Cracking reactions, heat

Cracking reactions are endothermic, 1.6—2.8 MJ/kg (700—1200 BTU/lb) of hydrocarbon converted, with heat supplied by firing fuel gas and/or fuel oil in side-wall or floor burners. Side-wall burners usually give uniform heat distribution, but the capacity of each burner is limited (0.1—1 MW) and hence 40 to 200 burners are required in a single furnace. With modem floor burners, also called hearth burners, uniform heat flux distribution can be obtained for coils as high as 10 m, and these are extensively used in newer designs. The capacity of these burners vary considerably (1—10 MW), and hence only a few burners are required. The selection of burners depends on the type of fuel (gas and/or liquid), source of combustion air (ambient, preheated, or gas turbine exhaust), and required NO levels. 

In many cases, cold spots on the reactor shell will result in condensation and high corrosion rates. Sufficient insulation to maintain the shell and appurtenances above the dew point of the reaction gases is necessary. Hot spots can occur where refractory cracks allow heat to permeate to the shell. These can sometimes be repaired by pumping castable refractoiy into the hot area from the outside. 

In the fluid coking process, part of the coke produced is used to provide the process heat. Cracking reactions occur inside the heater and the fluidized-bed reactor. The fluid coke is partially formed in the heater. Hot coke slurry from the heater is recycled to the fluid reactor to provide the heat required for the cracking reactions. Fluid coke is formed by spraying the hot feed on the already-formed coke particles. Reactor temperature is about 520°C, and the conversion into coke is immediate, with... 

Explain how cracking reactions affect the unit s heat balance. 

Example 5.6 Hydrocarbon cracking reactions are endothermic, and many different techniques are used to supply heat to the system. The maximum inlet temperature is limited by problems of materials of construction or by undesirable side reactions such as coking. Consider an adiabatic reactor with inlet temperature Tm. Then T z) < T, and the temperature will gradually decline as the reaction proceeds. This decrease, with the consequent reduction in reaction rate, can be minimized by using a high proportion of inerts in the feed stream. 

The formation of lipid components in an aqueous phase at temperatures from 370 to 620 K was studied by Rushdie and Simoneit (2001), who heated aqueous solutions of oxalic acid in a steel vessel for 2 days the yield of oxidized compounds reached a maximum (5.5% based on oxalic acid) between 420 and 520 K. A broad spectrum of compounds was obtained, from n-alkanes to the corresponding alcohols, aldehydes and ketones. At higher temperatures, i.e., above 520-570 K, cracking reactions competed with the synthetic reactions. 

A West Texas gas oil is cracked in a tubular reactor packed with silica-alumina cracking catalyst. The liquid feed mw = 0.255) is vaporized, heated, enters the reactor at 630°C and 1 atm, and with adequate temperature control stays close to this temperature within the reactor. The cracking reaction follows first-order kinetics and gives a variety of products with mean molecular weight mw = 0.070. Half the feed is cracked for a feed rate of 60 m liquid/m reactor hr. In the industry this measure of feed rate is called the liquid hourly space velocity. Thus LHSV = 60 hr Find the first-order rate constants k and k " for this cracking reaction. 

The problems in fixed bed cracking reactors are (1) heat must be supplied to heat the reactants to the desired temperature and overcome the endothermicities of the cracking reactions and (2) the reactor must be shut down periodically for coke removal. Both of these problems were overcome by the development in the 1940s and 1950s of a fluidized... 

The dry gas prodnced from the DCC process contains approximately 50% ethylene. The cracking reactions are endothermic, and compared to FCC, a higher coke make is required to satisfy the heat balance. 

Feed to the FCC unit is mixed with hot catalyst and steam in a reactor line called a riser. The ratio of catalyst oil feed can typically range from 4 1 to 9 1 by weight. Overall, FCC is an endothermic process. Heat provided by the hot, circulating catalyst is the prime source of energy driving the FCC process. In the riser, vaporized oil is cracked catalytically in less than two seconds. The vapors and catalyst flow out of the riser and into the reactor. At this point, most cracking reactions have occurred. 

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