocks. In ancient days, people would use a dense, dark and slippery fluid that would leak from some rocks in different parts of the world. They would use it for various purposes such as medicine, lighting and making different crude products.
In today’s world, petroleum is a word used to describe crude oil and various other products that’re derived from it. These include various kinds of fuels, fertilizers, medicinal products, combustibles for weapons and lots more.
Petroleum is described technically as a fossil fuel. This means, that it’s formed by dead remains of plants and animals that existed millions of years ago on this planet and were buried by some natural calamity and vagaries of nature, underground.
Over the years, these mortal remains became high hydrocarbon containing complex compounds such as coal, natural gas and petroleum or crude oil. Hence, it has to be drilled from sources that’re underwater in sea or river beds and land.
The basic composition of crude oil is Carbon 84 percent to 87 percent, Hydrogen, 11 percent to 14 percent, Sulfur, 0.06 percent to two percent, Nitrogen, 0.1 percent to two percent, Oxygen, 0.1 percent to 0.2 percent, metals and assays, about 0.14 percent.
Petroleum is also known as crude oil because it has few uses unless it’s refined at refineries. However, once refined, petroleum finds many uses.
In this article, I will discuss various petroleum products and their uses.
As a matter of fact, petroleum or crude oil is also known informally as ‘black gold’ and sometimes as ‘liquid gold’. That’s because prices of crude oil are decided internationally. Crude oil is necessary for lots of things. Surely, you would know some of the uses of petroleum products, that’re derived from crude oil. Here I will discuss some of the common petroleum products and their uses.
Aviation Turbine Fuel or ATF is used by passenger, cargo and fighter aircraft as fuel. It is a mix of petrol and some other components that make it suitable for use by aircraft engine. It is made keeping in mind, the high speed at which aircraft need to travel from one location to another.
This is the most common type of petroleum product. That’s because it is the fuel for cars, scooters, motorcycles and other domestic and commercial vehicles. In some countries such as USA, petrol as we know it in India is also called gasoline. This is the most widely used petroleum product around the world.
Trucks, certain kinds of ships and submarines and lots of other commercial vehicles run on diesel, which is also one of the most widely consumed petroleum products around the world. As a matter of fact, the Indian Railways also runs locomotives or engines that operate on diesel. Furthermore, diesel is also used for generation of electric power in India and elsewhere in the world.
Known commonly as ‘ghaslet” in India, kerosene is widely used for cooking and heating purposes. It also finds its uses as a solvent for paints and other chemicals in India. In rural India as well as urban parts of the country, kerosene is widely used in cooking stoves as a substitute to cooking gas. Furthermore, kerosene is also a vital component of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF).
Fuel oil is commonly used for lamps, heaters, stoves, engines and lanterns in India. This is also one of the most common type of petroleum products because it is the energy source for industries that use boilers and furnaces. Fuel oil also drives juicing machines as well as machinery used for farming, quarrying, mining and certain types of ships.
Napalm is mainly used in weapons. It is a form of condensed, high density petroleum product and is extremely inflammable. Incendiary bombs use napalm because it catches fire and spreads rapidly over the area where it is dropped. It is used as a petroleum-based explosive in defense products, especially bombs.
Surely, you’ve used polyurethane. It is the basic component of foam that goes into your mattress and pillows. Not many people are aware that petroleum derivatives are also used to manufacture polyurethane, which is a common, household product too.
Paraffin is used in making candles and sometimes, as a fuel for vintage toys. The medical grade of paraffin wax is also used for manufacture of certain beauty products and skin crème. Paraffin wax also goes into making certain kinds of explosives.
Naphtha is a very common solvent and is used for making pains, skin crème and beauty products, dry cleaning at laundries and other such purposes. We also get food grade naphtha which is used as wax coatings for certain products such as cheese. Food grade naphtha wax can be used for coating fruits to ensure they have a longer shelf life.
Naphthalene is used as an insecticide and preservative. You would have definitely used naphthalene balls at your home. They come as small white or colored round balls, which are commonly used to keep cockroaches and other insects at bay. Room and toilet freshener solids are also made by mixing naphthalene with fragrances of different kinds.
That credit card or debit card in your purse and wallet, shopping bags and sacks as well as book covers, are among countless things that’re made of plastic. In case you’re unaware, plastic is also a petroleum product. It is made during the process of refining crude oil by mixing certain other chemicals to form pellets. These pellets go through a process to give us plastic, which we all know.
In India, bitumen is commonly used in the construction of roads and runways at airports. Bitumen is also used for waterproofing. We can get bitumen sheets that’re used while building roofs to ensure they’re waterproof. Bitumen paper is also used for coating pipelines and electrical cables. A common name for bitumen derived from petroleum in India is ‘tar’. Though actually, ‘tar’ refers to a byproduct of charcoal.
Who doesn’t know polyester? It is a component of the clothes that we use daily. Normally, most clothing nowadays is made by mixing cotton and polyester fabric to give wrinkle free and crease free clothing. Polyester is commonly used in the textile industry. It is also one of the most common petroleum products in use worldwide.
And finally, Liquefied Petroleum Gas or LPG that we use commonly at home for cooking. LPG is a blend of propane and butane gases that are generated by processing crude oil. These gases can be easily liquefied and supplied in cylinders or piped to homes for cooking purposes. In most countries around the world, LPG is the main fuel for cooking.
In Conclusion
As we can see from the 14 examples above, petroleum or crude oil touches almost every part of our life. That’s the reason why petroleum is very important for humans. Crude oil by itself has few uses. Therefore, it has to be refined and processed to give other products. Fertilizers such as ammonia also come from processing of petroleum and are used in farms and orchards.