The hot gases then drive a turbine directly without a combustion chamber. Houdry moved to the us, where, funded by the vacuum oil company and later sun oil, he continued working on his process. Houdry moved to the usa and developed his process with the soconyvacuum oil. Sometimes, the structures of molecules in one fraction are rearranged to produce another. Fuel oil passed through beds of small pellets of silicaalumina in the reactor at temperatures of 800 to degrees fahrenheit but at pressures lower than those in thermal cracking. Pew had presented a paper with the uninformative title of catalytic processing of petroleum hydrocarbons by the houdry process, the. Cracking products are sent to a fractionator to be separated into gas, gasoline. The feed stock for catalytic cracking is normally light gas oil from vacuum distillation column. Gilliland, under contract to standard oil of new jersey, now exxonmobil.
The catalytic process for cracking petroleum molecules into the shorter ones that constitute gasoline was developed by houdry, who also. Not only did houdrys process increase the quantity of gasoline, but in. Because catalysts can reduce the pressures and temperatures needed for carrying out commercially useful reactions, they help reduce costs. Catalytic cracking of petroleum hydrocarbons for conversion of heavy to lighter fractions was originally done by thermal cracking which has. Eugene houdry discovered a method for cracking lowgrade crude oil into hightest gasoline, developed a process for producing synthetic rubber in world war ii. Hydrocracking is a catalytic chemical process used in petroleum refineries for converting the highboiling hydrocarbons in petroleum to lowboiling products such as gasoline, kerosene, jet fuel and diesel oil. Industrial uses oil refining process called the houdry process, in which pressurized air is passed over a catalyst to burn off accumulated carbon. There has been continuous up gradation in catalytic in catalytic cracking process from its incept of fixed bed technology to latter fluidized bed catalytic cracking fcc.
Cracking products are sent to a fractionator to be separated into gas, gasoline, light cycle oil lco and heavy cycle oil hco products. In 1931, houdry came to the united states and formed the houdry process company. Comparing the feedstocks, objectives and products of. In 1931, houdry, in partnership with soconyvacuum now mobil, founded the houdry process company to develop houdrys fixedbed catalytic cracking process. Kellogg limited and universal oil products and a german chemical company i. Although the houdry process generated about as much gasoline as did existing thermal cracking units, the catalytic product had a octane number of 88 compared to 72 for the noncatalytic product. Houdry process was based on cyclic fixed bed configuration. Such process include thermafor catalytic cracking and fluid catalytic cracking.
Catalytic cracking takes place in a containment vessel called a chemical reactor and houdrys process came to be called fixedbed catalytic cracking. Burton introduces thermal cracking for refining petroleum. The first fullscale commercial catalytic cracker for the selective conversion of crude petroleum to gasoline went on stream at the marcus hook refinery of sun company now sunoco, inc. In 1933, houdry and soconyvacuum joined with sun oil company in developing the houdry process. Fluid catalytic cracking encyclopedia article citizendium. Houdry served as a lieutenant in a tank company in the french army during world war one, receiving the fr. Houdry was invited by the vacuum oil company in 1930 to come to the united states and. Influence of dimethyl disulfide dmds on the cracking. In 1938, when the success of houdrys process had become apparent, standard oil of new jersey resumed the project as part of a consortium of that include five oil companies standard oil of new jersey, standard oil of indiana, angloiranian oil, texas oil and dutch shell, two engineeringconstruction companies m.
Houdry invented a catalytic cracking process that could transform coal into gasoline. Catalytic cracking is the application of catalysts that create chemical reactions, producing more gasoline. By that time a fluid catalyticcracking process had made the original houdry method obsolete. After modifying houdry s techniques, in april 1936 soconyvacuum transformed a thermal cracking unit at paulsboro into a unit that used the houdry process. Cracking is used to break down the long chains of hydrocarbons that crude oil is comprised of into smaller hydrocarbon chains. This process had first been investigated in the 1920s by standard oil of new jersey, but research on it was abandoned during the depression.
Named after the french inventor, eugene houdry, this unit relied upon a semibatch catalytic cracking process, enabling the large, heavier crude oil molecules to be cracked into smaller gasolinerange molecules in the presence of a powdered catalyst. The catalytic cracking reactions deposited coke carbon onto the catalyst and required. Houdry process definition of houdry process by merriam. Commonly, this is done using a process called alkylation. Houdry process for catalytic cracking national historic chemical. In addition, catalyst particles used in this process are synthetic and thus have consistent and homogenous properties. Following the development of a fixedbed houdry process, 1936 and a movingbed thermafor catalytic cracking, 1941 catalytic cracking process, fluidbed catalytic cracking fcc, 1942 became the most widely used process worldwide because of the improved thermal efficiency of the process and the high product selectivity achieved, particularly. The catalytic cracking process was invented by eugene houdry in 1937. The process was first used around 1942 and employs a powdered catalyst. In just under a year a new unit was processing 15,000 petroleum barrels a day. Nihf inductee eugene houdry invented catalytic cracking. Chemical processing how oil refining works howstuffworks.
