Fluid Catalytic Cracking Handbook

An Expert Guide to the Practical Operation, Design, and Optimization of FCC Units

Reza Sadeghbeigi

• Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9780123870049
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Chemical & Biochemical Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

This new and improved edition focuses on providing practical information and tools that engineers can use to maximize the profitability and reliability of their fluid catalytic cracking operations. The updated chapters and new content deliver expertise and know-how to an industry that faces significant cost cutting in capital expenditure and R&D, along with the retirement of technical specialists who are taking existing knowledge out of the industry with them. This FCC Handbook provides a valuable easy-to-understand resource for both experienced and inexperienced engineers and anyone else associated with the FCC process. This book gives those who need a quick reference, and gives those who are developing their skills and knowledge trusted information that will help them succeed with their projects. - The only practical approach, with tools and techniques for those with FCC responsibilities to help maximize the profitability and reliability of fluid catalytic cracking operations - Updated throughout, with new material focusing on latest developments, the shift to using FCC to process lower quality crudes, and new applied material on troubleshooting - Provides a reference for both experienced engineers who need a quick reference, as well as providing those who are developing their skills and knowledge with access to trusted information that will help them succeed in their projects

Chapter 1. Process Description

Global demand for transportation fuels will continue to grow and this demand will be met largely by gasoline and diesel fuels. The fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) process continues to play a key role in an integrated refinery as the primary conversion process of crude oil to lighter products. In the next two decades, the FCC process will be likely used for biofuels and possibly for reducing CO₂ emissions. For many refiners, the cat cracker is the key to profitability because the successful operation of the unit determines whether or not the refiner can remain competitive in today’s market.

Since the start-up of the first commercial FCC unit in 1942, many improvements have been made to enhance the unit’s mechanical reliability and its ability to crack heavier, lower value feedstocks. The FCC has a remarkable history of adapting to continual changes in market demands. Table 1.1 and Table 1.1A highlight some of the major developments in the history of the FCC process.

Table 1.1 The Evolution of Catalytic Cracking—Pre FCC Invention.

1915	Almer M. McAfee of Gulf Refining Co. discovered that a Friedel–Crafts aluminum chloride catalyst could catalytically crack heavy oil. However, the high cost of catalyst prevented the widespread use of McAfee’s process.
1922	The French mechanical engineer named Eugene Jules Houdry and a French pharmacist named E.A. Prodhomme set up a laboratory to develop a catalytic process for conversion of lignite to gasoline. The demonstration plant in 1929 showed the process is not economical. Houdry had found that fuller’s earth, a clay containing aluminosilicate (Al2SiO6), could convert oil from lignite to gasoline.
1930	The Vacuum Oil Company invited Houdry to move his laboratory to Paulsboro, NJ.
1931	The Vacuum Oil Company merged with Standard Oil of New York (Socony) to form Socony-Vacuum Oil Company.
1933	A small Houdry unit processing 200bpd of petroleum oil was commissioned because of the economic depression of the early 1930s. Socony-Vacuum could not support Houdry’s work and granted him permission to seek help elsewhere. Sun Oil Company joined in developing Houdry’s process.
1936	Socony-Vacuum converted an old thermal cracker to catalytically crack 2,000bpd of petroleum oil using the Houdry process.
1936	Use of natural clays as catalyst greatly improved cracking efficiency.
1937	Sun Oil began operation of Houdry unit processing 12,000bpd. The Houdry process used reactors with a fixed bed of catalyst and it was a semi-batch operation. Almost 50% of the cracked products were gasoline.
1938	With the commercial successes of the Houdry process, Standard Oil of New Jersey resumed research of the FCC process as part of the consortium that included five oil companies (Standard Oil of New Jersey, Standard Oil of Indiana, Anglo-Iranian Oil, Texas Oil, and Dutch Shell), two engineering construction companies (M.W. Kellogg and Universal Oil Products), and a German chemical company (I.G. Farben). This consortium was called Catalyst Research Associates (CRA), and its objective was to develop a catalytic cracking process that did not impinge on Houdry’s patents. Two MIT professors (Warren K. Lewis and Edwin R. Gilliand) had suggested to CRA researchers that a low gas velocity through a powder might lift the powder enough to flow like liquid. Standard Oil of New Jersey developed and patented the first fluid catalyst cracking process.
1938–1940	By 1938 Socony-Vacuum had 8 additional units under construction, and by 1940 there were 14 Houdry units in operation processing 140,000bpd of oil.
	The next step was to develop a continuous process rather than Houdry’s semi-batch operation. Thus came the advent of a moving-bed process known as thermofor catalytic cracking (TCC), which used a bucket conveyor elevator to move the catalyst from the regenerator kiln to the reactor.
1940	M.W. Kellogg designed and constructed a large pilot plant at the Standard Oil Baton Rouge, Louisiana, refinery.
1941	A small TCC demonstration unit was built at Socony-Vacuum’s Paulsboro refinery.
1943	A 10,000bpd TCC unit began operation at Magnolia Oil Company in Beaumont, TX (an affiliate of Socony-Vacuum’s Paulsboro refinery).
1945	By the end of World War II, the processing capacity of the TCC units in operation was about 300,000bpd.

