Optimisation of product yield and coke

formation in a RFCC unit

Simulation studies of a commercial residue fluid catalytic cracking unit indicate
the conditions for an optimum balance of product yield with low coke deposition

Sepehr Sadighi, Seyyed Reza Seif Mohaddecy, Omid Ghabouli and Mehdi Rashidzadeh
Research Institute of Petroleum Industry

R
esidue fluid catalytic cracking
(RFCC) is used for upgrading Reactor or
heavy feedstocks to light separation vessel
products such as gasoline. In this
study, simulation of a commercial
Fractionator
RFCC unit was calibrated against
Gas (C4 + lighter)
actual plant data, acquired in test Flue gas to particulates Catalyst
stripper
runs, and its performance predicted Removal & energy recovery
Gasoline
by simulation studies. The effects of
Spent Steam Light gas oil
key operating variables, such as catalyst
Heavy gas oil
temperature, input, steam flow rate
to the riser, recycle rate of light Regenerator Clarified slurry
Crude oil
cycle oil (LCO) on the yield of
products and rate of coke deposi-
Slurry
tion on the catalyst, were studied. Combustion air
settler
The simulation results demonstrate Regenerated
that during the study period, and catalyst
while all other operating parame-
ters are held constant, the rate of Raw oil charge

injected steam to the riser, and the

recycle rate of LCO, can reduce
coke formation in the RFCC Figure 1 Block flow diagram of the target refinery’s RFCC unit
process.
Conradson carbon residue (CCR) of enabled FCC operators to apprecia-
Fluid catalytic cracking the feedstock used in FCC plants. bly increase their level of residue
Fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) is an This process, using heavy residual processing, so that their conversion
effective refinery process for the oil, is RFCC, which requires differ- rate is 75% of the fresh feedstock.
conversion of heavy gas oils to ent catalysts to those used in the This new generation of catalysts
gasoline. It is carried out at high FCC process.1 RFCC catalysts are substantially reduces riser residence
temperature by contacting residue designed to be more stable than time, providing greater selectivity
feed with an appropriate catalyst FCC catalysts because of the higher and control over distillate products.
without hydrogen. After separation cracking temperature required for Licensors are now looking to
from the catalyst, the hydrocarbons heavier feedstocks. Moreover, they shorten this to remove the riser
are separated into desired products, should tolerate high levels of cata- altogether. Efficient and rapid sepa-
such as LPG, gasoline, distillate and lyst poisons, compared to FCC ration of products from the catalyst
fuel oil. In this process, coke is catalysts, because of the RFCC is essential; otherwise, cracking will
deposited on the catalyst during the feed’s higher content of heavy continue to lead to unwanted gas
reaction and is burned off in the metals, such as nickel, iron and and coke production.
regenerator. When applied to the vanadium.2
upgrading of heavy oil, the catalytic To maintain acceptable yields, Process description
cracking process has been used to licensors and catalyst suppliers RFCC is an extension of conven-
maximise the gasoline yield of have modified traditional FCC tech- tional FCC technology, offering
refineries. nology in such key areas as catalyst, better selectivity to produce higher
The processing of heavier crude feed injection, riser design, separa- amounts of gasoline and less
oil sources has resulted in an tion section and reactor/regenerator gas than hydro and thermal proc-
increase in the boiling point and design. These improvements have esses. In order to control the

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000477 PTQ Q2 2010 41

 Specifications and operating Fresh feed analysis
conditions of riser
True boiling point range, °C Sp.Gr. Feed rate, bpd
Specification Value Light vacuum gas oil 241-421 0.878 10 400
Influence riser length, m 38 Heavy gas oil 224-453 0.896 5370
Riser diameter, m 0.5 Heavy vacuum slabs 355-534 0.957 9570
Riser inlet temperature, C 525 Treated residue 361-562 0.952 60 860
Riser inlet steam flow, kg/hr 3500

Table 1 Table 2

heat balance and recover part of

RFCC the heat for steam production,
fractionator the design of an RFCC unit
FCC offgas includes two-stage regeneration,
FRCG mix temperature control and cata-
Inerts
T lyst cooling.3,4
RFCC RFCC
Regen. product
LCO The catalyst used for RFCC is an
steam acidic matrix such as crystalline
Unstabilised
LPG RFCC coke CSO
aluminosilicate zeolite (USY or rare
Strip steam earth exchanged HY) in an inor-
Raw FCC ganic matrix, which meets the
Blended FCC
feed
FCC feed required physico-chemical proper-
mixer ties. The major limitation of the
Inject steam RFCC process is the requirement of
high-quality feedstock (high H/C
ratio and low metal content) to
avoid the deposition of coke, high
Figure 2 Simulation of RFCC unit catalyst consumption and unit oper-
ability. Therefore, this process can
only treat atmospheric residue,
which contains relatively low

amounts of metals, sulphur and
Gasoline
carbon. However, the availability of
 such feeds is limited in refineries.
Moreover, the crude from which
 they are derived is relatively high
in price.5-8
9IELD

LCO As Figure 1 shows, RFCC utilises

 a riser-reactor, catalyst stripper,
first-stage regeneration vessel,
 second-stage regeneration vessel,
catalyst withdrawal well and cata-
lyst transfer lines.

