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Glite Dictionary
hydrocracking

hydrocracking

9.2
A refining process that uses hydrogen and a catalyst to break heavy oil into lighter fuels like gasoline
  • noun
  • /ˈhaɪdroʊˌkrækɪŋ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : hidrocracking
  • The process of hydrocracking transforms heavy oils into lighter fuels like gasoline by adding hydrogen at high pressure.

Examples

  • Hydrocracking, which is a high-pressure process that relies on hydrogen to saturate various products, will enable them to make more diesel from a given barrel of petroleum and less gasoline.

    Academic text (2004)

  • There are two different ways to make green diesel: gasification and subsequent Fischer-Tropsch or hydrocracking of vegetable oils or animal fats.

    Blog text (32)

  • In modern refining, hydrocracking is essential for producing cleaner fuels that meet environmental standards.

  • Many oil refineries use hydrocracking to improve the yield of valuable products from crude oil.

Synonyms

cracking
vshydrocracking
  • Specialized
1 6.6

The process of breaking large parts of crude oil into smaller parts to make fuel

is a specific method that adds hydrogen under high pressure with a catalyst

Surface Forms

hydrocracking singular
hydrocrackings plural

Morphology

hydrocracking = cracking (semi-transparent) = hydro + crack + ing

The word is built transparently from hydro- + cracking, but the refining sense is specialized and not fully predictable from the parts alone.

Etymology

Hydrocracking comes from two parts: hydro- meaning 'water' (as in hydrogen) and cracking meaning 'to break'. So hydrocracking is like 'breaking with hydrogen', which helps turn large oil molecules into smaller, useful fuels.