Table 1.1A The Evolution of the FCC Process.

1942	The first commercial FCC unit (Model I upflow design) started up at the Standard of New Jersey Baton Rouge, Louisiana, refinery, processing 12,000bpd.
1943	First down-flow design FCC unit was brought online. First TCC brought online.
1947	First Universal Oil Products (UOP)-stacked FCC unit was built. M.W. Kellogg introduced the Model III FCC unit.
1948	Davison Division of W.R. Grace & Co. developed microspheroidal FCC catalyst.
1950s	Evolution of bed cracking process designs.
1951	M.W. Kellogg introduced the Orthoflow design.
1952	Exxon introduced the Model IV.
1954	High alumina (Al2O2) catalysts were introduced.
Mid-1950s	UOP introduces side-by-side design.
1956	Shell invented riser cracking.
1961	Kellogg and Phillips developed and put the first resid cracker onstream at the Borger, TX, refinery.
1963	The first Model I FCC unit was shut down after 22 years of operation.
1964	Mobil Oil deve...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Table of Contents
• Front-matter
• Dedication
• Copyright
• Preface to the Third Edition
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Chapter 1. Process Description
• Chapter 2. Process Control Instrumentation
• Chapter 3. FCC Feed Characterization
• Chapter 4. FCC Catalysts
• Chapter 5. Catalyst and Feed Additives
• Chapter 6. Chemistry of FCC Reactions
• Chapter 7. Unit Monitoring and Control
• Chapter 8. Products and Economics
• Chapter 9. Effective Project Execution and Management
• Chapter 10. Refractory Lining Systems
• Chapter 11. Process and Mechanical Design Guidelines for FCC Equipment
• Chapter 12. Troubleshooting
• Chapter 13. Optimization and Debottlenecking
• Chapter 14. Emissions
• Chapter 15. Residue and Deep Hydrotreated Feedstock Processing
• Appendix 1. Temperature Variation of Liquid Viscosity
• Appendix 2. Correction to Volumetric Average Boiling Point
• Appendix 3. TOTAL Correlations
• Appendix 4. n–d–M Correlations
• Appendix 5. Estimation of Molecular Weight of Petroleum Oils from Viscosity Measurements
• Appendix 6. Kinematic Viscosity to Saybolt Universal Viscosity
• Appendix 7. API Correlations
• Appendix 8. Definitions of Fluidization Terms
• Appendix 9. Conversion of ASTM 50% Point to TBP 50% Point Temperature
• Appendix 10. Determination of TBP Cut Points from ASTM D86
• Appendix 11. Nominal Pipe Sizes
• Appendix 12. Conversion Factors
• Glossary
• Index