Discovery of Petrol

Everything runs on a source of energy. Plants grow because they take energy from the sun. Humans get energy from food. Fuel is a source that provides energy. So we can say that everything runs on fuel. The fuel can be different but everything needs one.

Petrol is one of the most abundant fuels in this world. It has not only used as a fuel but also used as a great solvent and has other uses in the chemical industry. The petrol we use comes from crude oil which is found in the earth. Crude oil is derived from the decay of organic products under deep pressure inside the earth. But what we use is an end product, there are various steps involved in making it. So let’s see how it has prepared and how it discovered.

Production of petrol from crude oil.

Crude petroleum has many products and by its purification and separating its constituents, we can use the products for the good. There are three steps involved in the purification of petroleum.

1. Separation of water-

Crude oil is a mixture of saltwater and oil. To remove the saltwater the crude oil is flown between two highly but oppositely charged electrodes. The electrodes ionize the water and salt ions and they get attracted to the electrodes.

2. Removal of Sulfur compounds-

Oil free from water is treated with copper oxide. Sulfur in the oil decreases its burning capacity. The copper oxide reacts with the sulfur to make a precipitate of copper sulfate which is removed by filtration.

3. Fractionation-

The oil then is heated up to 400° Celsius in an iron still. All the constituents of the oil boil and form vapors and a residue left called asphalt. Vapor passed through the fractionalization column, which is a tall cylindrical tower with trays in it on different levels. Fractions having a high boiling point boils faster and settle in lower trays while the fractions having a high boiling point boils last and settle in high trays.

Discovery of petrol.

The crude oil had a history way back. China was using petroleum two thousand years ago but without refining and extraction. They light lanterns using it. Christian crusaders used it to fire the Greeks. But we have a modern history of how the petroleum industry developed.

In 1852, Canadian inventor Abraham Gesner formulated kerosene from crude petroleum. He used a primitive system to distill and refine the crude oil and derived kerosene from it which he used in lighting the lamps. The conventional use of oil was to provide heat and light. He also started a small business of kerosene which turned out to be very beneficial. The success of selling kerosene was such that by the year 1859, thirty-four startup companies were producing $5 million worth of kerosene annually. But there was a limited amount of crude oil production because of a lack of techniques at that time.

The considerable production of crude oil was started when George Bisell heard the salt mine workers complaining about the contamination of salt by oil in Western Pennsylvania. Bisell hired Edwin Drake to investigate the region and search for some hint of profit there. So Drake went there and came up with the idea of drilling separately for the oil and mining separately for salt.

Drake asked for the help of a local ma William Smith for drilling purposes. Smith used a pumping machine Drake bought and used a device with white oak wood to drill the earth to pull out oil using a metal pipe. He began to do that with manpower but that became useless as they hit the bedrock. After that, they used a steam engine and continue pounding the ground but for months there was no outcome. As the project was on the verge of collapsing, Drake came there to check on Smith and saw barrels filled with crude oil. This was the major strike that happened in the petroleum field.

But still, there were no refining of crude oil to make gasoline or petrol. Then John Davidson Rockefeller who was working as a clerk at a Cleveland produce shipping firm bought a refinery in 1864. He saw great potential in the oil industry. In 1866, sales of Rockefeller’s kerosene reached $2 million. But after the invention of the light bulb by Thomas Edison, the oil industry was at risk because by then oil was only used as a source to provide light and heat in households.

But after the invention of the automobile based on an internal combustion engine using gasoline, the oil industries began to refine the crude petroleum and that increased the production of gasoline or petrol during the 20th century. And that is how petrol was discovered with the efforts of various remarkable people who were curious about making people’s lives easier with their actions. And to know about your curiosity level click here.