GAS AND OIL 



petroleum vapors pass is quickly fouled by a sooty 

 coating of coke. To restore its efficiency, the catalyst 

 surface has to be periodically cleaned by hot air, so hot 

 it literally burns the coke off. This rejuvenation of the 

 catalyst means either stopping the flow of crude-oil 

 vapor through the reactor or removing the catalyst for 

 cleansing. 



That memorable day in May, 1942, Baton Rouge 

 tested out an answer to this problem. In its simplified 

 cat-cracking process there are no catalyst pellets, rather 

 the catalyst is introduced direct into the oil stream in 

 the form of a powder quite like coarse talcum. The 

 catalyst comes in fresh and white at the bottom of the 

 gigantic reactor; it exits in a black cloud at the top, 

 where it is collected, rejuvenated, and recycled back, 

 a continuous circle. To perfect "fluid" cat-cracking, as it 

 is called because the catalyst flows through the system 

 like a liquid, took six years. 



Today there are thirty-five cat-cracking operations 

 the world over; the Baton Rouge refinery is turning out 

 more "100-octane" gasoline than it did ordinary gasoline 

 before the war; and tests prove that cat-cracked gaso- 

 line has superior antiknock properties. 



Aviation gasoline is a chemically manufactured prod- 

 uct, a fuel as synthetic as a sulfa drug or a fingernail 

 lacquer. The chemists are not content to unscramble 

 the omelette of hydrocarbons in crude oil. They must 

 separate yolks and whites of the individual eggs and 



239 



