How do gas companies convert raw oil products to octane(Gas)?

this is science questionHow do gas companies convert raw oil products to octane(Gas)?
It's incredibly complicated, and can't fully be answered here. But basically:


1. Crude oil is distilled. That means it's separated into different ';fractions';, with the light fractions having a low boiling point, and the heavy fractions having a high boiling point.


2. One of the light fractions is straight-run gasoline. All they do to this stuff is pass it through a hydrotreater to take out sulfur compounds and bust up double bonds, and it's good to go in your car.


3. Several of the other fractions can be made into gasoline... the very light gases (things that would be vapor at room temperature) can be cracked, desulfurized, and alkylated to produce winter-grade gasoline; heavier products like naptha and gas oil can be hydrotreated and cracked to produce reformate gasoline or cracked gasoline. The very heaviest stuff, vacuum residual, cannot be cracked, and is used for asphalt.


4. The various gasolines are blended together to produce gasoline of desired octane (octane, in gasoline, is strictly a measure of how the gasoline combusts... gasoline of a given octane can have a wide variety of composition)How do gas companies convert raw oil products to octane(Gas)?
Raw oil products, as you refer in your question, maybe petroleum in nature or vegetable in nature. If it is petroleum in nature, then it undergoes the usual and more extensive process of fractional distillation, hydrogenation, catalytic cracking, polymeration and isomeration.





For vegetable oil products, which do not contain ';asphalty materials';, then the process is shorter and mostly by catalytic cracking and minimal hydrogenation. Of course, there is fractional distillation to separate various products.





In any case, any octane gas (per your question and not gasoline) produced is condensed and compressed in pressurized tanks. All other condensible liquid fractions are sold as gasoline as Hi-octane gasoline.
ask them
They distill the crude oil and it separates out into the constituent parts...
Crude oil goes through a process of fractional distillation, where products are separated out by their boiling points. They also do cracking of larger molecules to get more octane.
this are a general summary of the steps of how they make octane:





1. They distill any unwanted minerals or particles


2. (repeat #1 about 5 times)


3. It goes to a factory where it mixes chemicals to thin it a bit


4. it gets refined again and again


5. it gets into a chamber where it mixes, and removes extra chemicals


6. it is stored, then shipped out to gas stations.