Science Delivered

Science Delivered makes available science content which fully exploits the potential of ICT to provide colourful, interactive and engaging resources to aid students with their journey through science.

Oil

The topic of oil is covered within five sections; the first of these units can be accessed by clicking on the menu above.

Section: Crude Oil

Areas covered in this section include:

• The formation of the fossil fuels oil, coal, peat and natural gas.
• The range of everyday materials made from oil. The location and extraction of oil.
• Oil reserves and potential consequences of increasing usage.
• Supply problems and issues concerned with future use.
• Environmental problems associated with the exploitation of crude oil.
• Current reserves, production and consumption of crude oil by continent.
• A revision of ionic bonding and an introduction to covalent bonding.
• The bonding in alkanes and an introduction to the idea of a general formula.

Section: Refining

Areas covered in this section include:

• The fractional distillation of crude oil in the laboratory and the trends in properties of the fractions.
• The industrial application of the process and the uses of the different fractions produced.
• Covalent bonding and intermolecular bonding in alkanes and the consequences for the separation of fractions by boiling point.

Section: Cracking

Areas covered in this section include:

• The cracking of liquid paraffin in the laboratory and the chemical test for unsaturated compounds.
• The industrial process and the necessity for further petrol production.
• The structure of alkenes and comparison with Alkanes.
• The use of ethanol as a fuel and an evaluation of its production from renewable and non-renewable sources.

Section: Fuels

Areas covered in this section include:

• Complete and incomplete combustion. A laboratory experiment to show the products of complete combustion. A comparison of Bunsen flames.
• Fuels for a purpose. Factors to consider in the choice of fuels for particular jobs and the increasing use of fossil fuels.
• The composition of the Earth’s atmosphere and factors affecting global warming.
• The precautionary principle and potential measures to combat global warming.

Section: Plastics

Areas covered in this section include:

• The structure and bonding in monomers and polymers. The laboratory preparation of nylon. The properties of plastics linked to their structure.
• The uses of polymers linked to their properties.
• Biodegradable and non-biodegradable polymers. The disposal of waste polymers and environmental consequences.