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Crude oil consists of a random mixture of hydrocarbons. Hydrogen and carbon molecules form long, linear chains or rings. The boiling point of the chain or ring is proportional to its size. That is, breaking a long, wide molecular chain is more difficult than breaking a small or short molecular chain. In the refining process, the molecular chains are separated from each other. The extracted crude oil is heated in giant furnaces and distilled. This process is called fractional distillation. Because this process allows the crude oil to be partitioned. The top of the furnace tanker has the lowest temperature and the bottom has the highest temperature. In other words, the crude oil was exposed to different temperatures inside the tanker. As such, a movement occurs inside the tanker from the high temperature zone to the low temperature zone. Different types of fuel can be produced from crude oil by this process, as longer chains are more difficult to break.

While fuel consisting of lighter carbon chains such as gasoline and LPG is obtained from the hottest peak (40-200 ℃) of the heated tanker, denser fuels, such as diesel, are obtained from the middle part (250-350 ℃). At the bottom of the furnace, the densest compounds remain.