mineral oil
The term mineral oil is used synonymously with petroleum in the broader sense . With petroleum products are usually petroleum products meant. The term mineral oil was introduced at the end of the 18th century to distinguish oil extracted from underground deposits from vegetable oils .
Mineral oils in the strict sense are the by distillation of crude oil produced base oils . Since the middle of the 20th century, synthetic oils have been produced from natural gas or wood and coal gasification , which are similar in composition to mineral oils. Also certain refined base oils are used as synthetic oil called.
In contrast to fats and fatty oils ( triglycerides , also tri-fatty acid esters of glycerine ), mineral oils and mineral fats , which are similar in terms of their physical properties, consist of paraffinic (saturated chain-shaped hydrocarbons ), naphthenic (saturated ring-shaped hydrocarbons) and aromatic (ring-shaped hydrocarbons with an aromatic double bond system) components. Mineral oils also contain alkenes (olefins) and, depending on the provenance, varying small amounts of sulfur-containing and nitrogen-containing organic compounds .
Petroleum products
Mineral oils are often produced as by-products in the fractionation of petroleum into fuel and solvents .
Highly refined medicinal white oils for applications in cosmetics and medicine are also among the mineral oils, but then consist almost exclusively of alkanes and cycloalkanes , i.e. saturated hydrocarbons. The other constituents were previously removed from the corresponding petroleum fraction by catalytic hydrogenation , oleum refining or other complex technical processes. Paraffin oil for skin cosmetics and paraffin for candles consist of a mixture of almost pure alkanes.
The residue from the mineral oil rectification is bitumen . This is either cracking processes for the production of z. B. Ethylene (ethylene cracker) supplied (Visbreaker, Hydrocracker) or used as a road surface , popularly called road tar. The latter was actually used as a road surface until around the 1960s, but was not tar, but the residue from coal tar distillation, namely the soft pitch . In contrast, asphalt is less brittle in winter and less soft in summer.
Others
Oil test paper is used to detect mineral oils in water .
The English term mineral oil is usually translated into white oil in the narrower sense .
See also
Web links
- Mineral oil residues in food in the information portal oekolandbau.de of the Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food
Footnotes
- ^ Definition of 'Mineral oil', in Merriam-Webster Dictionary ( en ). Retrieved September 10, 2018.