OCR Text |
Show UTILIZATION OF PETROLEUM. It is probable that no other raw material enters so many fields of utilization as petroleum. Crude oil, subjected to a series of refining processes, releases gas that is the source of fuel gas, carbon black, and alcohols. The first products pro-ducts of distillation are naphthas and refined oils, which yield gasoline, commercial solvents, and- cleaning fluids. The refined oils include kerosene, kero-sene, illuminating oil, stove and tractor trac-tor oil, furnace oil, etc. The intermediate distillates produce pro-duce gas oil and absorber oil, both of which have important industrial uses, and likewise yield gasoline, by the cracking process, and Diesel oil. From the heavy distillates come waxes, lubricating and medicinal oils, and similar products. But the use of petroleum does not end here. The residues of distillation produce other things, road oil, asphalts, as-phalts, pitches and coke. i A great many of the commodities we use in our daily life, from candy to medicine, are made up in part of petroleum products. The oil industry has proven itself, time and again, to be a cornerstone of modern civilization. |