Distillation fluid catalytic cracking

Ecole Nationale Superieure du Petrole et des Moteurs Formation Industrie end point (or FBP - final boiling point) electrostatic precipitation ethyl tertiary butyl ether European Union extra-urban driving cycle volume fraction distilled at 70-100-180-210°C Fachausschuss Mineralol-und-Brennstoff-Normung fluid catalytic cracking Food and Drug Administration front end octane number fluorescent indicator adsorption flame ionization detector... 

A fluid catalytic cracking unit in Joliet, Illinois, converts bea components of crude oils into high octane gasoline and distillates. (Corbis Corporation)... 

Fluid catalytic cracking is one of the most important conversion processes in a petroleum refinery. The process incorporates most phases of chemical engineering fundamentals, such as fluidization, heat/mass transfer, and distillation. The heart of the process is the reactor-regenerator, where most of the innovations have occurred since 1942. 

The modem gasolines are produced by blending products from cmde oil distillation, that is, fluid catalytic cracking, hydrocraking, reforming, coking, polymerization, isomerization, and alkylation.Two clear examples of the possible use of solid-acid catalysts in refining processes are the isomerization of lineal alkanes and the alkylation of isobutene with butanes. In both these cases, and due to the octane... 

Some years later Statoil decided to start a project within catalytic cracking in order to learn more abont residue fluid catalytic cracking in general, and particnlarly abont catalysts suitable for this process. The project started as a prestudy for the residue fluid catalytic cracker unit (FCCU) that Statoil was planning to bnild at the Mongstad refinery in Norway. The intention was to crack North Sea atmospheric residue directly, without first using a vacuum gas distillation tower followed by cracking... 

Gas oils Utilized as straight-run distillate after desulfurization. Lighter atmospheric and vacuum gas oils are often hydrocracked or catalytically cracked to produce gasoline, jet, and diesel fuel fractions heavy vacuum gas oils can be used to produce lubestocks or as fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) feedstock... 

Table 7 shows the yield distribution of the C4 isomers from different feedstocks with specific processing schemes. The largest yield of butylenes comes from the refineries processing middle distillates and from olefins plants cracking naphtha. The refinery product contains 35 to 65% butanes olefins plants, 3 to 5%. Catalyst type and operating severity determine the selectivity of the C4 isomer distribution (41) in the refinery process stream. Processes that parallel fluid catalytic cracking to produce butylenes and propylene from heavy cmde oil fractions are under development (42). 

The ET-II process is a thermal cracking process for the production of distillates and cracked residuum for use as a metallurgical coke and is designed to accommodate feedstocks such as heavy oils, atmospheric residua, and vacuum residua (Kuwahara, 1987). The distillate (referred to in the process as cracked oil) is suitable as a feedstock to hydrocracker and fluid catalytic cracking. The basic technology of the ET-II process is derived from that of the original Eureka process. 

The volatile products from the soaking drum enter the fractionator where the distillates are fractionated into desired product oil streams, including a heavy gas oil fraction. The cracked gas product is compressed and used as refinery fuel gas after sweetening. The cracked oil product after hydrotreating is used as fluid catalytic cracking or hydrocracker feedstock. The residuum is suitable for use as boiler fuel, road asphalt, binder for the coking industry, and as a feedstock for partial oxidation. 

While these techniques have been applied to energy-related processes such as heat-integrated distillation columns and fluid catalytic cracking reactors, there is still extensive research required before the concept of plant design/control is reduced to practice. 

The application of the design methods developed in the previous sections has been demonstrated on a CSTR, a distillation column, fluid catalytic cracking units and a gasoline polymerization plant (20). Here, we will discuss optimizing control of the fluid catalytic cracker. 

Reboiled stripping is efficient for mixtures containing a significant amount of light and intermediate components. An example is the separation of C2 and C3 fractions from a hydrocarbon mixture issued from fluid catalytic cracking. The initial precooled mixture is sent to the top of a distillation column provided only with reboiler. The top product contains gases and light components stripped out... 

In present-day refineries, the fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit has become the major gasoline-producing unit. The FCC s major purpose is to upgrade heavy fractions, that is, gas oil from the atmospheric and vacuum distillation columns and delayed coker, into light products. Atmospheric gas oil has a boiling range of between 650-725°F.9... 

Fluid coking and fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) are mechanically similar The products of fluid coking and delayed coking are the same (i.e., coke and distillate products), but the equipment is physically different. Alkylation of the three- and four-carbon molecule products from these units is commonly performed to convert them to branched chain gasoline, which increases the octane rating. As can be seen from Figure 1.1 in Chapter One, the feed to fluid catalytic crackers is a gas-oil distillate. For delayed cokers and fluid cokers, the feed is residium. 

RFCC [Residual Fluid Catalytic Cracking] A process for cracking residues from petroleum distillation. It uses an ultrastable zeolite catalyst with two-stage regeneration. Originally developed in the early 1980s by Total Petroleum in Kansas and Oklahoma under the name R2R. Further developed by IFP with Stone and Webster and now more commonly known as RFCC. Twenty-six units had been licensed by 2003. 

Catalytic cracking is the process of upgrading gas oil or even residual oil (heavy oil) to produce gasoline, distillates, light olefines, etc. Commercialized processes include fluid catalytic cracking (FCC), residual oil catalytic cracking (RFCC), and catalytic pyrolysis, etc. 

Fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) has been used since the 1950s to turn heavy distillates (vacuum gas oil) into a series of light and dense fractions. The FCC catalysts can also be used as pyrolysis catalysts. 

Although gas oils obtained from the atmospheric distillate still remain the main source of diesel fuels, in order to cope with the increased consumption of naphtha and middle distillates almost all refineries in Romania use conversion processes such as fluid catalytic cracking on vacuum distillates and coking or visbreaking on residue. These processes generate middle distillates with higher olefins, diolefins, sulphur, nitrogen and aromatics content compared to gas oil obtained from an atmospheric distillation unit... 

Propylene is also recovered as a by-product of other refinery operations, principally from the fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) of gas oils and to a lesser extent from the volatile products of coking, when coking is used. All refinery streams containing recoverable fractions of propylene will be combined into a mixed C3 stream for propylene separation. Distillation of this combined stream then gives propylene (b.p. —47.7°C) as the overhead product and propane (b.p. —42.1°C) plus traces of other higher boiling point products as the bottom fraction. 

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