From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishhydrocarbonhy‧dro‧car‧bon /ˌhaɪdrəˈkɑːbən $ -ˈkɑːr-/ noun [countable] technicalHCC a chemical compound that consists of hydrogen and carbon, such as coal or gas
Examples from the Corpus
hydrocarbon• Natural gas, which is an ecologically acceptable hydrocarbon fuel, now represents more than half of our reserve base.• Studies on a range of alternative singlet forms of basic hydrocarbons have been done.• With chlorinated hydrocarbons, the ease of biodegradation decreases as the number of chlorine atoms per molecule increases.• Yet the real energy gain in fuels does not come from burning the carbon component of hydrocarbons, but the hydrogen portion.• In any case, is it feasible to deliver so large a quantity of hydrocarbons to the required point?• Because of the huge up-front investment in production platforms, modestly-sized hydrocarbon discoveries in deep water are not economic.• Catalysts remove most of the hydrocarbon component of this soot and so help to remove an area of risk.• In addition Barker showed that total hydrocarbon yield was not related to rank in the bituminous materials. 