Oil

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Oil

An oil is a substance

Chemical substance

A chemical substance is a material with a specific Empirical formula. It is a concept that became firmly established in the late eighteenth century after work by the chemist Joseph Proust on the composition of some pure chemical compounds such as basic copper carbonate....
that is in a viscous

Viscosity

Viscosity is a measure of the Drag of a fluid which is being deformed by either shear stress or extensional stress. In everyday terms , viscosity is "thickness"....
liquid

Liquid

Liquid is one of the principal states of matter. A liquid is a fluid that has the particles loose and can freely form a distinct surface at the boundaries of its bulk material....
state ("oily") at ambient temperatures

Room temperature

Room temperature is a common term to denote a certain temperature within enclosed space at which humans are accustomed.Room temperature is thus often indicated by general human comfort, with the common range of 10celsius to 23?C , though climate may acclimatize people to higher or lower temperatures....
or slightly warmer, and is both hydrophobic (immiscible with water

Water (molecule)

File:Blue-water-pool.jpgWater is the most abundant molecule on Earth's surface, constituting about 70% of the Earth's surface in liquid, solid, and gaseous states....
) and lipophilic

Lipophilic

Lipophilicity, , refers to the ability of a chemical compound to dissolve in fats, oils, lipids, and non-polar solvents such as hexane or toluene....
(miscible with other oils, literally). This general definition includes compound classes with otherwise unrelated chemical structure

Chemical structure

A Chemical structure includes molecular geometry, electronic structure and crystal structure of a chemical compound. Molecular geometry refers to the spatial arrangement of atoms in a molecule and the chemical bonds that hold the atoms together....
s, properties

Chemical property

A chemical property is any of a material's properties that becomes evident during a chemical reaction; that is, any quality that can be established only by changing a substance's Chemical substance....
, and uses, including vegetable oils, petrochemical

Petrochemistry

Petrochemistry is the branch of chemistry that studies the transformation of crude oil and natural gas into useful products and raw materials....
oils, and volatile essential oil

Essential oil

An essential oil is a concentrated, hydrophobic liquid containing volatile aroma compounds from plants. They are also known as volatile or ethereal oils, or simply as the "oil of" the plant material from which they were extracted, such as oil of clove....
s.

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Quotations

I'm not dependent on oil. I can quit whenever I want. ~

ink1" href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Green_Party_%28Sweden%29">Green Party (Sweden)" Category:Themes Category:Energy

Moses dragged us through the desert for 40 years to bring us to the one place in the Middle East where there was no oil.

Golda Meir

No young American should be held hostage to America's dependence on oil.

John Kerry

The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun.

Ralph Nader

This war has been motivated by pride or arrogance, by a desire to control oil wealth, by a desire to implant our programs.

Jimmy Carter

Overdrafts on aquifers are one reason some of our geologist colleagues are convinced that water shortages will bring the human population explosion to a halt. There are substitutes for oil; there is no substitute for fresh water.

Paul R. Ehrlich

Encyclopedia

An oil is a substance

Chemical substance

Viscosity

Viscosity is a measure of the Drag of a fluid which is being deformed by either shear stress or extensional stress. In everyday terms , viscosity is "thickness"....
liquid

Liquid

Room temperature

Water (molecule)

File:Blue-water-pool.jpgWater is the most abundant molecule on Earth's surface, constituting about 70% of the Earth's surface in liquid, solid, and gaseous states....
) and lipophilic

Lipophilic

Chemical structure

Chemical property

Petrochemistry

Petrochemistry is the branch of chemistry that studies the transformation of crude oil and natural gas into useful products and raw materials....
oils, and volatile essential oil

Essential oil

Petroleum

Types of oils

Mineral oil

All oils, with their high carbon and hydrogen content, can be traced back to organic sources. Mineral oils, found in porous rocks underground, are no exception, as they were originally the organic material, such as dead plankton

Plankton

Plankton consist of any drifting organisms that inhabit the pelagic zone of oceans, seas, or bodies of fresh water. Plankton are defined by their ecological niche rather than their Phylogenetics or taxonomy classification....
, accumulated on the seafloor in geologically ancient times. Through various geochemical processes this material was converted to mineral oil, or petroleum

