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Article: Petroleum Industry
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
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PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY.
Petroleum, Latin for "rock oil, " fuels 60 percent of all energy humans use. It also provides the raw material for synthetic cloth, plastics, paint, ink, tires, drugs and medicines, and many other products.
Crude oil can be separated into many different parts called fractions, each of which boils at a different temperature. As crude oil is boiled, the different fractions vaporize and rise to various levels of the distillation tower, also called a still. Thinner oils boil at lower temperatures and consequently reach the top of the tower before they condense. The heavier oils, which boil at higher temperatures, do not reach as high before ...