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Various Constituents of Petroleum and their Uses

Sl. Constituents of petroleum Uses
No.
1. Liquified Petroleum Gas Fuel for home and industry.
2. Petrol Motor fuel, aviation fuel, solvent for
dry cleaning
3. Kerosene Fuel for stoves, lamps and for jet
aircrafts.
4. Diesel Fuel for heavy motor vehicles,
electric generators.
5. Lubricating Oil Lubrication.
6. Paraffin Wax Ointments, candles, Vaseline etc.
7. Bitumen Paints, road surfacing.

Natural Gas

It consists mainly of 95% methane with small quantities of ethane and propane. India has vast
reserves for natural gas. In India, natural gas has been found in Tripura, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra
and in Krishna – Godavari delta. When the natural gas is compressed by applying pressure, it is
called Compressed Natural Gas.

It is called a clean fuel because it burns without producing smoke and does not cause air pollution.

Advantages of CNG

1. It is a good fuel as it produces lot of heat.
2. It burns with a smokeless flame and causes no air pollution.
3. It does not leave any residue after burning.
4. It can be directly used as a fuel. No need to add anything to it.
5. It can be supplied to homes and factories through network of pipes. So we can say it can be
transportable.
Uses
1. It is used as a domestic and industrial fuel.
2. It is used in Thermal Power Stations for generating electricity.
3. It is nowadays being used in vehicles.
4. It is used to manufacture fertilisers.
5. It can be used to manufacture petrochemicals.

Petrochemicals

Those chemicals that are obtained from petroleum and natural gas are called petrochemicals. For
example: methyl alcohol, ethyl alcohol, formaldehyde, acetone, acetic acid, ethylene, benzene etc.

Petrochemicals are very important because they are used to manufacture a wide range of useful
materials such as: detergents, synthetic fibres, drugs, dyes etc.

Petroleum is known as ‘black gold’ due to its great commercial importance.

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