Petroleum

Kerosene

Kerosene, sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage, also known as paraffin, is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid....
, paraffin waxes

Paraffin

In chemistry, paraffin is the common name for the alkane hydrocarbons with the general formula CnH2n+2. Paraffin wax refers to the solids with n=20–40....
, gasoline

Gasoline

File:GasCan.jpgGasoline or petrol is a petroleum-derived liquid mixture, primarily used as fuel in internal combustion engines.It consists mostly of aliphatic hydrocarbons, enhanced with iso-octane or the aromatic hydrocarbons toluene and benzene to increase its octane rating....
, diesel

Diesel

Diesel or diesel fuel in general is any fuel used in diesel engines. The most common is a specific fractional distillation of petroleum fuel oil, but alternatives that are not derived from petroleum, such as biodiesel, biomass to liquid or gas to liquid diesel, are increasingly being developed and adopted....
and such. These are classified as mineral oils as they do not have an organic origin on human timescales, and are instead derived from underground geologic locations, ranging from rocks, to underground traps, to sands.

Other oily substances can also be found in the environment, the most well-known being asphalt

Asphalt

Asphalt is a sticky, black and highly viscosity liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits sometimes termed asphaltum....
, occurring naturally underground or, where there are leaks, in tar pits.

Petroleum

Petroleum

Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid found in rock formations in the Earth consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, plus other organic compounds....
and other mineral oils, (specifically labelled as petrochemicals), have become such a crucial resource to human civilization in modern times they are often referred to by the ubiquitous term of "oil" itself.

Organic oil

Oils are also produced by plants, animals and other organisms through organic

Organic chemistry

Organic chemistry is a discipline within chemistry which involves the science study of the structure, properties, composition, chemical reaction, and preparation of chemical compounds that contain carbon....
processes, and these oils are remarkable in their diversity. Oil is a somewhat vague term to use chemically

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science concerned with the composition, structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions....
, and the scientific term for oils, fat

Fat

Fats consist of a wide group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and largely insoluble in water. Chemistry, fats are generally ester of glycerol and fatty acids....
s, wax

Wax

Wax has traditionally referred to a substance that is secreted by bees and used by them in constructing their honeycombs.It is an imprecisely defined term generally understood to be a substance with properties similar to beeswax, namely...
es, cholesterol

Cholesterol

Cholesterol is a lipidic, waxy alcohol found in the cell membranes and transported in the blood plasma of all animals. It is an essential component of mammalian cell membranes where it is required to establish proper membrane permeability and membrane fluidity....
and other oily substances found in living things and their secretions, is lipid

Lipid

Lipids are broadly defined as any fat-soluble , naturally-occurring molecule, such as fats, oils, waxes, cholesterol, sterols, fat-soluble vitamins , monoglycerides, diglycerides, phospholipids, and others....
s.

Lipids, ranging from waxes to steroids, are somewhat hard to characterize, and are united in a group almost solely based on the fact that they all repel, or refuse to dissolve, in water

Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
, and are however comfortably miscible in other liquid lipids. They also have a high carbon

Carbon

Carbon is a chemical element with chemical symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalence?making four electrons available to form covalent bond chemical bonds....
and hydrogen

Hydrogen

Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the chemical symbol H. At standard temperature and pressure, hydrogen is a colorless, odorless, nonmetallic, tasteless, highly combustion and explosive Diatomic molecule gas with the molecular formula H2....
content, and are considerably lacking in oxygen

Oxygen

Oxygen no O2 produced; 2) O2 produced, but absorbed in oceans & seabed rock; 3) O2 starts to gas out of the oceans, but is absorbed by land surfaces and formation of ozone layer; 4-5) O2 sinks filled and the gas accumulates]]...
compared to other organic compounds and minerals.

