The economics of petroleum . nt isthe inability of existing internal combustion engines to utilize effi-ciently the heavy portions of such products. A significant ten-dency toward engine adaptations in this direction, however, is comingintx) being; and the gasoline situation will be considerably influ-enced by the extent and rapidity with which automotive equipmentbecomes capable of handling heavier and less volatile motor-fuels. The course of ? automotive developments, in consequence, willhave a bearing upon cracking; and should automotive equipmentcome to a point of independence in respect t
The economics of petroleum . nt isthe inability of existing internal combustion engines to utilize effi-ciently the heavy portions of such products. A significant ten-dency toward engine adaptations in this direction, however, is comingintx) being; and the gasoline situation will be considerably influ-enced by the extent and rapidity with which automotive equipmentbecomes capable of handling heavier and less volatile motor-fuels. The course of ? automotive developments, in consequence, willhave a bearing upon cracking; and should automotive equipmentcome to a point of independence in respect to the volatility of thefuel which it consumes, cracking will no longer be necessary and willdecline. The possibility of this eventuality must be borne in mind inappraising the future of cracking. APPRAISAL OF THE FUTURE 277 Appraisal of the Future.—An attempt to reduce to a quantitativebasis the Hne of reasoning given above is shown in Fig. 135, whichtraces the factors involved through the past ten j^ears on the basis of. actual statistics and ])roj((ts the i^robable course of events to theend of 1925. Fig. 135 shows the consumption of crude petroleum in the UnitedStates during the period 1910-1925 (estimated of course for 1921-1925) divided broadly into the fuel and non-fuel components, kero- 278 THE ECONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE OF CRACKING sene being left as intermediate or neutral ground which may swingeither way. The ]^r()jected course of crud(^ consumption is of coursehypothetical, althougli leased on a careful analysis of the situation;but the point should be emphasized that the validity of the chartdoes not depend upon the accmiicy of the jirojected portion of thecrude consumption curve. Large variations in the latter may beseen to have a greatly minimized effect upon any component shown. The chart represents fuel oil as a motor-fuel reserve upon whichcracking is rapidly encroaching. This invasion will probably removegas oil from the open market before the end of 1923, while
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