Experiment 8: Catalytic Cracking of Hydrocarbons in Liquid Paraffin

1. Record the appearance of the original oil and the gas

2. Record whether the oil and gas burn

3. Record whether the oil and gas smell

4. Record the effect of the oil and the gas on aqueous bromine water and acidified potassium permangante

Objectives of the experiment

Gasoline

Major product of petroleum

Catalytic cracking, thermal and catalytic reforming, and alkylation

Procedures used to manufactor heavier oils to help make gasoline

Hydrocarbon cracking

Process of breaking long-chain hydrocarbons into shorter ones

Valuable short-chain paraffins used in blending gasoline

What the high-boiling and high-molecular weight paraffins of petroleum crude oil is converted into

Olefinic gases (short-chain olefins)

Hydrocarbons with carbon-carbon double bonds that is also produced during cracking

Further refining for the production of gasoline in the petrochemical industry

Economic value of olefinic gases

Pumice stone/porous pot fragments

Catalyst used in the experiment

1. Hard glass test tube or boiling tube

2. Delivery tube with bung to fit this tube

3. Bunsen burner

4. Trough of bowl

5. 6 test tubes with bungs

6. Liquid paraffin

7. Mineral wool

8. Aluminum oxide granules or porcelain chips

9. Bromine water

10. Acidified potassium manganate solution

Materials used for the experiment