Applications

Food oils

Many edible vegetable and animal

Animal

Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the Kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life....
oils, and also fat

Fat

Fats consist of a wide group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and largely insoluble in water. Chemistry, fats are generally ester of glycerol and fatty acids....
s, are used for various in cooking

Cooking oil

Cooking oil is purified fat of plant origin, which is liquid at room temperature.Some of the many different kinds of edible Vegetable fats and oilss include: olive oil, palm oil, soybean oil, canola oil, pumpkin seed oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, peanut oil, grape seed oil, sesame oil, argan oil and rice bran oil....
and food

Food

Food is any substance, usually composed of carbohydrates, fats, proteins and water, that can be Eating or Drinking by an animal or human for nutrition or pleasure....
preparation. In particular, many foods are fried

Frying

Frying is the cooking of food in oil or fat, a technique that originated in ancient Old_Kingdom around 2500BC. Chemically, oils and fats are the same, differing only in melting point, but the distinction is only made when needed....
in oil much hotter than boiling water

Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
. Oils are also used for flavoring and for modifying the texture of foods e.g. Stir Fry

Stir frying

Stir frying is an umbrella term used to describe two fast cooking techniques: chao and b?o . The term stir-fry was introduced into the English language by Buwei Yang Chao, in her book How to Cook and Eat in Chinese, to describe the chao technique....
.

Health

Health

In 1948, the World Health Organisation defined health as ?a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.? ...
advantages are claimed for a number of specific oils such as omega 3 oils (fish oil

Fish oil

Fish oil is oil derived from the biological tissue of oily fish.Fish oil is recommended for a healthy diet because it contains the omega-3 fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid , and docosahexaenoic acid , precursors to eicosanoids that reduce inflammation throughout the body....
, flaxseed oil, etc), evening primrose oil and olive oil

Olive oil

Olive oil is a fruit oil obtained from the olive , a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. The wild olive tree originated in Anatolia and spread from there as far as southern Africa, Australia, Japan and China....
. The term, "oily hair" is actually a misconception.

Trans fats, often produced by hydrogenating

Hydrogenation

Hydrogenation is the chemical reaction that results from the addition of hydrogen . The process is usually employed to a redox or Saturation organic compounds....
vegetable oils, are known to be harmful to health.

Fuel

Almost all oils burn

Combustion

Combustion or burning is a complex sequence of exothermic chemical reactions between a fuel and an oxidant accompanied by the production of heat or both heat and light in the form of either a glow or flames, appearance of light flickering....
in air

AIR

Air is the part of Earth's atmosphere that humans breath and as such Air .Air may also refer to:...
generating heat

Heat

In physics and thermodynamics, heat is any transfer of energy from one body or thermodynamic system to another due to a difference in temperature....
, which can be used directly, or converted into other forms of fuels by various means. For example, heating water into steam

Steam

In physical chemistry, and in engineering, steam refers to vaporized water. It is a pure, completely invisible gaseous phase . At standard temperature and pressure, pure steam occupies about 1,600 times the volume of an equal mass of liquid water....
which is funneled into a turbine

Turbine

A turbine is a rotary engine that extracts energy from a fluid flow. Claude Burdin coined the term from the Latin turbo, or vortex, during an 1828 engineering competition....
which turns a generator

Electrical generator

In electricity generation, an electrical generator is a device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy, generally using electromagnetic induction....
, which then produces electricity

Electricity

Electricity is a general term that encompasses a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena such as lightning and static electricity, but in addition, less familiar concepts such as the electromagnetic field and electromagnetic induction....
. Oils are used as fuel

Fuel

Fuel is any material that is burned or altered in order to obtain energy and to heat or to move an object. Fuel releases its energy either through a chemical reaction means, such as combustion, or nuclear means, such as nuclear fission or nuclear fusion....
s for heating

Heating

Heating may refer to:*HVAC: Heating, ventilation and air-conditioningHeating devices, or systems:*Block heater, or headbolt heater, an electric heater that heats the engine of a car to ease starting in cold weather...
, lighting (e.g. kerosene lamp

Kerosene lamp

The kerosene lamp is any type of lighting device which uses kerosene as a fuel. There are two main types of kerosene lamp which work in different ways, the "wick lamp" and the "pressure lamp"....
), powering combustion

Combustion

Petroleum

Fuel oil

Fuel oil is a fractional distillation obtained from petroleum distillation, either as a distillate or a residue. Broadly speaking, fuel oil is any liquid petroleum product that is burned in a furnace or boiler for the generation of heat or used in an engine for the generation of power, except oils having a flash point of approximately and oi...
, diesel oil, gasoline

Gasoline

Biodiesel

Biodiesel refers to a non-petroleum-based diesel fuel consisting of long chain alkyl esters, made by transesterification of vegetable oil or animal fat , which can be used in unmodified diesel-engine vehicles....
are gaining market share.

