Laboratory Testing of FCC Catalysts and Hydrogen Transfer Properties Evaluation

Synthesis and catalytic behavior of FCC catalysts obtained from kaolin by the in-situ method

In-situ zeolites NaY and Na[B]Y were synthesized on microspherical matrices of kaolin to obtain FCC catalysts. An alkaline pretreatment of the matrix was investigated in order to evaluate its effect on matrix properties and crystallization of the in-situ synthetized zeolites. Catalysts were characterized by SEM, TEM, Ar adsorption, XRD and NH3-TPD. It was observed an increase in the surface area and mesoporosity of the alkaline treated catalysts either synthetized with the presence of boron or with no boron in the hydrothermal reaction mixture. Ammonia TPD analyses have shown an increase in the amount and strength of the acidity of the catalysis with the zeolites crystallized on the pretreated matrices and exchanged with lanthanum ions. Thus, a combination between higher concentration of stronger acid sites and higher proportion of mesoporous generated in the matrices treated with alkaline solution had resulted in more active catalyst as shown by the triisopropylbenzene cracking experiments conducted here.

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Role of Catalyst in Optimizing Fluid Catalytic Cracking Performance During Cracking of H-Oil-Derived Gas Oils

Three H-Oil gas oils, heavy atmospheric gas oil (HAGO), light vacuum gas oil (LVGO), heavy vacuum gas oil (HVGO), and two their blends with hydrotreated straight run vacuum gas oils (HTSRVGOs) were cracked on two high unit cell size (UCS) lower porosity commercial catalysts and two low UCS higher porosity commercial catalysts. The cracking experiments were performed in an advanced cracking evaluation fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) laboratory unit at 527 °C, 30 s catalyst time on stream, and catalyst-to-oil (CTO) variation between 3.5 and 7.5 wt/wt The two high UCS lower porosity catalysts were more active and more coke selective. However, the difference between conversion of the more active high UCS lower porosity and low UCS higher porosity catalysts at 7.5 wt/wt CTO decreased in the order 10% (HAGO) > 9% (LVGO) > 6% (HVGO) > 4% (80% HTSRVGO/20% H-Oil VGO). Therefore, the catalyst performance is feedstock-dependent. The four studied catalysts along with a blend of one of them with 2% ZSM-5 were examined in a commercially revamped UOP FCC VSS unit. The lower UCS higher porosity catalysts exhibited operation at a higher CTO ratio achieving a similar conversion level with more active higher UCS lower porosity catalysts. However, the higher UCS lower porosity catalysts made 0.67% Δ coke that was higher than the maximum acceptable limit of 0.64% for this particular commercial FCC unit (FCCU), which required excluding the HVGO from the FCC feed blend. The catalyst system containing ZSM-5 increased the LPG yield but did not have an impact on gasoline octane. It was found that the predominant factor that controls refinery profitability related to the FCCU performance is the FCC slurry oil (bottoms) yield.

Transformations of FCC catalysts and carbonaceous deposits during repeated reaction-regeneration cycles

Transformations of an industrial zeolite-based fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) catalyst and its coke deposits during regeneration following FCC reactions of a representative refinery stream are investigated.

Crude oil to chemicals: light olefins from crude oil

The possibility to fulfill the increasing market demand and producers' needs in processing straightforwardly crude oil, a cheap and universally available feedstock, to produce petrochemicals appears to be a very attractive strategy.