Thermal cracking patentIn 1913, a U.S. patent for the thermal cracking of crude oil was issued to William Merriam Burton (No.1,049,667). A crude petroleum mixture of various hydrocarbons can be separated into several groups of constituents by physical means, commonly distillation. His thermal cracking process used high heat and high pressure to chemically break longer molecules of less volatile components into smaller molecules, more than doubling the yield of gasoline which was much needed to fuel the motor industry. In its first 15 years of use the process saved more than 1 billion barrels of crude oil. In 1937 the invention of catalytic cracking superceded the Burton process, but it remains in wide use.« |
