Catalytic Cracking

Catalytic cracking is a chemical engineering refining process that breaks large, heavy hydrocarbon molecules in petroleum fractions into smaller, lighter molecules such as gasoline, by exposing the heated feedstock to a solid catalyst, typically a zeolite material, that speeds the breaking of carbon-carbon bonds at lower temperatures than thermal cracking alone requires. The most widely used form, fluid catalytic cracking, suspends powdered catalyst in the hydrocarbon vapor so it behaves like a fluid, allowing continuous processing and easy catalyst regeneration by burning off the carbon deposits that accumulate on it. Since its introduction in the petroleum industry in the 1930s and 1940s, catalytic cracking has been a principal method refineries use to increase the yield of gasoline from crude oil.