The crucial and oldest way to power today's industry - Petroleum

Petroleum. In Latin, petra meant rock whilst oleum meant oil. Combined it is called rock oil also known as fossil fuel. It is pronounced as pe-tro-le-um. It is produced from the decaying of prehistoric plants and animal remains -- hence the name FOSSIL FUEL. It is liquid in nature and sometimes in gaseous form (natural gas) and yellowish black in colour. It is composed of hydrocarbons and organic compounds.

How is petroleum form?
As stated above, petroleum comes from the decaying of prehistoric plants and animal remains. The remains settle to the bottom of the sea, after layers and layers of piling up, trapping the organic material. As we know, for a remain to decay or rot, it requires oxygen. Being trapped under layers and layers of sand and rocks, it could not decay properly. After a long period, the increasing pressure and temperature slowly cook the remains into petroleum. The petroleum is held in a rock like a sponge holding in water.

How is petroleum found?
In the past, finding a source of petroleum would be the same as finding the light switch in a pitch black room multiple by a thousand and the cost to randomly drill would be extremely costly depending on the depth of the sea. However in today's modern society, we have science and technology to help us find the source instead of guessing, saving the cost and time to randomly find a source.

The distillation of petroleum.
Petroleum in its raw form has no used. It only has uses after being distillated. The fractional distillation is the process of separating the mixtures into compound parts by boiling them. As each of the compounds in petroleum have different boiling points and different uses. The products of the fractional distillation are petroleum gas, gasoline, kerosene, heating oil, lubricating oil and residues.

Why is petroleum such an important resource?
Basically speaking, almost everything is powered by petroleum, cars, heaters and etc. It is also used to generate income for a country, as not many countries have such a luxury resource or technology to find it.

The Magnificent Story Behind Perfumes and Fragrances

The word perfume comes from the Latin words, “per” meaning “through” and “fumus” meaning smoke.” The French later named the pleasant drifting smells in the air parfum. Over 4000 years ago the Mesopotamians began creating incense.Egyptians were right up there with them in fragrant creations. The Egyptians are famous for their perfume balms which they would shape into cones and wear on their heads so that it would melt over their bodies throughout the day. They often carried perfume with them from birth and right into the grave, or tomb. Many Egyptians put perfumes in their tombs for the afterlife.

Perfume has been used throughout history for a variety of reasons. People have used perfume, oils and unguents on their bodies for thousands of years in lesser or greater amounts dependant on fashion whims. In the early Egyptians used perfumed balms as part of religious ceremonies and later as part of pre love making preparations. Now it is used by thousands of Consumers to indicate their lifestyle, character, presence and Specialty in the industry. This explains how the perfumes are made and what ingredients are involved in it.

Perfume is made from about 78% to 95% of specially denatured ethyl alcohol and a remainder of essential oils. Perfumes are made up of a blend of different aromas that usually come from essential oils. Perfume formulations can be expressed in volumetric or weight proportions of each of its components. Perfumes today are being made and used in different ways than in previous centuries. Perfumes are being manufactured more and more frequently with synthetic chemicals rather than natural oils.

Natural ingredients—flowers, grasses, spices, fruit, wood, roots, resins, balsams, leaves, gums, and animal secretions—as well as resources like alcohol, petrochemicals, coal, and coal tars are used in the manufacture of perfumes. Some plants, such as lily of the valley, do not produce oils naturally. In fact, only about 2,000 of the 250,000 known flowering plant species contain these essential oils. Therefore, synthetic chemicals must be used to re-create the smells of non-oily substances. Synthetics also create original scents not found in nature.

Animal ingredients— castor comes from beavers, musk from male deer, and ambergris from the sperm whale. Animal substances are often used as fixatives that enable perfume to evaporate slowly and emit odors longer. Other fixatives include coal tar, mosses, resins, or synthetic chemicals. Alcohol and sometimes water are used to dilute ingredients in perfumes. It is the ratio of alcohol to scent that determines whether the perfume is "eau de toilette" (toilet water) or cologne.

Aromatic Compounds

Aromatic Compounds usually contain in perfume. A common source of aromatic compounds comes from plants. These compounds are usually the byproducts of chemicals made to discourage animals from eating the plants. These compounds can be found in the bark (such as cinnamon), the flowers (such as rose and jasmine scents), fruits (such as apples and strawberries), leaves and other plant parts. Perfumes can also be found in ambergris, which is an oxidized fatty substance commonly found in whales. Other animal sources include musk, which can be taken from the musk sacks of deer.

The most common method of obtaining aromatic compounds for the purpose of turning them into perfume is the solvent extraction process. In this method, the source material is put into a liquid that can dissolve the desired material. These liquids can be made up of hexane and ether. Another technique is distillation, in which steam from boiling water is passed through the desired material. The condensed steam is then concentrated and purified in a special flask. Other methods include crushing plants between presses and embedding them into wax.

How To make perfume 

Collect
Collection of raw materials is the first step in the perfume making process. Fragrance can be obtained from flowers, grasses, mosses, leaves, tree barks and fruit peels. The perfume is extracted by distillation, absorption or extraction.

Distillation
In the distillation method, raw materials are steamed. As the steam rises, the scent is carried into a glass tube where the mixture condenses as it cools. The mixture is then put into flask where the essential oil naturally rises to the top and is skimmed off for use in the perfume.

