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Defining the transformations of some derivates of saturated hydrocarbons.
Cracking: The cracking of oil is the breaking of large molecules into smaller units.
This operation can be carried out with a thermal method or a catalytic method.
Thermal cracking: when this reaction occurs with heat.
Catalytic cracking: when performed by catalysts.
In modern petroleum technology cracking is carried out in the presence of catalysts. The oil vapors are passed over a catalyst bed consisting of granules of an acid treated clay or a synthetic aluminum oxide complex, silicon oxide, at a temperature of 300 ° C. Catalytic cracking produces, in addition to paraffin’s and olefins, lower molecular weight, by-products by isomerization and aromatization, with the result that by this process high quality fuels for engines can be prepared at lower costs than by purely thermal.