1.

FLUID CATALYTIC CRAKING UNIT (FCCU)

1.1. INTRODUCTION:

Fluidised catalytic is a process for converting higher molecular weight hydrocarbons into lighter, more valuable products through contact with a powered catalyst at a appropriate process condition. Typically FCC process is used to convert excess refinery gas oils and heavier refinery streams into gasoline, C3 and C4 olefins and light cycle oils and heavier refinery out more in line product in market demand. FCC is often the heart of a modern refinery because of its adaptability to changing feed stocks and product demands and because of the high margins that exist between FCC feed stock and converted FCC products.

1.2.
Design Capacity:

PROCESS DETAILS:
1.0 MMTPA 1.34 MMTPA HVGO (derived from BH, Nigerian and HS Arab mix)

Capacity after Revamp: Designed :

Present Feed: Year of Commissioning:

HVGO derived from Nigerian crude & OHCU bottom 28/01/1983

1.3.

QUALITY POLICY:

To be high level of confidence in our valued customer by rendering effective services supplying of quality product in time according to agreed specifications at a reasonable price with concern for safety and best environmental protection. In this process Heavy Gas Oil cut (Raw Oil) from Vacuum Distillation Section of AVU is catalytically cracked to obtain more valuable light and middle distillates. The present processing capacity of the unit is about 1.48 MMT/Yr. It consists of the following sections:

Catalytic section, Fractionation section and Gas concentration section.

The unit is designed to process two different types of feed i.e. Arab Mix HVGO, Bombay High HVGO.

1.4. CRACKING SECTION

Cracking process uses high temperature to convert heavy hydrocarbons into more valuable lighter products. This can be accomplished either thermally or catalytically. The catalytic process has completely superseded thermal cracking as the catalyst helps the reactions to take place at lower pressures and temperatures. At the same time, the process produces a higher octane gasoline, more stable cracked gas and less of the undesirable heavy residual product. The process is also flexible in that it can be tailored to fuel oil, gas oil operations producing high yields of cycle oils or to LPG operations producing yields of C3-C4 fraction. The fluid Catalytic Cracking process employs a catalyst in the form of minute spherical particles, which behaves like a fluid when aerated with a vapour. This fluidized catalyst is continuously circulated from the reaction zone to the regeneration zone. The catalyst also transfers heat carried

with it from one zone to the other viz. in the vessels reactor and regenerator. The reaction and regeneration zones form the heart of the catalytic cracking unit. Catalyst section consists of the reactor of the reactor and regenerator, which together with the standpipes and riser form the catalyst circulation circuit. The catalyst circulates up the riser to the reactor, down through the stripper to the, regenerator across to the regenerator standpipe and back to the riser. The vertical riser is in fact the reactor in which the entire reaction takes place. The reactor is a container for cyclone separators at the end of vertical riser. Coke is deposited on the catalyst in the reaction zone. The spent catalyst flows downwards into the stripping section of the reactor. After steam stripping to remove oil vapours from it the catalyst flows from the reactor standpipe to the regenerator through a slide valve in the regenerator, the coke is burnt off, oxygen for burning being supplied by an air blower. Air from the blower is uniformly given to the regenerator through a pipe grid at its bottom. The heat of combustion raises the catalyst temperature to more than 600 (C. Most of the heat in the catalyst is given to the feed in the reactor riser to raise it to the reaction temperature and to provide the heat of reaction. The regenerated catalyst from the standpipe flows into the riser through a slide valve to complete the catalyst circulation cycle. Catalyst particles in the flue gas leaving the regenerator are separated at the top of regenerator by three sets of two-stage cyclones. The flue gas contains both CO and CO2 as carbon is burnt off partly to CO and partly to CO2 in the regenerator. The sensible and chemical heat in flue gas is utilized to generate steam in CO Boiler. The flue gas is passed through' the orifice chamber & regenerator. Pressure is controlled by double disc slide valve. Orifice chamber holds backpressure downstream of double-disc slide valve. By reducing the pr. drop across slide valve, operating life of slide valve is greatly extended by avoiding sudden accelerations of catalyst, bearing flue gas stream. The unit is designed for use of high ZEOLITE catalyst (Fresh catalyst), which is microspheriadical in shape.

1.5.

