Does oil (or petroleum) converts to gasses after being heated?

Question

Petroleum is separated to bitumen, gasoline, tar, etc in a distillation column by heating it up to the products' boiling point respectively. As petroleum is in a liquid phase, does it change to gas phase once it is heated? Are the products in gas phase and later condensed to liquid phase?

Answer 1

Petroleum volatilizes into a gas. Heating will cause it to volatilize faster. In fact, petroleum needs to convert to vapor to burn.

The whole process of petroleum distillation converts various hydrocarbons (i.e. gasoline, diesel fuel, oil) into a gaseous state by heating it and condensing it out in a distillation column to get the various products separated.

Answer 2

Not necessarily a "gas" but a form of smog: Smog is caused by a reaction between sunlight and emissions mainly from human activity.Nitrogen oxides are released in the exhaust of fossil fuel-burning engines-VOC's are vapors released from gasoline and other chemicals.Smog is a problem in a number of cities and continues to harm human health.[3] Ground-level ozone is especially harmful for senior citizens, children, and people with heart and lung conditions such as emphysema, bronchitis, and asthma[4]. It can inflame breathing passages, decreasing the lung's working capacity, and causing shortness of breath, pain when inhaling deeply, wheezing, and coughing. It can cause eye and nose irritation and it dries out the protective membranes of the nose and throat and interferes with the body's ability to fight infection, increasing susceptibility to illness. Hospital admissions and respiratory deaths often increase during periods when ozone levels are high [5].

The U.S. EPA has developed an Air Quality index to help explain air pollution levels to the general public. 8 hour average ozone concentrations of 85 to 104 ppbv are described as "Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups", 105 ppbv to 124 ppbv as "unhealthy" and 125 ppb to 404 ppb as "very unhealthy" [1]. The "very unhealthy" range for some other pollutants are: 355 μg m-3 - 424 μg m-3 for PM10; 15.5 ppbv - 30.4ppb for CO and 0.65 ppbv - 1.24 [2]

Answer 3

Gas / vapor / steam......Yes...