Absorption

Absorption is used for raw materials that can't with stand the heat of the distillation process. They are steeped in heated fats or oils, then filtered through fabric to obtain the scented solid. The solid is then washed in alcohol. When the fat is removed, the perfumed alcohol remains.

Extraction

Fragrance also is drawn when plant matter and volatile solvents are combined in a rotating tank. The solvent extracts the essential oils and dissolves the plant matter, leaving a wax-like oil. Once the oil has evaporated, a perfume paste remains.

Aromas

Musk and castor are animal secretions frequently used in perfume making. Synthetically produced aromas also are used.

Blending

Once the perfume oil is extracted, the blending process commences. A perfumer, known as "a nose," uses an extensive knowledge of fragrance characteristic to blend anywhere from 20 to 800 raw materials to compose a scent. Once the scent is developed and tested, batches are robotically mixed.

The pure perfume oil is then diluted with alcohol and water. If a full perfume is desired, 10 to 20 percent of the oil is dissolved in alcohol with a minute amount of water. Cologne is 3 to 5 percent oil, 80 to 90 percent alcohol and 10 percent water. An eau de toilette is 2 percent oil, 60 to 80 percent alcohol and 20 percent water. Then the perfume is ready to be aged, filtered and bottled.

MAKE UR OWN PERFUME

You can make your own perfume by watching this video too! 

Dyes And Their Colourful Truths

The Colorful Truth About Dyes!!?

We all like to wear colourful clothes. Whether on a special occasion or just daily wear, it's always nice to add a little colour in our lives. Dyes are the chemical substances that are responsible for turning plain cloth into the colourful garments that we wear every day. 

What are dyes?

Dyes are substances applied in an aqueous based solutions to a fabric to give it colour. What makes a dye different from a pigment is that pigments are usually insoluble. 

Many methods of dyeing have been used in the history of humankind.using. Most of the dyes that we know are natural dyes found in the plant kingdom, available from a number of root, berries, bark, leaves and wood.



The structure of dyes..

You may have noticed that sometimes when you wash your clothes the colour seems to seep out of them. As a result when you dry your clothes, they seem to have become faded. Some dyes just stain fabrics and get washed away bit by bit whenever you wash your clothes. Good dyes on the other hand chemically attach themselves to the molecules of the fabric that you are dyeing. 

Different types of dyes molecules are all unique in their own way. Each is shaped differently so that it absorbs light in a different way. This results in the colour of the dye being different when it is processed in our eyes and brain. Often a third molecule is added to a dye. This acts as a bond between the dye molecule and the molecule of the fabric that the dye is being applied on.

The study of dyes made organic chemistry popular and it was one of the main reasons to the invention of drugs based on the chemical intermediates of dyes, like the invention of aspirin and sulfonamides.

                                                                             Synthetic dyes
Today there are a variety of synthetic dyes in use. These are more popular than natural dyes because of the wide range of colours that they offer and because they are cheaper and better than the natural ones. The first synthetic dye used, mauveine, was discovered in 1856 by a teenage boy named William Henry Perkin. He created this dye out of coal tar. 

Today synthetic dyes are classified by how they are used to dye fabrics. 

Acid dyes are highly reactive water soluble dyes that are used to colour fabrics like silk, wool and nylon. 

Mordant dyes use a substance that fixes the dye, making it resistant against water, light and perspiration. These dyes are usually used for colouring wool. 

Basic dyes are used with acetic acid to dye acrylic fibres. 

Vat dyes are not soluble in water and need to be reduced in alkaline liquor to get a water soluble, alkali metal salt of the dye. This can then be easily applied onto the fabric. When the fabric is subject to oxidation the original insoluble dye is reformed.

Disperse dyes are used to dye fabrics of polyester and are available as a paste or in the form of powder.

Sulfur dyes are the dyes that are used in large quantity. These dyes are applied in two part dyes. The first part produces a pale yellow colour while the second part uses a sulphur compound to produce dark shades and black.

Food dyes are classed as food additives, they are manufactured to a higher standard than some industrial dyes. Food dyes can be direct, mordant and vat dyes, and their use is strictly controlled by legislation. Many are azo dyes, although anthraquinone and triphenylmethane compounds are used for colors such asgreen and blue. Some naturally-occurring dyes are also used.

Hair coloring is the practice of changing the color of hair. The main reasons for this practice are cosmetic such as to cover gray hair, to change to a color regarded as more fashionable or desirable, or to restore the original hair color after it has been discolored by hairdressing processes or sun bleaching. Hair dyeing, which is an ancient art, involves treatment of the hair with various chemical compounds. Today, hair coloring is immensely popular, with over 75 percent of American women dyeing their hair, and globally hair colorants are a rapidly growing over-$7 billion industry.



Why are dyes important?

Research in dyes are responsible for colour photography as well. In 1873 the German photo chemist Hermann Wilhelm Vogel added dyes to film that was only sensitive to blue and UV light, allowing the film to capture the colour green. By 1907 the French Lumiere brothers had perfected a colour process for the public called Autochrome. Today dyes are also widely used in printing, where the colours of cyan, yellow, magenta and black combine to form all the colours visuals that you see printed.

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