fawley 4 q -

www.schoolscience.co.uk/content/4/chemistry/petroleum/fawley/ftv.html

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ExxonMobile & The Energy InstituteVirtual visit to the Fawley oil refinery

Notes for teachers

Age 14-16Age 14-16Age 14-16Age 14-16Age 14-16

Contents

The virtual visit uses 360° panorama photographs to give users an intereactive, close up experience of being in an oil refinery. The panoramas are linked to make a tour with a map and aerial view to help users navigate.

Within each panorama, there are pop-up labels which reveal more information in the window at the links within this window which will open a new page of the “InfoBank” to provide more detailed and science related information.

There are fifteen stops on the virtual tour. Also, there are Flash animations sho ide processes of distillation and cracking (which includes a ride on a zeolite crystal).

Jetty - south has view of a tanker doacking and of the refinery in the distance

Jetty control shows the length of the jetty and the trestles out to it

Salt marsh has a view of the regenerated salt marsh and outflows

South trestle shows the pipes taking crude oil up to the refinery

Admin block roof has views back out to sea and into the heart of the refineryAdmin block roof has views back out to sea and into the heart of the refineryAdmin block roof

Storage tank by stills has a good view over the distillation columns

Between stills and cracker

Storage tank perimeter has a side view of the refinery and over the tree screen into Fawley Storage tank perimeter has a side view of the refinery and over the tree screen into Fawley Storage tank perimeter

Fawley village shows how the tree screen shields the refinery

COGEN the generating and utilities end of the refeinery

SP4 is a steam generator

Gate 1 has a view back into the refinery and along the pipes going to the tanker terminal

Hythe tanker terminal has views of road tankers filling up

Fire station roof has views into the distillation area and over the salt marsh

Pipe farm where product is piped north into England

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http://www.schoolscience.co.uk/content/4/chemistry/petroleum/fawley/ftv.html


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Notes for teachers


Scientific enquiry

Application of science - generallyContexts for scienceBenefits & drawbacks of scientific developmentsScience: historical & contemporary examplesPrimary informationSafetyChoosing equipment

Solids, liquids & gases

Grouping materialsProperties of materialsChanges of stateMelting/boiling pointsDensity

Atoms & molecules

Bonding - generallyCovalent bonds

Elements, compounds & mixtures

Compounds - generallyMixturesSeparation - generallyDistillation

Changing materials

Physical changesSolubilityChemical changes

Useful materials & products

Everyday materials

Obtaining & using materials

Fossil resources - generallyFossil fuelsHydrocarbonsPlastics/polymersUseful substances from rocks & minerals

Earth science

Rock formation - generallySedimentary rocksRocks & soils - generallyLithosphere & tectonic processes

Chemical reactions

Catalysts

Curriculum links (using the COL keyword scheme)

Web links

Virtual Visit to oil platformwww.schoolscience.co.uk/content/4/chemistry/petroleum/captain/index.html

Discover Petroleum InfoBankwww.schoolscience.co.uk/content/4/chemistry/petroleum/knowl/4/2index.htm?2home_f2.htm

Fossils into fuelswww.schoolscience.co.uk/content/4/chemistry/fossils/index.html





http://www.schoolscience.co.uk/content/4/chemistry/fossils/index.html

http://www.schoolscience.co.uk/content/4/chemistry/petroleum/knowl/4/2index.htm?2home_f2.htm

http://www.schoolscience.co.uk/content/4/chemistry/petroleum/captain/index.html


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Notes for teachers


Using the resource

1 - Overview of oi and oil production

You can use a suite of materials (Discover Petroleum) from the Schoolscience website to deliver effectively all that pupils need to help them cover the ‘useful products from organic substances’section of GCSE dual award Science specifications.

