Chapter 3 - Introduction to Oil Chemistry and Properties

Abstract

Oil is a wide variety of natural substances of plant, animal, or mineral origin, as well as a range of synthetic compounds. There are different kinds of oil like gasoline which is used in automobiles, diesel fuels used in trucks, trains, and buses, a light crude oil, a heavy crude oil, an intermediate fuel oil (IFO) used in ships and bunker fuel is used in heating plants. Each type of oil has some unique characteristics or properties which help the consumer to understand the behavior of oil when it is spilled and as well as it determines the fate and effects in the environment. Further, this chapter highlights the chemical composition and physical properties of crude oils. Crude oils are mixtures of hydrocarbon compounds, volatile compounds and non-volatile compounds. The mixture of compounds depends on the geological location of the area where the oil is found. Crude oils compounds are viscous and dense. On the other hand, the properties of petroleum products are more specific and less variable. Crude oil contains many compounds of different sizes and classes which are identified and quantified by years.