Catalytic cracking breaks long-chain alkanes using a zeolite catalyst, a high temperature of about 450 °C and a slight pressure.The catalyst lowers the temperature and pressure needed compared with thermal cracking, which saves energy and money and speeds up the reaction.Catalytic cracking mainly produces motor fuels, such as branched alkanes, cycloalkanes and aromatic hydrocarbons. These are used in petrol because they burn more smoothly in engines.Zeolites are crystalline aluminosilicates with a honeycomb structure, which gives them a very large surface area for the reaction.
catalytic Cracking
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Specification: AQA Chemistry (7404), AS-level, 3.3.2.2 Modification of alkanes by cracking. Topic: Alkanes.
More in Alkanes
- Physical Properties
- Fractional Distillation of Crude Oil
- Fracking
- Thermal Cracking
- Combustion
- Polluting the Atmosphere
- Flue Gas Desulfurisation
- Catalytic Converters
All 20 lessons in Alkanes · All AQA AS-level Chemistry topics