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Oil, Gas & Mining vocabulary · Refining & Petrochemicals

Cracking

Meaning in oil, gas & mining, with examples

/ˈkrækɪŋ/nounCommon term

In oil, gas & mining, cracking means: A refining process that breaks large, heavy hydrocarbon molecules into smaller, lighter ones, turning low-value heavy oil into more gasoline, diesel and other products.

In Turkish: kraking, parçalama

How it is used

Types include fluid catalytic cracking (FCC), hydrocracking and thermal cracking; steam cracking is used to make ethylene. Refinery staff talk about the FCC unit, the cracker and conversion. Refineries with more cracking capacity are called complex refineries.

Example sentences

  1. The new hydrocracking unit lets us turn heavy residue into diesel.

  2. Catalytic cracking produces a large share of the refinery's gasoline.

Common collocations

  • catalytic cracking
  • fluid catalytic cracking (FCC)
  • hydrocracking
  • steam cracker
  • refineryAn industrial plant where crude oil is heated, separated and chemically changed to make products such as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, LPG and asphalt.
  • distillationThe first main step in refining: crude oil is heated, and its vapours rise in a tall column and condense at different heights into fractions such as gasoline, kerosene and diesel.
  • feedstockThe raw material fed into a refinery unit or chemical plant to be processed, for example crude oil for a refinery or naphtha for a petrochemical plant.
  • petrochemicalA chemical made from oil or natural gas, such as ethylene, propylene or benzene, used to make plastics, fibres, fertilisers and many other products.

More terms: Refining & Petrochemicals

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