Cracking Alkanes

All the fractions we get from the distillation of petroleum are useful. But some are more
useful than others – there is a greater demand for them. We use more gasoline (petrol) and diesel
than can be supplied by the fractional distillation of petroleum.

Oil companies solve this problem by breaking down larger hydrocarbons into smaller, more
useful hydrocarbons. This is called cracking. Cracking is the thermal decomposition of alkanes. A
catalyst is often used. Longer-chained alkanes are cracked to form a mixture of shorter-chained
alkanes and alkenes. For example:
heat
C10H12 catalyst
C5H12 + C2H4 + C3H6

From the cracking, we not only get shorter-chained alkanes which are useful for petrol, we also get
alkenes. Alkenes are very useful for making a variety of chemicals including plastics. The process of
cracking alkanes can be shown by the following diagram.

You can use medicinal paraffin as your alkane. You

heat the aluminium oxide catalyst strongly and
then heat the paraffin. The paraffin vapour
passes over the aluminium oxide which is kept
hot. You collect the gases from the cracking in
the test tube. You can tell if the gas contains
alkenes by carrying out the bromine water test

Hydrogen can also be produced by cracking

C2H6 C2H4 + H2

Cracking petroleum fractions on a large scale

Cracking is often carried out on a large scale using a catalyst. The huge tank where this takes
place is called a catalytic (cat) cracker. The vapour from the gas –oil or kerosene fractions is passed
through a catalyst of silicon(IV) oxide and aluminium oxide at 400 – 500 oC. The catalyst is a fine
powder which has to be continuously recycled to the cat cracker though a regenerator tank. This
frees the catalyst from any carbon deposites on its surface.
 The longer-chained alkanes in the gas-oil or kerosene fractions which are less useful are
broken down to shorter-chained hydrocarbons:

 The shorter-chained alkanes are used for petrol and very small alkanes are used for fuel
(liquid petroleum gases – LPG).
 The alkenes can be used to make a wide variety of chemicals, including plastics.
 Hydrogen may also be formed which can be used for making ammonia or as fuels.

Catalytic cracking is not the only type of cracking. Long-chained alkanes can be cracked at a
high temperature without catalyst. A temperature between 450oC and 800oC is used. This type of
cracking produces a greater percentage of alkenes.

Examiners says,
When describing cracking you must state that (i)
large hydrocarbon molecules are broken down
to smaller ones (ii) and alkenes (iii) using a high
temperature and (iv) catalyst.

References:
Norris and Stanbridge, 2009, Chemistry for IGCSE, Nelson Thornes, United Kingdom