There are multiple ways to maximize light cycle oil from the FCC including reducing conversion, reformulating the fresh catalyst, utilizing additives, and adjusting fractionation.
How often do you perform steam optimization in the FCC reactor? What process response and benefits do you typically see from performing "step tests" to feed nozzle, lift, and stripping steam flow rates?
There are multiple benefits to reducing fresh catalyst 0–40-micron particle content for FCCs not challenged by fluidization. A significant portion of the 0-40 content cannot be retained in the FCC.
Localized regenerator afterburn is a common symptom of non-optimal air and/or spent catalyst distribution. Regional CO bed breakthrough will combust and afterburn in the regenerator dilute phase and cyclones indicating a stochiometric imbalance of air and coke. In a partial combustion operation, localized afterburn confirms confined oxygen breakthrough from the bed resulting in CO combustion in the dilute phase and cyclones.
The optimal level of carbon on regenerated catalyst (CRC) is often a balance between conversion and feed rate. Lowering CRC can be achieved by increasing air rate. In FCCs that are air blower or regenerator temperature limited, this can result in a feed rate reduction or residue processing reduction.
This is a three-part question. The first question is: When is the return on investment (ROI)adequate to justify installing a desalter to treat purchased FCC feeds? The capital and operating costs of an FCC feed desalter are supported by improvements in performance, operating costs, and reliability.
[United Refining Company (URC)] Our FCC unit has five operators per shift. Typically, two people are inside running the DCS (distributed control system) and board-mounted controls while the other three are doing rounds in the unit.
[United Refining Company (URC)] The unit engineer/compressor manufacturer should be able to provide guidelines to prevent surge episodes. These guidelines may include safe windows of operation for air rates, discharge pressures, and discharge temperatures.
Deeper cuts will not have as high a conversion as will lighter cuts. For example, an FCC charge API gravity of 22 may have a conversion of 83%, while a lighter gravity of 23 will show conversion one point higher at 84%.