Cracking Hydrocarbons (C1b)

Longer-chain hydrocarbons can be Cracked (broken down) into shorter more useful chains, which release energy more quickly by burning

Cracking involves...

-Heating the hydrocarbons until they vapourise

-Passing the vapour over a hot catalyst

A thermal decomposition reaction then takes place

The products of cracking include alkanes and alkenes (Unsaturated).

As well as forming single bonds with other atoms, carbon atoms can form double bonds

This means that not all the carbon atoms are linked to 4 other atoms; a double carbon bond is present instead.

Ethanol is an alcohol. It can be produced by reacting the alkene ethene with steam in the presence of a catalyst, phosphoric acid