Catalysts Catalysts are substances that speed up chemical reactions but do not get used up so they can be used over and over again. Reactions that take place in the presence of catalysts are called catalytic reaction or catalysis. Catalysts are used in many industries. Some catalysts work by providing a surface for the particles to come together. They decrease their activation energy, which means that particles can now collide with less energy resulting in more effective collisions. (Book- GCSE Chemistry. 2008) Catalyst Reaction catalyzed Iron Making ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen Platinum Making ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen Vanadium(V) oxide Making sulfuric acid (Website- BBC News) There are many uses of catalysts in industry. …show more content…
However earlier methods had limitations on octane number in gasoline. They were limited to 60-70 octane number. However with development and improvement in catalyst technology, fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) became popular in refinery to break down the gasoline into lighter components leading to higher octane numbers. Availability of these higher octane number fuels also made advancements in automobile engine and also in aviation industry. The cracking process also reduces CO_2 emissions. Therefore comparatively reduced environmental pollution. The benefits of catalytic cracking in comparison with other known processes are: The aim of technology is to work with a technology called catalytic cracking with zeolites. Catalytic cracking with zeolites is a relatively simple process, which takes place in simple apparatus inexpensive to construct and under pressure less atmosphere and transportation costs are minimized. The process is cheap. It can utilize raw quality sources as municipal waste or oils/ fats with high acid number, biomass by-products and waste etc. Better burning due to usage of gaseous …show more content…
In my essay, I have tried to focus upon the fact that catalytic cracking reduces the emission of harmful gases in the environment as it eliminates most of the toxic waste in the process. Initially a lot of toxic waste was released into the environment due to which laws were formulated and technological advancement was done to reduce pollution. Technological advancement in the refinery industry resulted in easy and cheap production with profit in an environmental friendly way. Therefore if more research is conducted, environmental pollution can be further