CHEMISTRY GLOSSARY

crude oil    →   sirova nafta

Crude oil (petroleum) is a fossil fuel formed from plant and animal remains many million of years ago. It is occasionally found in springs or pools but is usually drilled from wells beneath the earth’s surface. Crude oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons with small quantities of other chemicals such as sulphur, nitrogen and oxygen. Crude is the raw material which is refined into petrol, heating oil, jet fuel, propane, petrochemicals, and other products.

dienes    →   dieni

Dienes are unsaturated organic compounds that contain two fixed double bonds between carbon atoms. Dienes in which the two double-bond units are linked by one single bond are termed conjugated.

kerosine    →   kerozin

Kerosine is a flammable hydrocarbon oil used as fuel in lamps and heaters

low-weight fractions    →   lake frakcije

Low-weight (petroleum) fractions have low boiling points and short carbohydrates chains.

LPG    →   LPG

LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) is a mixture of short hydrocarbons with most of the volume being propane and butane. LPG is considered an alternative fuel that burns cleaner than petrol.

micelle    →   micele

Micelle is an electrically charged colloidal particle, usually organic in nature, composed of aggregates of large molecules, e.g., in soaps and surfactants. For aqueous solutions, the hydrophilic end of the molecule is on the surface of the micelle, while the hydrophobic end (often a hydrocarbon chain) points toward the centre.

dioxin    →   dioksin

Dioxin is a general term that describes a group of hundreds of chemicals that are highly persistent in the environment. The most toxic compound is 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin or TCDD. The toxicity of other dioxins and chemicals like PCBs that act like dioxin are measured in relation to TCDD. Dioxin is formed as an unintentional by-product of many industrial processes involving chlorine such as waste incineration, chemical and pesticide manufacturing and pulp and paper bleaching. Dioxin was the primary toxic component of Agent Orange, found at Love Canal in Niagara Falls, NY and was the basis for evacuations at Times Beach, MO and Seveso, Italy.

Dioxin is formed by burning chlorine-based chemical compounds with hydrocarbons. The major source of dioxin in the environment comes from waste-burning incinerators of various sorts and also from backyard burn-barrels. Dioxin pollution is also affiliated with paper mills which use chlorine bleaching in their process, with the production of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) plastics, and with the production of certain chlorinated chemicals (like many pesticides).

Fischer-Tropsch process    →   Fischer-Tropschov postupak

Fischer-Tropsch process is an industrial method of making hydrocarbon fuels from carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The process was introduced in 1933. and used by Germany in World War II. to produce motor fuel. Hydrogen and carbon monoxide are mixed in the ratio 2:1 (water gas was used with added hydrogen) and passed at 200 °C over a nickel or cobalt catalyst. The resulting hydrocarbon mixture can be separated into a higher-boiling fraction for Diesel engines and a lower-boiling petrol fraction. The petrol fraction contains a high proportion of straight-chain hydrocarbons and has to be reformed for use in motor fuel. Alcohols, aldehydes, and ketones are also present. The process is also used in the manufacture of SNG from coal. It is named after the German chemist Franz Fischer (1852-1932) and the Czech Hans Tropsch (1839-1935).

gasoline    →   motorni benzin

Gasoline is a complex mixture of volatile hydrocarbons that may have between 5 to 12 carbons. The major components are branched-chain paraffins, cycloparaffins, and aromatics. Gasoline is most often produced by the fractional distillation of crude oil as the fraction of hydrocarbons in petroleum boiling between 30 °C and 200 °C. The quality of a fuel is measured with its octane number. Octane number is the measure of the resistance of gasoline against detonation or preignition of the fuel in the engine. The higher the octane number, the more compression the fuel can withstand before detonating. The octane number is determined by comparing the characteristics of a gasoline to isooctane with good knocking properties (octane number of 100) and heptane with bad (octane number of 0).

mineral oils    →   mineralna ulja

Mineral oils are oily liquids that are composed of hydrocarbons and are obtained as a product of petroleum, tar, coal, wood etc. distillation. They are used as lubricants.