Recycling Hydrocarbon Cuts into FCC Units

M.L. FERNANDEZ; G. DE LA PUENTE; A. LACALLE ; J. BILBAO; U. SEDRAN; J.M. ARANDES

ENERGY & FUELS (PRINT)

AMER CHEMICAL SOC

Lugar: Washington; Año: 2002 vol. 13 p. 615 - 621

0887-0624

A bench scale reactor, which is a simulator of FCC riser units, has been used to study theupgrading of low value hydrocarbon cuts (a heavy coker naphtha and a visbreaker naphtha) bycatalytic cracking of a mixture of these cuts (20 wt %) with the conventional feedstock (vacuumgas oil). The results of yield and composition of gasoline have been compared with those obtainedby catalytic cracking of vacuum gas oil and with those obtained following other upgradingstrategies for these cuts, such as their direct catalytic cracking or their blending with the gasolinestream of the FCCU. In general terms, increases in gasoline yields oppose to losses of its quality.The results show that the cracking of the heavy paraffins contained in these naphthas is inhibitedby the adsorption of heavy olefins present in these cuts. Coke yields are not higher than the onesobtained when cracking standard VGO, and then the impact on units? heat balances would benegligible.