Heat transport

Many oils have higher boiling point

Boiling point

The boiling point of a liquid is the temperature at which the vapor pressure of the liquid equals the environmental pressure surrounding the liquid....
s than water and are electrical insulators, making them useful for liquid cooling

Liquid cooling

Liquid Cooling may refer to:* Cooling by convections or circulation of Coolants* Computer cooling* Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment, a garment worn by astronauts....
systems, especially where electricity is used.

Lubrication

Due to their non-polarity, oils do not easily adhere to other substances. This makes oils useful as lubricant

Lubricant

A lubricant is a substance introduced between two moving surfaces to reduce the friction between them, improving efficiency and reducing wear....
s for various engineering purposes. Mineral oils are more suitable than biological oils, which degrade rapidly in most environmental conditions.

Painting

Color pigments can be easily suspended

Suspension (chemistry)

In chemistry, a suspension is a heterogeneous fluid containing solid particles that are sufficiently large for sedimentation. Usually they must be larger than 1 micrometre....
in oil, making it suitable as supporting medium for paints

Oil paint

Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint consisting of small pigment particles suspended in a drying oil. Oil paints have been used in England as early as the 13th century for simple decoration, but were not widely adopted for artistic purposes until the 15th century....
. The slow drying process and miscibility of oil facilitates a realistic style. This method has been used since the 15th century.

Petrochemicals

Crude oil can be processed into petroleum

Petroleum

Other Usages

Sulfuric acid

Sulfuric acid, hydrogen2sulfuroxygen4, is a strong mineral acid. It is soluble in water at all concentrations. Sulfuric acid has many applications, and is one of the top products of the chemical industry....
has been called oil of vitriol in pre-scientific times, due to its syrupy consistency. Even in modern times, sulfuric acid is sometimes called vitriolic acid, and caustic personalities are called "vitriolic." Sulfuric acid is not a petrochemical, and in modern parlance, is not an oil.

Religion

Oils have been used throughout history as a fragrant or religious

Religion

A religion is an organized approach to human spirituality which usually encompasses a set of myth, symbols, beliefs and practices, often with a supernatural or transcendence quality, that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power or truth....
medium. Oil is often seen as a spiritually purifying agent. It is used in religious ceremonies, such as the chrism

Chrism

Chrism , also called "Myrrh" , Holy anointing oil or "Consecrated Oil," is a consecrated oil used in the Roman Catholic Church, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Old Catholic Church, and some Anglicanism and Lutheranism churches in the administration of certain sacraments and ecclesi...
used in baptism

Baptism

In Christianity, baptism is the ritual act, with the use of water, by which one is admitted as a full member of the Christian Church and, in the view of some, as a member of the particular Church in which the baptism is administered....
, and has traditionally been used to anoint

Anointing

To anoint is to pour or smear with perfumed oil, milk, water, melted butter or other substances, a process employed ritually by many religions and races....
kings and queens. Oil that is associated with one or more saints is known as "oil of saints

Oil of Saints

The Oil of Saints is a substance, which is said to have flowed, or still flows, from the relics or burial places of certain Roman Catholic saints....
" and believed by some to have beneficial properties, as is "oil of martyrs

Christian martyrs

A Christian martyr is one who is killed for religious persecution, through stoning, crucifixion or Execution by burning etc. The word 'martyr' comes from the Greek word which means "witness."...
".

Oil

Types of oils

Mineral oil

Organic oil

Applications

Food oils

Fuel

Heat transport

Lubrication

Painting

Petrochemicals

Other Usages

Religion

See also