The main source is the InfoBank. This is available as a pop-up window from the Virtual Visit but is also available in its own right:

www.schoolscience.co.uk/content/4/chemistry/petroleum/knowl/4/2index.htm?2home_f2.htm

If you choose to approach the crude oil topic using pupils’ everyday experiences you may like to start by briefly discussing the useful products we obtain from oil and trace them back to crude oil as the raw material. These links may help:

www.schoolscience.co.uk/content/4/chemistry/petroleum/knowl/4/2index.htm?useful.html

www.schoolscience.co.uk/content/4/chemistry/fossils/p2.html

Alternatively, since crude oil and the countries that export it, have recently been in the news you might like to start a discussion by considering where the important deposits of crude oil are found. You can then explore its usefulness as a valuable raw material from this more topical starting point. Either approach will quickly lead pupils to consider how crude oil was formed. This link will give them the important details:

www.schoolscience.co.uk/content/4/chemistry/petroleum/knowl/4/2index.htm?origin.html

Activity 2 in this electronic resource (Fossils into fuels) will help students consolidate their knowledge and understanding.

The electronic resource, Exploring for Oils, gives plenty of information on the next logical step; how oil companies discover where crude oil is trapped underground. Students may find this page a useful summary.

www.schoolscience.co.uk/content/4/chemistry/findoils/findoilch6pg3.html

Other sections of this electronic resource cover the Rock Cycle in a stimulating way.

The Virtual visit to an oil platform electronic resource will give pupils an insight into the processes involved in extracting oil from under the seabed. This is the link:

www.schoolscience.co.uk/content/4/chemistry/petroleum/captain/index.html

You can now use the Virtual visit to the Fawley oil refinery to show what happens to the crude oil Virtual visit to the Fawley oil refinery to show what happens to the crude oil Virtual visit to the Fawley oil refinerynext – when it comes ashore. Before you show this electronic resource to a class make sure you are familiar with how it works. It is fine for an individual user to learn by trial and error, but it can be distracting for a class if they have to witness it!

Outlined below are two strategies for using the resource. Which you use will depend on the facilities you have, the ability of your class and your personal preference. With experience you

may develop different approaches altogether.






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Notes for teachers


Using the resource

2 - Strategy 1

If you have an interactive whiteboard available you could take control and run through the site, picking out the screens and activities that directly support examinable material.

This could be a little tedious for the class unless you choose to concentrate on specific aspects, e.g. fractional distillation or catalytic cracking. The class may also lose some of the motivation that the interactivity provides. A suitable worksheet may keep them more focused.

3 - Strategy 2

If you have access to enough computers you may like to have the pupils explore the site individually or in small groups. This could work effectively but they will need support and some firm direction, which you could provide using worksheets. The simplest type of worksheet would ask pupils to retrieve specific information from the roll-over captions. You could increase the demands by asking pupils to interpret some of what they have read. In this case pupils may find the Discover Petroleum InfoBank and InfoBank and InfoBankFossil to Fuels site useful:Fossil to Fuels site useful:Fossil to Fuels

www.schoolscience.co.uk/content/4/chemistry/petroleum/knowl/4/2index.htm?2home_f2.htm

www.schoolscience.co.uk/content/4/chemistry/fossils/index.html

You may choose to adopt a hybrid of the two strategies, depending on the aspect you wish the class to focus on.






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Notes for teachers


Activity 1. Fractional distillation

The starting point for Activity 1:

www.schoolscience.co.uk/content/4/chemistry/petroleum/knowl/4/flash/distillation.html

This activity is written to follow strategy 2 (see above) and is designed to:

1. help students acquire a comprehensive body of factual material that is necessary to cover examination specifications,

2. help students develop an understanding of the science behind the fractional distillation process.

Point 1 is essential for all students; point 2 is more appropriate for those of higher ability.

Firstly establish the context for the activity by stating that unprocessed (un-refined) crude oil is of little use because it is a mixture. The major objective of the refining process is to separate crude oil into fractions which, although mixtures themselves, are mixtures of more similar components. A useful analogy might be to say that a laboratory contains a mixture of components, but that we can divide these into ‘fractions’ by grouping similar things together, e.g. students, furniture, apparatus.