CATALYTIC SECTION

The fluid Catalytic Cracking process employs a catalyst in the form of minute spherical particles, which behaves like a fluid when aerated with a vapor. This fluidized catalyst is continuously circulated from the reaction zone to the regeneration zone. Feed to the FCC Unit is gas oils obtained by vacuum distillation of long residue from the crude distillation unit. In our unit the vacuum cut boiling in the range 380-530C is used as feedstock to the FCC Unit. . Catalyst section consists of the reactor of the reactor and regenerator, which together with the standpipes and riser form the catalyst circulation circuit. The catalyst circulates up the riser to the reactor, down through the stripper to the, regenerator across to the regenerator standpipe and back to the riser. The vertical riser is in fact the reactor in which the entire reaction takes place. The reactor is a container for cyclone separators at the end of vertical riser Fresh feed after heating up to 350 C in a feed pre-heater along with recycle streams enters the base of the riser. In the riser the combined feed is vaporized and raised to the reactor temperature by the hot catalyst flowing upward through the riser. Cracking reactions start immediately as the gas oil comes into contact with the hot catalyst. Entrained catalyst and hydrocarbon vapors, after cracking, flow upwards and pass through two cyclone separators attached to top of the reactor. These cyclones remove most of the entrained catalyst. Oil vapors containing a small quantity of catalyst pass overhead through the vapour line into the fractionator. Coke is deposited on the catalyst in the reaction zone. The spent catalyst flows downwards into the stripping section of the reactor. After steam stripping to remove oil vapours from it the catalyst flows from the reactor standpipe to the regenerator through a slide valve in the regenerator, the coke is burnt off, oxygen for burning being supplied by an air blower. The heat of combustion raises the catalyst temperature to more than 600 C. Most of the heat in the catalyst is given to the feed in the reactor riser to raise it to the reaction temperature and to provide the heat of reaction. The regenerated catalyst from the standpipe flows into the riser through a slide valve to complete the catalyst circulation cycle. Catalyst particles in the flue gas leaving the regenerator are separated at the top of regenerator by three sets of two-stage cyclones.

1.6.

Type of catalyst

The unit requires two types of catalyst, viz. (1) Fresh catalyst (2) Equilibrium catalyst

2.7. FRACTIONATION SECTION

In this section, the vapors coming out of the reactor top at very high temperature are fractionated into wet gas and un-stabilized gasoline overhead products, heavy naphtha, and light cycle oil as side products. Heavy cycle oil drawn from the column is totally recycled along with the feed after providing for the recycle stream to the column. The column bottom slurry containing a small quantity of catalyst is sent to a slurry settler. From the settler bottom, the thickened slurry is recycled back to the riser for recovering catalyst is sent to a settler and from the settler bottom, the thickened slurry is recycled back to the riser for recovering catalyst and further cracking. From the top of slurry settler, clarified oil product is taken out after cooling which goes for blending in Fuel Oil. Heavy naphtha and light cycle oil streams after steam stripping are used as gas oil blending components. The un-stabilized gasoline and wet gas are sent to Gas Concentration Unit for further processing. Both heavy naphtha and light cycle oil being blending components for HSD can be blended in the unit and sent to product blending station, as a single stream. In addition, light cycle oil, if required for blending in FO, fertilizer feed, etc. can be diverted to the extent required for product blending in a separate line.

2.8. GAS CONCENTRATION SECTION

The wet gas from the fractionator overhead receiver is compressed in a two-stage centrifugal compressor and sent to a high-pressure (HP) receiver after cooling. Gas from the HP receiver is sent to the Primary Absorber for recovery of C3's and heavier components by absorption with stabilized gasoline taken from the debutanizer column bottom and un-stabilized gasoline from main column overhead receiver. Rich gasoline from Absorber bottom is recycled back to the HP

receiver. The stripped gasoline is further stabilized in the debutanizer removing C3 and C4 components from it as cracked LPG and bottom product as stabilized FCC gasoline. Both LPG and gasoline are Merox treated before routing to storage.

2.9. CO BOILER
The flue gas leaving the regenerator via orifice chamber contains 8-13% carbon monoxide, the rest being inert like nitrogen, steam, carbon dioxide, etc. In the CO Boiler, flue gas is burnt with air converting, carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide, thus releasing the heat of combustion of CO in the boiler. This heat as well as the sensible heat in flue gas available at a high temperature is utilized for raising medium pressure steam.