The Shukhov cracking process is a thermal cracking

Cracking (chemistry)

In petroleum geology and chemistry, cracking is the process whereby complex organic molecules such as kerogens or heavy hydrocarbons are broken down into simpler molecules such as light hydrocarbons, by the breaking of carbon-carbon bonds in the precursors. The rate of cracking and the end products...

 process invented by Vladimir Shukhov

Vladimir Shukhov

Vladimir Grigoryevich Shukhov , was a Russian engineer-polymath, scientist and architect renowned for his pioneering works on new methods of analysis for structural engineering that led to breakthroughs in industrial design of world's first hyperboloid structures, lattice shell structures, tensile...

 and Sergei Gavrilov. Shukhov designed and built the first thermal cracking

Cracking (chemistry)

In petroleum geology and chemistry, cracking is the process whereby complex organic molecules such as kerogens or heavy hydrocarbons are broken down into simpler molecules such as light hydrocarbons, by the breaking of carbon-carbon bonds in the precursors. The rate of cracking and the end products...

 techniques important to the petrochemical industry

Industry

Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...

. His patent (Shukhov cracking process – patent of Russian empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

 No. 12926 from November 27, 1891) on cracking was used to invalidate Standard Oil

Standard Oil

Standard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational...

's patents (Burton process

Burton process

The Burton process is a thermal cracking process invented by William Merriam Burton and Robert Humphrey.The oil industry used it to double the production of gasoline in 1913. This thermal cracking process was patented on January 7, 1913 ....

 – Patent of USA  No. 1,049,667 on January 7, 1913) on oil refineries

Oil refinery

An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where crude oil is processed and refined into more useful petroleum products, such as gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt base, heating oil, kerosene, and liquefied petroleum gas...

. In 1937 the Shukhov cracking process was superseded by catalytic cracking. It is still in use today to produce diesel.