If you have a whiteboard demonstrate to the whole class how to use the Distillation animation. In particular demonstrate what happens when you click the buttons at the bottom of each image (plan, zip/unzip, play, zoom out, zoom in, etc.). You may need to point out that they need to click ‘continue’ before they can access these functions. Show how the roll-overs work, too.






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Notes for teachers


Activity 2. Catalytic cracking

The starting point for Activity 2:

www.schoolscience.co.uk/content/4/chemistry/petroleum/knowl/4/flash/cracking.html

This activity is written to follow strategy 2 (see above) and is designed to:

1. help students acquire a comprehensive body of factual material that is necessary to cover examination specifications,

2. help students to develop an understanding of the science behind the catalytic cracking process.

Point 1 is essential for all students; point 2 is more appropriate for those of higher ability.

Firstly, establish the context for the activity by stating that our demand for the different fractions from crude oil does not match their supply. In general there is an excess of the heavier fractions and a shortage of the light fractions. Some students find this a difficult point to grasp; the following link may help: supply and demand

If you have a whiteboard demonstrate to the whole class how to use the cracking animation. In particular demonstrate what happens when you click the buttons at the bottom of each image (plan, zip/unzip, play, zoom out, zoom in, etc.). You may need to point out that they need to click ‘continue’ before they can access these functions. Show how the roll-overs work, too.






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Notes for teachers


Student worksheet 1-1 Answers

1. Look at the plan view of the fractional distillation process. There are seven pieces of equipment (plant) shown. Put these in order, showing where the crude oil starts off and where the fractions are eventually produced.

[storage tanks, pumps, desalter, heat exchangers, furnace, atmospheric pipestill, vacuum still]

2. Why does the crude oil need ‘desalting’? [Otherwise the heat exchangers may become clogged up.]

3. How do the heat exchangers help the oil company to save money? [They save heat energy from being wasted.]

4. Why does the name of the atmospheric pipestill contain the word ‘atmospheric’? [It operates at atmospheric pressure.]

5. Start the atmospheric pipestill animation. Draw a table listing the five fractions that are produced. For each one give the temperature at which it condenses, and what it is used for.

[heavy gas oil, 270°C, cracking, fuel for power stations gas oil, 170°C, diesel fuel gasoline/kerosine, 120°C, petrol (gasoline) aviation fuel (kerosene) naphtha, 70°C, blended into petrol, made into other chemicals, solvents] butane/propane, below 70°C, LPG]

6. What happens to the residue? [Goes to the vacuum still for further separation.]

7. Complete the following passage to summarise what happens in the atmospheric pipestill. You may find the ‘zoom in’ and ‘molecule’ buttons useful.

Crude oil is a complicated mixture of chemicals, called hydrocarbons. Hydrocarbons have only the elements hydrogen and carbon in their molecules. The hydrocarbons are different from each other because their molecules have different sizes, depending on the number of carbon atoms they contain.

Different hydrocarbons have different boiling points. Large molecules have high boiling points because their molecules are quite strongly held to each other. Small molecules have low boiling points because their molecules are only weakly held to each other.

The difference in boiling points gives oil companies a way to separate crude oil into useful fractions. Each fraction contains molecules with similar boiling points and molecular sizes.

Crude oil is heated to about 370°C in a furnace and then passed into the bottom of an atmospheric pipestill . Most of the hydrocarbon molecules evaporate and their vapours rise up the column. As they travel upwards they cool down until they reach a point where the temperature matches their boiling point. Here they condense into liquids and are tapped off.

The atmospheric pipestill is cold at the top and hot at the bottom. So the fractions with small molecules (light) turn to liquids at the top and the fractions with large molecules (heavy) form liquids at the bottom.






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Notes for teachers


Student worksheet 1-2 Answers

You will need to look at the ‘unzipped’ images for most of this activity.

1. Give the three main functions of the bubble cap trays. [trap liquids, allow vapours to pass through, act as heat exchangers]

2. Zoom in on the bubble cap trays and click on the atom viewer. For each of the three different molecules describe and explain what you see.

