ABSTRACT
Catalysis is but one of the areas in the petroleum industry in which X-ray diffraction has applications, but it is the most important area and the one of greatest opportunity. The use of catalysts enables the petroleum technologists to achieve greater specificity in breaking down crude oil into marketable products. After thermal cracking was replaced by catalytic processes, increasing specificity was obtained by progressing from clays to amorphous silica-alumina catalysts to finely divided metals on silica-alumina to zeolite-containing catalysts.
