Is It Raining Oil In Florida? This Is Just The Beginning

YES. Oil does evaporate. But it evaporates in a weird way. Oil is not a pure compound. Oil
is a blend of many different sizes of hydrocarbons. These
molecules can range from very very small (16 grams / mole ) to very very large molecules
(100s-1,000s of grams / mole)

The lighter molecules will evaporate quicker than the heavier molecules. WHY?

Let us pretend this gulf crude is made of only 10 different
molecules:

Molecule 1 weighs about 16 g / mole.
Molecule 2 weighs about 32 g / mole.

.
.
.

Molecule 10 weighs about 160 g / mole.

If you want to understand how oil evaporates you need to know how evaporation really works.
Evaporation happens when a molecule has enough energy to leave its fellow liquid molecules
surrounding it. For any given temperature, or energy, the smaller molecules will move quicker
than the larger molecules. Think about kicking a soccer ball versus kicking a bowling ball. However, if you imagined it, the soccer ball
will travel much faster than the bowling ball. This is what happens in oil. The temperature is
the energy from your "foot" and the 10 balls that have 10 different masses are the molecules in
the oil. Now you can imagine that over a long period of time the lighter molecules will tend to
evaporate away leaving the larger and heavier molecules behind.

sorry for the very simple explaination but some here dont seem to understand the simple properties of matter. with the coming hurricane season, the low atmospheric pressures that also come will aid in the evaporation of crude components. less pressure means less energy required to vaporize said compound.

oil companies use fractionation distillation towers to crack crude oil into its component parts...... refluxing those to achieve purity. this is done by vaporizing the oil and collecting the condensates that form at different temps
Off topic but see this for distillation
edit - sp

[edit on 30-5-2010 by Majestyka]

[edit on 30-5-2010 by Majestyka]

Originally posted by 4nsicphd

Originally posted by SonOfTheLawOfOne
Black rain will be one byproduct of this mess.

You see, the sun has this funny way of heating things up. And another funny effect from this is the way physics works, because you see, as the heat penetrates the water, it will cause the water molecules (oil included) to separate and become vapor. As this vapor rises, the water will collect at one elevation while the oil collects at another and some will stay bound to the water. The result when this water falls: BLACK RAIN.

It will get worse as the heat of the summer continues to heat the gulf. The really scary part of this is Florida is right smack between the easterly Atlantic sea breeze and the Gulf sea breeze. It's the reason for the violent thunderstorms EVERY SINGLE DAY during the summers. Not to mention, that this whole process starts over the EVERGLADES, home to more life than is imaginable and then moves (usually) east, into the highly populated coastal areas of Florida. That oil will make it's way into the water supply, it will contaminate the Everglades, it will ruin tourism, destroy the beaches, destroy the fishing business, start raging fires and turn the state into a complete dead zone. And that is JUST Florida's problems, no counting all of the other states.

This is just one very small piece of the bigger puzzle. Surrounding states should prepare themselves now.

~Namaste

You must live in a parallel universe with different laws of chemistry. Oil won't bind to water. If you introduce a water molecule to an oil molecule, whether a gaseous or liquid alkane or gasoline or kerosine or heating oil or asphalt, you end up with 2 unbound molecules since water is polar and hydrocarbon chains are as hydrophobic as Old Yeller. It is totally different from acid rain where water vapor (H2O) combines with Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) from fossil fuel burning to make a new compound of H2SO4 or Sulphuric Acid. If you mix H2O and C8H18, which is octane, a convenient "average" gasoline, you don't get a new compound, but rather gasoline suspended in water. And if you add in something like Corexit, the dispersant made by Nalco used on the spill, you just get an emulsion of oil and water which is just oil broken up into smaller pieces mixed in with, but not chemically bound to the water, and a suspension of the Corexit, which appears to be a really lightweight petroleum distallate, like mineral spirits.

I guess I do live in a parallel universe with different laws of physics.... or do you?

How oil evaporates

Do you not understand the way that something evaporates? What you are saying is that when you cook with oil, the same EXACT oil you started with is still present after turning the heat up because it wasn't attached to water molecules? Or that you never have to replace or change the oil in your car because it doesn't evaporate from heat? Please....

A simple google search would have yielded you better information and made you look less uninformed -

Ask a SCIENTIST

Perhaps you should do your homework before you start spewing ad hom attacks at people.

Credit goes to Majestyka for beating me to the punch.

~Namaste

Originally posted by SonOfTheLawOfOne

Originally posted by 4nsicphd

Originally posted by SonOfTheLawOfOne
If you mix H2O and C8H18, which is octane, a convenient "average" gasoline, you don't get a new compound, but rather gasoline suspended in water.

Ask a SCIENTIST

Perhaps you should do your homework before you start spewing ad hom attacks at people.

Credit goes to Majestyka for beating me to the punch.

~Namaste

last time i checked....(last week) 4nsicphd, gasoline and water will separate with only a few thousand PPM water in suspension with the fuel.....yes i have access to a GC.....

star for you SonOfTheLawOfOne posting the link to source of my post.....Thanks man!

Do the power plants in Florida use seawater for cooling and isn't there a big desalinazation plant in Tampa bay?

What effect would this have if they had to stop cooling at the plants?