Question:

Why was the twentieth century called the hydrocarbon century?

Answer:
During the nineteenth century, crude oil was refined only for kerosene, a standard fuel for
lamps at the time. However, after the invention of the internal combustion engine, gasoline was
no longer thought of as a useless byproduct of refinement, but instead, as essential fuel.
Entering the twentieth century, scientists and researches started discovering huge abundance of
fossil fuels beneath earths first few layers. Fossils fuels were formed over millions of years as a
result of decomposing animals and plants under high temperature and pressure. Under the
conditions, reservoirs of petroleum, natural gas, and coal were formed. Therefore, that
corresponding century was called the Hydrocarbon century. However, that was not the only
reason, soon after in the century, scientists working on the internal combustion engine, realized
that the engines ran best on light fuels like gasoline but the refining methods distillation
did not produce enough of it. Later on, a pair of chemical engineers at Standard Oil of Indiana
discovered that under heavy temperature and pressure, heavier molecules would crack into
lighter molecules such as gasoline. They called the process, Thermal cracking. Going
furthermore into the century, research and development on the cracking of oil was ongoing and
its peak, until the development of cracking form thermal cracking to catalytic cracking,
achieving higher yields and more efficient products.

References:
"Petroleum Technology History Part 1 - Background - Greatest Engineering Achievements of the
Twentieth Century." Petroleum Technology History Part 1 - Background - Greatest Engineering
Achievements of the Twentieth Century. National Academy of Engineering, n.d. Web. 15 Sept. 2014.