Before the start of America’s involvement in World War II, the demand for petroleum based products, while growing steadily, was still reasonably small especially compared to the demand during and after wartime. Thermal refineries had been the primary operational utility for generating petroleum based products like gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel from around 1910 until 1940; however they were suddenly unable to produce enough product to feed the country as well as the military vehicles, tanks, and planes at the start of WWII¹. Beyond sheer volume, there was also drastic increase in demand for high performance, high octane fuels for use in more advanced vehicle engines and as aviation fuels². To satisfy these two new problems, newly designed refineries called catalytic refineries were introduced which incorporated exceedingly more advanced cracking capabilities through the use of specialized catalysts. These catalysts worked through ionic reactions which are faster and more easily controlled than the older thermal refinery style free radical reactions³. The specialty of these new catalysts is their ability to produce much higher octane number fuels which combust more steadily and cause less damage to the internal combustion engines that use them. Non-fuel, petroleum based products such as toluene and butyl rubber made in refineries were also found to be extremely useful during WWII⁴. Toluene is a major component of trinitrotoluene (TNT) which was used heavily during World War II in explosives and butyl rubber is a man-made rubber which became a substitute for natural rubber when traditional supplies were cut off⁴.

1. Eser, Semih. “Lesson 6: Thermal Conversion Processes.” FSC 432: Petroleum Processing. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 July 2014. <https://cms.psu.edu/section/content/default.asp?WCI=pgDisplay&WCU=CRSCNT&ENTRY_ID=F20C6357261A4AE2A750C141B721E8C1>.
2. Eser, Semih. “The Thermal Refinery (1910 – 1940).” FSC 432: Petroleum Processing. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 July 2014. <https://cms.psu.edu/section/content/default.asp?WCI=pgDisplay&WCU=CRSCNT&ENTRY_ID=F20C6357261A4AE2A750C141B721E8C1>.
3. Eser, Semih. “The Catalytic Refinery (1940-1970).” FSC 432: Petroleum Processing. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 July 2014. <https://cms.psu.edu/section/content/default.asp?WCI=pgDisplay&WCU=CRSCNT&ENTRY_ID=F20C6357261A4AE2A750C141B721E8C1>.
4. “1940 – 1945 The War Years.” 90th Poster Early Years. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 July 2014. <http://www.exxonmobil.com/NA-English/Files/90thPstr3WarYears.pdf>.