Cracking down on crude oil science history institute. For cracking, gas oil feed was heated to 800f and fed to a fixedbed reactor packed with the catalyst particles. This process is a slightly more thermal efficient process than the houdry process. During wwii, the allied forces had plentiful supplies of the materials in contrast. In 1936, a process was developed called the houdry process. Eugene houdry discovered a method for cracking lowgrade crude oil into high test gasoline, developed a process for producing synthetic rubber in world war ii. Earlier commercial processes for cracking petroleum were thermal processes, relying on heat rather than on catalysis.
Eugene houdry discovered a method for cracking lowgrade crude oil into hightest gasoline, developed a process for producing synthetic rubber in world war ii, and invented the catalytic converter for cleaning automobile exhaust. Pioneered by eugene jules houdry 18921962, the catalytic cracking of petroleum revolutionized the industry. The catalytic cracking process results in a good quantity of high octane rating products in the gasoline range. Steam cracking of paraffinic hydrocarbons as a coproduct of ethylene manufacturing. Eventually, catalytic cracking replaced thermal cracking in gasoline production. Butadiene production process overview sciencedirect. He was vice president of oxycatalyst, a firm founded by his father, eugene houdry, the inventor of the catalytic cracking process of oil refining to produce high octane gasoline. Reports emphasize developments in process technology for onpurpose butadiene production that have potential implications for the chemical and energy industries. In alkylation, low molecular weight compounds, such as propylene and butylene, are mixed in the presence of a catalyst such as hydrofluoric acid or sulfuric acid a byproduct from removing impurities from many oil products. After modifying houdrys techniques, in april 1936 soconyvacuum transformed a thermalcracking unit at paulsboro into a unit that used the houdry process. For example, crude oil can be processed cracked to. Catalytic cracking an overview sciencedirect topics.
Other products, such as the low molecular weight olefin gases, are very useful as polymer precursors or can be used to produce polymer gasoline. In addition, the houdry process created higher value byproducts that could be burned as fuel oil. He also managed to catalytically crack lowgrade crude oil. Born in france, houdry studied mechanical engineering at. So a batch plant would only be active for a very short percentage of its operating life and spend the rest of the time regenerating, making the cracking process uneconomical. Cracking of heavier petroleum fractions over selective catalysts. With this process, oil companies were able to double the yield of usable oil with each barrel of crude oil they processed. Fluid catalytic cracking fcc is the most important conversion process used in petroleum refineries. Petroleum processing course with the assistance of semih eser and the. Cracking was originally done thermally, and continued until 1933, when the houdry process for catalytic cracking was developed. The primary motivation behind this project was the production of 1,3 butadiene without the need for olefin cracker c4 crude oil streams. The turbine, in turn, drives a compressor to pressurize the air for the process. Born in france, houdry studied mechanical engineering at the ecole des arts et metiers in paris.
Among others at the company who helped houdry in the development of the catalytic cracking process was alex golden oblad. Used in the oil and gas industry to refer to a variety of methods whereby a larger product is broken down into smaller byproducts. Houdry process definition is a cracking process for making highoctane gasoline by passing oil vapors through a fixed bed of an aluminum silicate catalyst in the form of pellets. Three years later, in 1936, soconyvacuum converted an older thermal cracking unit in their paulsboro refinery in new jersey to a small demonstration unit using the houdry process to catalytically crack 2,000 barrels per day 320 m 3 d of petroleum. Houdry process for catalytic cracking national historic. These include the houdry process, oxidative dehydrogenation of 2butenes and steam cracking of saturated hydrocarbons.
The most important of the three is the steam cracking process, which accounts for over 95% of global butadiene. It used a fixedbed catalyst to crack petroleum molecules. It is widely used to convert the highboiling hydrocarbon fractions of petroleum crude oils to more valuable gasoline, olefinic gases and other products. Fluid catalytic cracking is a commonly used process, and a modern oil refinery will typically include a cat cracker, particularly at refineries in the us, due to the high demand for gasoline. His process was introduced in 1936 by the soconyvacuum oil company later mobil oil corporation and in 1937 by the sun oil company later sunoco, inc. In the 1920s, french engineer houdry experimented with the conversion of lignite to useful products, and found that clay minerals could convert his lignitebased oil to a fuel similar to gasoline.