      Fresh feed is finely atomised with
4EMPERATURE²# dispersion steam and injected into
the riser through the feed nozzles
over a dense catalyst phase. The
Figure 3 Effect of riser temperature on yields of gasoline and LCO small droplets of feed make contact
with the freshly regenerated cata-
lyst and vapourise immediately.
Comparison of product yields: simulation results and actual data The oil molecules mix intimately
with the catalyst particles and crack
to form lighter, more valuable
Product name Volume % in product
Simulation Actual data products. Steam is injected through
Light gas & LPG 7.58 9.69 nozzles into the mixture of catalyst
Gasoline (FRCG) 49.66 50.76 and vapourised feed. The operation
Light cycle oil 31.88 29.05
is carried out at a temperature
Clarified oil 10.88 10.5
that is consistent with targeted
yields.
Table 3 Products exit the riser-reactor

42 PTQ Q2 2010 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000477

through a high-efficiency, close-
coupled, proprietary riser 
termination device. Spent catalyst is
pre-stripped by a high-efficiency 
packed stripper prior to regenera- CSO
tion. The product vapour is

quenched to give the lowest dry

9IELD
gas and maximum gasoline yields
attainable. Final recovery of catalyst 
particles is performed in cyclones
before the product vapour is trans- Coke

ferred to the fractionation section.
Catalyst regeneration is carried
out in two independent stages 
     
equipped with proprietary air and
4EMPERATURE²#
catalyst distribution systems, which
create fully regenerated catalyst
with minimum hydrothermal Figure 4 Effect of riser temperature on yields of coke and CSO
deactivation.
These benefits are achieved by
applying the first-stage regenerator
in a partial-burn mode, the second- 
stage regenerator in full combustion
mode, and both regenerators in  Gasoline
parallel with respect to air and flue
gas flows. 
The process is capable of upgrad-
9IELD

ing feeds to about 6 wt% Conradson 

carbon content without additional
catalyst cooling, with less air, lower 
catalyst deactivation and smaller
regenerators than a single-stage LCO

regenerator design. Gas oil extrac-
tion can be easily retrofitted. 
     
Process simulation 2ISERINLETSTEAMKGHR
This article reports on the effects of
recycling LCO on the yield of prod-
ucts and coke deposition on the Figure 5 Effects of riser inlet steam on product yields
catalyst in an Iranian RFCC unit.9
The specifications and operating
conditions for the riser, as well as a
fresh feed analysis, are shown in  
Tables 1 and 2, respectively.
In addition, unstable LPG is Gasoline
injected with the fresh feed at a  
flow rate of 2200 bpd. In this study,
Hysys Refinery was used for simu-
'ASOLINEYIELD

#OKINGYIELD

lation and sensitivity analysis of the  

Coke
RFCC unit.10
In this simulator, kinetics corre-  
spond to operating conditions by
the tuning of kinetic coefficients.
Simulation of the RFCC unit is  
shown in Figure 2, and a compari-
son between the predicted product
 
yields and actual data taken from      
the target refinery is shown in Table 2ISERINLETSTEAMKGHR
3. This confirmed the ability of the
simulator to predict the desired
outputs. Figure 6 Effects of riser inlet steam on yields of gasoline and coke

