Oil refinery. Aerial image of the oil refinery at Fawley,Southampton,England. North is at top. This is the largest oil refinery in the UK. Numerous circular storage tanks are seen. In an oil refinery,crude oil is heated and passed through catalytic cracking towers (producing smoke,lower right) to break up the heavy crude oil hydrocarbon molecules into lighter fragments. The resulting components,or fractions,from heavy industrial oils and tars through to light fuels (such as petrol and kerosene) and gases,are separated out. The fractions may then be further processed. The scale of the image is 1:42,000 at 6x6cm size. Photographed on July 6 1993. scale: 1:10,000 at 23x23cm size |