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To: thackney

Because it isn’t true. Heat and Pressure break down heavy crude oil molecules into smaller, simpler molecules like Natural Gas, octane, etc.

We do it every day in our refineries. The physics doesn’t reverse because it is underground.


There is this thing called organic chemistry, which is not as simple as you present. Carbon has a natural affinity for itself to produce longer chains with itself and other elements. That is why we are a carbon based life form.

Your refinery example is a distilling process, separating the different length of chains, very little changing of bonds, if any.

Thanks for the question, maybe that organic chem has value yet.


24 posted on 07/17/2013 6:34:15 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple
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To: PeterPrinciple
There is this thing called organic chemistry, which is not as simple as you present. Carbon has a natural affinity for itself to produce longer chains with itself and other elements. That is why we are a carbon based life form.

Yes, those are the biotic sources. I was responding to a claim of abotic.

30 posted on 07/17/2013 6:52:30 AM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: PeterPrinciple
In the early days refineries did only distillation but along the way they learned how to crack or break the longer chain hydrocarbons(alkanes) into shorter chain hydrocarbons. Theoretically you can take a 20 carbon alkane which might be called didecane and crack that into 12 carbon alkane called dodecane which would go into diesel and an 8 carbon alkane called octane which would into gasoline.

What you say about steam and removing a hydrogen is right. Take the ethane out of natural gas and steam crack it to remove hydrogen to make ethene aka ethylene which is used to make polyethylene(polemerized ethylene) , a common plastic. if the suffix is ane(alkane) it is a single bonded carbon. If the suffix is ene(alkene) it is double bonded(2 less hydro-gens)

3HC-CH3 ethane is steam cracked to remove 2 hydrogen which gives you 2HC=CH2 ethene/ethylene.

Similarly Propane from nat gas can be used to make propene/propylene to make polypropylene

Butane to butene to butadiene to synthetic rubber. In butadiene there are two double bonds, either in the 1,2 position or the 1,3 position.

41 posted on 07/17/2013 10:57:20 AM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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