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000477 PTQ Q2 2010 43

 LCO recycle stream
FCC FCC Since recycling LCO dilutes the
yield yield feed entering the riser, it decreases
(mass) (vol) coke formation in the RFFC proc-
&##OFFGAS
RFCC ess.11 Figure 7 shows a new scenario
,6'/ &2#' in which LCO product is recycled
('/ and combined with fresh feed. To
2AW&##FEED T ,#/ fix the rate of combined feed, the
(63
rate of fresh feed is decreased
4&##
FEED
42FEED #3/ accordingly.
The effects of LCO recycle on the
42EXCESS 2&##COKE
4%%  yields of gasoline and LCO, as well
5NSTABILISED
&## ,0' as the rate of coke deposition on
MIXER the catalyst, are shown in Figures 8
/#4,0' and 9. Figure 8 indicates that
increasing the recycle stream
#$5,0'
&## increases the LCO yield and
MIXER
decreases the yield of gasoline.
,#/PRODUCT Regarding Figure 9, it is obvious
#UTTERBACK
2
#UTTER
that increasing the recycle stream
2ECYCLE decreases coke formation and that a
LCO recycle flow rate of more than
Figure 7 Recycling part of LCO product as inlet feed 3000 bpd represents optimum
conditions. Since it decreases coke
Results and discussion Effects of injected steam formation, increasing the rate of
Effects of feed temperature The effects on gasoline and LCO LCO recycle can be beneficial to the
The effects of the temperature of yields of injecting steam to the riser life of the catalyst.
the feed entering the riser on are shown in Figure 5. The figure
the yield of products and coke indicates that increasing the rate of Conclusion
formation are shown in Figures 3 injected steam has a positive effect In this study, the RFCC process was
and 4. on the yield of gasoline, but it first of all simulated using Hysys
Figure 3 shows that raising the decreases LCO production. In view Refinery software. The simulation
feed temperature increases both the of the importance of gasoline was validated by comparing
cracking rate and the yield of gaso- production and coke formation, a predicted yields with measured
line; as a result, the yields of LCO sensitivity analysis of these varia- data taken from a commercial
and CSO decrease. Since it also bles is shown in Figure 6. This RFCC unit. The effects on the yields
promotes coke formation, which demonstrates that a rate of 3200 of gasoline and LCO, and on coke
accelerates catalyst deactivation, kg/hr of injected steam is the opti- formation, of temperature, inlet
raising the temperature is an impor- mum for production of gasoline steam flow rate to the riser and
tant variable that should be handled with the least amount of coke LCO recycle rate were investigated.
with caution. formation. The results confirmed that
temperature had a positive effect
on gasoline yield, but it had the
reverse effect on LCO production.
  Moreover, the inlet steam flow rate
to the riser had a direct effect on

 gasoline production, but because of
Gasoline  increasing coke formation it must

be introduced at an optimum rate.
'ASOLINEYIELD


Although LCO recycle leads to a
,#/YIELD


 decrease in gasoline production, it
LCO
 has a notable effect on coke

formation.



 Hysys Refinery is a mark of Hyprotech and KBC


Advanced Technologies.
 
      
,#/RECYCLEBBLD References
1 Corma A, Martinez-Trirguero J, The use of
MCM-22 as a cracking zeolitic additive for
Figure 8 Effect of LCO recycling on gasoline and LCO yields FCC, J. Catal, 165, 1997, 102.

44 PTQ Q2 2010 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000477

2 Cho S I, Jung K S, Woo S I, Regeneration of
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LCO
3 O’Connor P, Verlaan J P J, Yanik S J,

Challenges, catalyst technology and catalytic

'ASOLINEYIELD
Gasoline 

#OKEYIELD
solutions in resid FCC, Catal Today, 1998, 43, 
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residue FCC catalysts, Appl Catal A: General, 


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736. ,#/RECYCLEBBLD
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Ottersedt J, Appl. Catal., 2, 1982, 207.
Figure 9 Effect of LCO recycling on gasoline and coke yields
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8 Lappas A A, Nalbandian L, Iatridis D K, Tehran, specialising in modelling and simulation Omid Ghabouli is a Researcher at the Research
Voutetakis S S, Vasalos I A, Effect of metals studies of refinery processes. He has a Institute of Petroleum Industry, National
poisoning on FCC products yields: studies in an bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering Iranian Oil Company, Tehran.
FCC short contact time pilot plant unit, Catal from Iran University of Science and Mehdi Rashidzadeh is Head of the Catalyst
Today, 65, 2001, 233. Technology and a master’s in separation Research Center at the Research Institute of
9 Meyers R A, Handbook of Petroleum Refining technology from the Technology University Petroleum Industry, Tehran, He has a Phd in
Processes, McGraw-Hill, 1997. of Sharif. Email [email protected] chemistry.
10 Hysys Refinery User Guide, KBC Advanced Seyyed Reza Seif Mohaddecy is a Senior
Technologies, KBC Profimatic. Researcher at the Research Institute of
11 Ancheyta J, Rodrigues S, Results of process- Petroleum Industry, Tehran, and a Lecturer in
ing VGO-LCO blends in a FCC commercial unit, Chemical Engineering at Arak Islamic Azad Links
Energy and Fuels, 2002, 16, 718–723. University. He has a bachelor’s degree in
chemical engineering from Tehran University More articles from the following
and a master’s from Sharif University of category:
Sepehr Sadighi is a Project Manager at the
Technology. Email [email protected] Fluid Catalytic Cracking
Research Institute of Petroleum Industry,

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000477 PTQ Q2 2010 45