The Pyrogenesis of Hydrocarbons

Abstract

THE growing demand for low-boiling paraffins for use as fuel, and aromatic hydrocarbons for the manufacture of dyes and other materials, is directing increased attention to the possibilities,of their synthetic production from natural sources, namely, the higher-boiling paraffins, coal and shale. It is well known that the superheating of the higher-boiling paraffins causes them to break up, or “crack,” into lower-boiling liquids, and the effect of temperature on the nature of the distillation products of coal has long been recognised.