Imagine, if you will, a humble, dark liquid pulled from deep within the Earth, mysterious, dense, and seemingly simple. Yet, in the right hands, this “black gold” holds the power to fuel your car, ...

The longest hydrocarbons have very high boiling points. They leave the column as a hot liquid called bitumen. Shorter hydrocarbon molecules have weaker intermolecular forces and lower boiling points.

Over the next five years, advanced refineries are set to make giant strides in energy efficiency and digitisation.

Crude oil comes into a refinery and goes into what is called a crude distillation unit. “There, there is the distillation column and products come out from the column at various levels.