
This website explains how petroleum is processed. It opens with a 2½-minute video about how petroleum was formed hundreds of millions of years ago from the remains of prehistoric, microscopic plants and the process they go through (photosynthesis) to create the energy that fuels our cars and warms our homes. The video is followed by an interactive that demonstrates distillation and treatment of hydrocarbons.
The site is one of the Energy in a High-Tech World resources developed by Science NetLinks with support from the American Petroleum Institute.
Going Further
- Revised Periodic Table
- Periodic Table of the Elements App
- Power Play
- The Science of the Deep Horizon Oil Spill