Fluid catalytic cracking standards

The Houdry fixed-bed cyclic units were soon displaced in the 1940s by the superior Fluid Catalytic Cracking process pioneered by Warren K. Lewis of MIT and Eger Murphree and his team of engineers at Standard Oil of Newjersey (now Exxon). Murphree and his team demonstrated that hundreds of tons of fine catalyst could be continuously moved like a fluid between the cracking reactor and a separate vessel for... 

The moving bed-type process that eventually won" was fluid catalytic cracking (FCC). The early developments for this process were accomplished by Standard (New Jersey). Work with fixed-bed reactors during the late 1930s convinced E. V. Murphree, vice-president in charge of development, to conclude that the only viable approach was to use circulating catalyst processing that would allow steady-state operations (4). He also made the decision to utilize a powdered catalyst (4). 

Table 2. Time scale for development of Fluid Catalytic Cracking by Standard Oil Co. (New Jersey now Exxon)...

Jersey Standard had many officials, from the president down, serving on various committees devoted to preparation for war in advance of the U.S. entry into WWII. In the case of fluid catalytic cracking, Jersey Standard was driven not by perceived war demand but by the need to find a way to produce gasoline for autos that could compete with the fuel produced by Houdry catalytic cracking units. However, without the wartime conditions, it is likely that Jersey Standard would have taken longer than three years to go from research to an operating commercial unit. The first commercial fluid units were tremendously expensive because of their overpowering size and complexity (55). 

During 1935 to 1945 inclusive, the fluid catalytic cracking research totaled about 34 million and was borne entirely by Jersey Standard (54). In contrast,... 

Prior to 1938, gasoline was obtained from thermal-cracking plants then the Houdry fixed-bed catalytic cracking process led to the development of a fluidized-bed process by Standard Oil for the catalytic production of motor fuels (4-8). Acid-treated clays of the montmorilIonite type were the first fluid-cracking catalysts widely employed by the industry. However, the ever greater demand for aviation fuels during the 1939-1945 period prompted the search for more active and selective catalysts. Research on novel catalyst... 

In the 1930 s, Standard Oil of New Jersey (now Exxon) attempted to license the Houdry technology but were discouraged by the high license fee set by Houdry of 50,000,000 (13, 14). This fee, adjusted via the Consumer Price Index, is over 750,000,000 in today s currency This led the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey (Jersey) to develop new catalytic cracking technology. Their initial work was based upon the fixed bed concept but was quickly refocused upon the more efficient fluid bed design to avoid the inefficiencies and complexities of the cyclic fixed beds (15). 

Through a series of round robin tests conducted by participating laboratories, ASTM Committee D-32 on Catalysts has characterized a variety of catalyst materials using standard test methods. Materials include fluid cracking catalysts, zeolites, silicas, aluminas, supported metals, and a gas oil feedstock. Properties characterized include surface area, crush strength, catalytic microactivity, particle size, unit cell dimensions and metal content. These materials are available from the National Institute of Standards and Technology as reference materials. 

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