How could oil companies separate a mixture of hydrocarbons from pentane to very large wax molecules?

It might be helpful to think about octane and Paraffin wax. What properties of both allow the separation of hydrocarbons from the mixture?How could oil companies separate a mixture of hydrocarbons from pentane to very large wax molecules?
It is called ';Fractional distillation';. Please refer to the fllowing reference:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_鈥?/a>

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