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Posted by Clint Dixon on Tuesday, May 06, 2008 at 19:08:32 :
In Reply to: Parrafin...in...crude.... posted by MoparNorm on Tuesday, May 06, 2008 at 16:11:33 :
From The Story of Petroleum, From The Well To The World, Standard Oil Company, Newman-Monroe Co. (publisher):
<To tell the story of gasoline, kerosene and burning oils, furnace or fuel oils, lubricating and medicinal oils, candles, petrolatums, wax, coke, asphalt and other products of crude oil, which are articles of daily commerce, it is necessary to consider first the raw material from which these products are made. This raw material is crude petroleum.
Petroleum, according to a standard dictionary, is “An inflammable, oily liquid mixture of numerous hydrocarbons, chiefly of the paraffin series, that exudes from the earth and is extensively used for heat and light.”
The word Petroleum is derived from the Greek work petros, meaning “rock” and the Latin work oleum, meaning “oil.” The name, therefore, means Rock Oil.
That petroleum is, as the dictionary defines it, “an oily liquid mixture of numerous hydrocarbons,” is verified by the results of distillation at the refinery.
A hydrocarbon, chemically speaking, is a compound of hydrogen and carbon. These hydrocarbons vary, in their physical aspect, in accordance with the number of hydrogen and carbon atoms, which enter into the combination, and with the way in which they are combined. It would be impossible, in a booklet of this kind, to give even an outline of the chemical characteristics of the various compounds of the hydrocarbon group, which are found in petroleum. Their number runs into the thousands, and the great majority of them have never been isolated even in the laboratory. They range all the way from gases to heavy solids.
In the refining of petroleum, no attempt is made to isolate any of these hydrocarbons. They are merely separated into groups, according to their volatility, so that they may be used commercially. A light naphtha, for instance, is composed of several hydrocarbon compounds, a heavy naphtha of others and a paraffin wax of still others.
This separation of the crude petroleum into light naphthas, heavy naphthas, etc., is accomplished by the process knows as “fractional distillation.” Each of the hydrocarbons of which petroleum is composed has a different boiling point. Consequently, when crude petroleum is placed in a still, and heat is gradually applied, the compounds distill, as their respective boiling point temperatures are reached. Then, when they have been condensed into liquids again, the successive “cuts” can be diverted into different tanks.>
Technically your quote, "And yes, ALL crude oil has paraffin in it," appears correct. A more appropriate description might be: "a mixture of numerous hydrocarbons, chiefly of the paraffin series."
I thought you meant paraffin wax, an end product refined from crude petroleum and used to seal jelly jars, thicken home made ice cream, etc. That would be kind of like saying that all iron ore has steel in it, all maple sap has maple sugar in it, or all raw milk has butter in it.
You should try Pennzoil sometime. Paraffin wax is slick stuff!…… ;^)
Junior
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