Residue Fluid Catalytic Cracking

Letzsch, W., Mauleon, J. L. Jones, G., and Dean, R., Advanced Residual Fluid Catalytic Cracking, presented at Katalistiks 4th Annual FCC Symposium, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, May 18-19, 1983. 

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... 

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. 

Feed pretreater for Residue Fluid Catalytic Cracking (RFCC) units. 

Khouw, F.H.H., M. J. P. C. Nieskens, M. J. H. Borley and K. H. W. Roebschlaeger, The Shell Residue Fluid Catalytic Cracking Process Commercial Experience and Future Developments, NPRA Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Texas, March 25-27 (1990). 

Another approach used to reduce the harmful effects of heavy metals in petroleum residues is metal passivation. In this process an oil-soluble treating agent containing antimony is used that deposits on the catalyst surface in competition with contaminant metals, thus reducing the catalytic activity of these metals in promoting coke and gas formation. Metal passivation is especially important in fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) processes. Additives that improve FCC processes were found to increase catalyst life and improve the yield and quality of products. ... 

The most important undesired metallic impurities are nickel and vanadium, present in porphyrinic structures that originate from plants and are predominantly found in the heavy residues. In addition, iron may be present due to corrosion in storage tanks. These metals deposit on catalysts and give rise to enhanced carbon deposition (nickel in particular). Vanadium has a deleterious effect on the lattice structure of zeolites used in fluid catalytic cracking. A host of other elements may also be present. Hydrodemetallization is strictly speaking not a catalytic process, because the metallic elements remain in the form of sulfides on the catalyst. Decomposition of the porphyrinic structures is a relatively rapid reaction and as a result it occurs mainly in the front end of the catalyst bed, and at the outside of the catalyst particles. 

Fluid catalytic cracking over an acid catalyst converts residual hydrocarbons from the vacuum gas oil fraction into valuable olefins, gasoline, and diesel products. The catalytic cracking proceeds... 

In response to recent federal and local environmental concerns (e.g., industrial emission controls and lead phase-out) and to the growing interest of refiners in cracking residual fuels, researchers have generated new families of cracking catalysts. There is now a need to review the merits of these newly developed materials. This volume contains contributions from researchers involved in the preparation and characterization of cracking catalysts. Other important aspects of fluid catalytic cracking, such as feedstocks and process hardware effects in refining, have been intentionally omitted because of time limitations and should be treated separately in future volumes. 

At the end of the 1970s Statoil cracked a North Sea atmospheric residue for the first time in M. W. Kellogg s circulating pilot nnit in Texas [1]. This pilot unit was qnite large, with a capacity of one barrel a day. The test in this pilot nnit was very snccess-ful and showed that North Sea atmospheric residnes were very suitable feedstocks for a residue fluid catalytic cracker, and that North Sea atmospheric residnes gave very promising prodnct yields. 

The Demex process is a solvent extraction demetallizing process that separates high metal vacuum residuum into demetallized oil of relatively low metal content and asphaltene of high metal content (Table 8-5) (Houde, 1997). The asphaltene and condensed aromatic contents of the demetallized oil are very low. The demetallized oil is a desirable feedstock for fixed-bed hydrodesulfurization and, in cases where the metals and carbon residues are sufficiently low, is a desirable feedstock for fluid catalytic cracking and hydrocracking units. 

Combined with hydrodesulfurization, the process is fully applicable to the feed preparation for fluid catalytic cracking and hydrocracking. The process is capable of using a variety of feedstocks including atmospheric and vacuum residues derived from various crude oils, oil sand, visbroken tar and so on. 

With this decision made, Ashland set out to develop a new residual oil conversion process which could effectively produce a greater amount of transportation fuel from each barrel of crude processed. It was concluded that a new process would take the best features from the fluid catalytic cracking process and couple them with innovative improvements in related key areas such as unique... 

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. 

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... 

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