[Small molecules pass from bottom to top as they have low boiling points and so stay as a vapour.

Large molecules have high boiling points and so condense at the bottom and are run off in the bottom liquid fraction, some escape into fractions at higher levels.

Medium-sized molecules condense in the middle as they have intermediate boiling points, some may escape into higher or lower fractions.]

3. Why does the boiling point of the hydrocarbons increase as their molecules get bigger? [Larger molecules have stronger forces between them because they can tangle together

more and more of their surfaces can make contact.]

4. What does the vacuum pipestill do? [Further separates the residue from the atmospheric pipestill.]

5. Why is a vacuum used? [To make the vapours form at lower temperatures.]

6. What does the vacuum pipestill have instead of bubble cap trays? Why is this change needed? [Trays packed with small lumps of mineral, the liquid hydrocarbons are too thick to flow

through the bubble caps.]

7. What are the fractions from the vacuum pipestill used for? [bottom – fuel, middle – for cracking, top – for cracking or for making lubricating oils]

8. What is the residue used for? [Bitumen for roads and roofs.]

9. Why does the vacuum pipestill not produce any gaseous fractions? [Even the lightest fractions have boiling points above the temperature at the top of the

column.]






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Notes for teachers


Student worksheet 2 Answers

1. Look at the plan view of the catalytic cracking process. Draw a flow chart showing what happens to the hydrocarbon molecules, the catalyst and the spent gases.

Answer:

Click the catalytic converter to start the animation.

2. How does catalytic cracking solve the problem of supply and demand for the heavy and light fractions from crude oil?

[Breaks the large molecules in the heavy fractions into smaller ones like those in the light fractions.]

3. Give three important conditions that are used to make the cracking reaction work. Explain why each one is necessary.

[no air – prevents the oil burning,no air – prevents the oil burning,no air zeolite catalyst – helps the reaction happen quickly at a relatively low temperature, temperature of 500°C – needed to make the reaction go quickly enough]

4. Why is the catalyst made into tiny crystals? [To give the catalyst a large surface area.]

5. Why is the catalyst made to act as a ‘fluidised bed’. Explain how this works. [The hydrocarbon feedstock enters the reactor as a stream of vapour and keeps the

catalyst particles from settling out, this ensures that the surfaces of all the catalyst crystals can come into contact with the hydrocarbons whose reactions they are catalysing.]

spent gases

hydrocarbon molecules

catalyst

spent gases

regenerator

catalytic converter

hydrocarbon feedstock

fractions

atmospheric pipestill






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Notes for teachers


6. Use the ‘unzip’, ‘zoom in’ and ‘play’ buttons to show what happens to each catalyst crystal as it goes from the catalytic converter into the regenerator and back to the converter again.

7. What happens to the surface of the crystals as they pass through the catalytic converter? [They get covered in carbon.]

8. Why does the catalyst need regenerating? What happens to it as it passes through the regenerator?

[It will not catalyse the reaction if its surface is coated with carbon. The carbon is burned off.]

9. What gas is made by the regenerating process? [carbon dioxide]

10. What happens to this gas before it is allowed to escape? [All the small catalyst particles are removed from it.]

11. Most of the hydrocarbons in the feedstock are alkanes. Each breaks down in the converter to give smaller alkane and an alkene. Write an equation for the breakdown of one molecule of C60H122 to give one molecule of a smaller alkane and one molecule of ethene.

[C60H122 ‡ C58H118 + C2H4]

12. The alkane molecules in the feedstock are so large that they need to be cracked by more than one reaction. Some cracking reactions produce one molecule that is small enough to be a useful product and another molecule that is still too large. What happens to the small molecule and what happens to the molecule that is still too large?

[The small molecule remains as a gas, mixes with other small, gaseous molecules, passes out of the top of the convertor and into an atmospheric pipestill where the mixture is separated into fractions. The large molecule remains in the reactor and experiences further cracking reactions.]





