What does dehydrogenize mean?
To dehydrogenize is to remove hydrogen from a chemical compound, a process that sits at the heart of modern industrial chemistry. The term is used almost exclusively in technical settings — laboratories, petrochemical plants, and academic papers — where it describes reactions that strip hydrogen atoms from molecules, often with the aid of heat and catalysts. A familiar example is the conversion of propane into propylene, a building block for plastics, or of alcohols into aldehydes. Dehydrogenizing is the mirror image of hydrogenation, the better-known process of adding hydrogen, famously used to turn liquid oils into solid fats. In everyday speech the word rarely appears, but within chemistry it names a reaction class of enormous economic importance, since many fuels, polymers, and pharmaceuticals depend on carefully controlled removal of hydrogen from raw feedstocks. Related forms include 'dehydrogenation' for the process itself and 'dehydrogenase' for the enzymes that perform this task in living cells.
verbTo remove hydrogen from a chemical compound, typically in an industrial or laboratory process; the reverse of hydrogenation.
- To remove hydrogen from a substance, especially by catalytic or thermal means in organic chemistry and industry.
"The catalyst is used to dehydrogenize ethylbenzene in the production of styrene."
"Industrial refineries dehydrogenize propane to yield propylene for plastic manufacture."
"In the laboratory, the chemist used a heated catalyst bed to dehydrogenize the alcohol into its corresponding aldehyde."
Every time you crack petroleum into plastics-ready chemicals, chemists are busy doing the exact opposite of what hydrogenation does — stripping hydrogen away, atom by atom.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of dehydrogenize
The word combines three elements: the prefix 'de-' (from Latin, indicating removal or reversal), 'hydrogen' (coined in the late 18th century from Greek 'hydōr', water, and '-genēs', producing — literally 'water-forming'), and the suffix '-ize' used to form verbs of process. It emerged as a technical coinage in 19th-century chemistry, alongside sibling terms like 'hydrogenize' and 'oxygenize'. Its closest relatives are 'hydrogenate' and 'dehydrogenate', which share the same Greek root and remain the more common terms in modern scientific usage.
Related word forms
How dehydrogenize is actually used
A technical term confined almost entirely to chemistry and chemical engineering contexts; 'dehydrogenate' is the more frequently encountered synonym in scientific literature.
Easily confused with dehydrogenize
Hydrogenize means to add hydrogen to a compound, whereas dehydrogenize means to remove it.