catalytic cracking

American  

noun

1. the reduction of the molecular weight of hydrocarbons by a catalyst, accomplished in a petroleum refinery by a type of chemical reactor catalytic cracker.

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Example Sentences

Standard's "cat cracker" improves on previous catalytic cracking.

From Time Magazine Archive

Standard's new catalytic cracking plant was dedicated last week with bunting, a band and speeches in Standard's vast and drafty old boiler shop at Bayway, N.J.

From Time Magazine Archive

In the late 1930s French-born Inventor Houdry made himself a millionaire, and created one of the biggest single advances in the oil industry's history, by his invention of the Houdry process of "catalytic cracking."

From Time Magazine Archive

A silly one: Maragon says I can be a one-man catalytic cracking station.

From Card Trick by Berryman, John