Age 14-16


Exxon Mobile & The Energy InstituteVirtual visit to the Fawley oil refinery

Student worksheet 1-1

Distillation 1

1. Look at the plan view of the fractional distillation process. There are seven pieces of equipment (plant) shown. Put these in order, showing where the crude oil starts off and where the fractions are eventually produced.

2. Why does the crude oil need ‘desalting’?

3. How do the heat exchangers help the oil company to save money?

4. Why does the name of the atmospheric pipestill contain the word ‘atmospheric’?

5. Start the atmospheric pipestill animation. Draw a table listing the five fractions that are produced. For each one give the temperature at which it condenses, and what it is used for.

6. What happens to the residue?

7. Copy and complete the following passage to summarise what happens in the atmospheric pipestill. You may find the ‘zoom in’ and ‘atom’ buttons useful.

Crude oil is a complicated mixture of chemicals, called hydrocarbons. Hydrocarbons have only the elements _____________and ______________in their molecules. The hydrocarbons are different from each other because their molecules have different sizes, depending on the number of ______________ atoms they contain.

Different hydrocarbons have different boiling points. Large molecules have ___________ boiling points because their molecules are quite strongly _____________ to each other. Small molecules have _____________boiling points because their molecules are only weakly held to each other.

The difference in boiling points gives oil companies a way to separate crude oil into useful _________________. Each fraction contains molecules with similar boiling points and molecular sizes.

Crude oil is heated to about _____°C in a furnace and then passed into the bottom of an ____________________ . Most of the hydrocarbon molecules evaporate and their vapours rise up the column. As they travel upwards they _____________ down until they reach a point where the temperature matches their ___________________ point. Here they _______________________ into liquids and are tapped off.

The atmospheric pipestill is _______________ at the top and ________________ at the bottom. So the fractions with small molecules (light) turn to liquids at the __________ and the fractions with large molecules (heavy) form liquids at the ________________.

S1-1





Age 14-16


Distillation 2

You will need to look at the ‘unzipped’ images for most of this activity.

1. Give the three main functions of the bubble cap trays.

2. Zoom in on the bubble cap trays and click on the atom viewer. For each of the three different molecules describe and explain what you see.

3. Why does the boiling point of the hydrocarbons increase as their molecules get bigger?

4. What does the vacuum pipestill do?

5. Why is a vacuum used?

6. What does the vacuum pipestill have instead of bubble cap trays? Why is this change needed?

7. What are the fractions from the vacuum pipestill used for?

8. What is the residue used for?

9. Why does the vacuum pipestill not produce any gaseous fractions?


Student worksheet 1-2

S1-2





Age 14-16



Student worksheet 2

Catalytic cracking

1. Look at the plan view of the catalytic cracking process. Draw a flow chart showing what happens to the hydrocarbon molecules, the catalyst and the spent gases.

Click the catalytic converter to start the animation.

2. How does catalytic cracking solve the problem of supply and demand for the heavy and light fractions from crude oil?

3. Give three important conditions that are used to make the cracking reaction work. Explain why each one is necessary.

4. Why is the catalyst made into tiny crystals?

5. Why is the catalyst made to act as a ‘fluidised bed’. Explain how this works.

6. Use the ‘unzip’, ‘zoom in’ and ‘play’ buttons to show what happens to each catalyst crystal as it goes from the catalytic converter into the regenerator and back to the converter again.

7. What happens to the surface of the crystals as they pass through the catalytic converter?

8. Why does the catalyst need regenerating? What happens to it as it passes through the regenerator?

9 What gas is made by the regenerating process?

10. What happens to this gas before it is allowed to escape?

11. Most of the hydrocarbons in the feedstock are alkanes. Each breaks down in the converter to give smaller alkane and an alkene. Write an equation for the breakdown of one molecule of C60H122 to give one molecule a smaller alkane and one molecule of ethene.

12. The alkane molecules in the feedstock are so large that they need to be cracked by more than one reaction. Some cracking reactions produce one molecule that is small enough to be a useful product and another molecule that is still too large. What happens to the small molecule and what happens to the molecule that is still too large?

S2





fawley 4 q -

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