Cycle oils

The gas oil cut from catalytic cracking called Light Cycle Oil (LCO), is characterized by a very low cetane number (about 20), high contents in aromatics, sulfur and nitrogen, all of which strongly limit its addition to the diesel fuel pool to a maximum of 5 to 10%. 

A light distillate cut (light cycle oil - LCO) similar to gas oil but having high aromaticity and low cetane number. 

Table 7. Separation of Aromatics from Nonaromatics in Light Cycle Oil...

The solution to this case study is to use cycle oil (a process MSA) followed by a synthesized external MSA (heptane) as shown in Fig. 12.2. 

Figure 4.12 (a) Surface response plot of a light cycle oil analysed by GC X GC. The col-... 

Figure 4.12 continued) (c) An expansion of the inset region from (b), with the normal alkanes shown as (a-e). Other unidentified components (f-i) are presented to locate specific peaks for comparison purposes, (d) A light gas oil analysed under the same conditions as for the cycle oil, showing the same expanded region. In this case, the oil has not been ti eated in the same manner as the cycle oil, so it retains the components that were absent from the cycle oil. Peaks (a-i) are the same as those seen in (c). 

Fleavy cycle oil (HCO)—used as a pumparound stream, sometimes as recycle to the riser, but rarely as a product... 

In many units, the light cycle oil (LCO) is the only sidecut that leaves the unit as a product. LCO is withdrawn from the main column and routed to a side stripper for flash control. LCO is sometimes treated for sulfur removal prior to being blended into the heating oil pool. In some units, a slipstream of LCO, either stripped or unstripped, is sent to the sponge oil absorber in the gas plant. In other units, sponge oil is the cooled, unstripped LCO. 

Heavy cycle oil, heavy naphtha, and other circulating side pumparound reflux streams are used to remove heat from the fractionator. They supply reboil heat to the gas plant and generate steam. The amount of heat removed at any pumparound point is set to distribute vapor and liquid loads evenly throughout the column and to provide the necessary internal reflux. 

The vapor from the primary absorber or the presaturator contains a small quantity of gasoline. The sponge oil absorber recovers this gasoline. Sponge oil is stripped or unstripped light cycle oil. It is used for final absorption of the dry gas stream. Instead of LCO, a... 

The debutanizer separates the feed into two products. The overhead product contains a mixture of C3 s and C4 s. The bottoms product is the stabilized gasoline. Heat for separating these products comes from an external reboiler. The heating source is usually the main fractionator heavy cycle oil or slurry. Steam can also be used. 

In addition, some of the nitrogen compounds end up in light cycle oil (LCO) as pyrolles and pyridines [5]. These compounds are easily oxidized and will affect color stability. The amount of nitrogen in the LCO depends on the conversion. An increase in conversion decreases the percentage of nitrogen in the LCO and increases the percentage on the catalyst. 

Adding residue to the feed increases the sulfur content of coke proportional to the incremental sulfur in the feed (Table 2-6). Thiophenic (ring-type) sulfur compounds crack more slowly, and the uncracked thiophenes end up in gasoline, light cycle oil, and decanted oil. 

Although hydrotreating increases the percentage of sulfur in coke and slurry, the actual amount of sulfur is substantially less than in the nontreated feeds. Sulfur still plays a minor role in unit conversion and yields. Its affect on processing is minimal. Some aromatic sulfur compounds do not convert, but this is no different from other aromatic compounds. They become predominately cycle oil and slurry. This tends to lower conversion and reduce maximum yields. 

Antimony-based passivation was introduced by Phillips Petroleum in 1976 to passivate nickel compounds in the FCC feed. Antimony is injected into the fresh feed, usually with the help of a carrier such as light cycle oil. If there are feed preheaters in the unit, antimony should be injected downstream of the preheater to avoid thermal decomposition of the antimony solution in the heater tubes. 

Lower cloud point in the diesel fuel. Isoparaffins in the light cycle oil boiling range improve the cloud point. 

Feed - (light cycle oil + heavy cycle oil + decanted oil) Feed... 

A refiner has several options to increase LCO yield. Since it is often desirable to maintain a maximum cracking severity while maximizing light cycle oil yield, the simplest way to increase LCO yield is to reduce the gasoline end point. Gasoline end point is usually reduced... 

Utilize a continuous-cycle oil flush into the inlet of the bottoms exchanger. This keeps the asphaltenes in solution and increases tube velocity. 

Increase Bottoms traffic Inject a continuous Cycle Oil flush into inlet Bottoms PA Exchangers Install duplex filters upstream of Bottoms Pumps... 

The thermal and catalytic cracking of PP, PS, and SBR waste, dissolved in light cycle oil, was studied in a riser simulator. 19 refs. 

Group 3 Loss of pump around flow. This grouping comprises malfunctions associated with the circulation of fluids through and around the main fractionator. The loss of one or more pump flows (slurry, light cycle oil, naphtha, and heavy cycle oil) leads to the loss of some of the fractionator heat sink. 

Heavy fractions (e.g., vacuum gas oils) and residues HDP might involve both, hydrotreatment and hydrocracking operations. HDT, in this case, is a feed pretreatment, for preparation to another process unit, which might be a HCK unit. This process combination, HDT-HCK can be used on Cycle Oil (FCC, coker), VGO (SR and coker) and SR residues (atmospheric and vacuum). It can be carried out in a single reactor with more than one catalyst, or in more than one reactor. 

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