HYDROCRACKING

Interest in the use of hydro-cracking has been

caused by several factors, including

(1) the demand for petroleum products has shifted to high ratios
of gasoline and jet fuel compared with the usages of diesel
fuel and home heating oils,
(2) by-product hydrogen at low cost and in large amounts has
become available from catalytic reforming operations, and
(3) Environmental concerns limiting sulphur and aromatic
compound concentrations in motor fuels have increased.
 The hydrocracking process was commercially developed by
I.G. Farben Industries in 1927 for converting lignite into
gasoline

 brought to USA by Esso Research and Engineering Company in

the early 1930s for use in upgrading petroleum feedstocks
and products

 the first modern distillate hydrocracker was put into

commercial operation by Chevron in 1958
 Advantages of Hydrocracking are

1. Better balance of gasoline and distillate production

2. Greater gasoline yield

3. Improved gasoline pool octane quality and sensitivity

4. Production of relatively high amounts of isobutane in the

butane fraction

5. Supplementing of fluid catalytic cracking to upgrade heavy

cracking stocks, aromatics, cycle oils, and coker oils to
gasoline, jet fuels, and light fuel oils
• In a modern refinery catalytic cracking and hydrocracking
work as a team.
• The catalytic cracker takes the more easily cracked paraffinic
atmospheric and vacuum gas oils as charge stocks, while the
hydrocracker uses more aromatic cycle oils and coker
distillates as feed
 HYDROCRACKING REACTIONS
• the mechanism of hydrocracking is that of catalytic cracking
with hydrogenation superimposed .
• Catalytic cracking is the scission of a carbon–carbon single
bond, and hydrogenation is the addition of hydrogen to a
carbon–carbon double bond
• This shows that cracking and hydrogenation are
complementary, for cracking provides olefins for
hydrogenation, while hydrogenation in turn provides heat for
cracking.
• The cracking reaction is endothermic and the hydrogenation
reaction is exothermic.
• The overall reaction provides an excess of heat because the
amount of heat released by the exothermic hydrogenation
reactions is much greater than the amount of heat consumed
by the endothermic cracking reactions.
• This surplus of heat causes the reactor temperature to
increase and accelerate the reaction rate.
• This is controlled by injecting cold hydrogen as quench into
the reactors to absorb the excess heat of reaction.
• Hydrocracking reactions are normally carried out at average
catalyst temperatures between 550 and 750°F (290 to 400°C)
and at reactor pressures between 1200 and 2000 psig (8275
and 13,800 kPa).
• The circulation of large quantities of hydrogen with the
feedstock prevents excessive catalyst fouling and permits long
runs without catalyst regeneration.
• The feedstock is hydrotreated to saturate the olefins and
remove sulphur, nitrogen, and oxygen compounds.
• On the average, the hydrogen treating process requires
approximately 150 to 300 cu. ft of hydrogen per barrel of feed
(27 to 54 m3 hydrogen per cu. m feed).
 HYDROCRACKING CATALYST
• Most of the hydrocracking catalysts consist of a crystalline
mixture of silica-alumina with a small uniformly distributed
amount of rare earths contained within the crystalline lattice.
• The silica-alumina portion of the catalyst provides cracking
activity while the rare-earth metals promote hydrogenation.
• silica-alumina as the cracking base - the rare-earth metals vary
(platinum, palladium, tungsten, and nickel)
• Catalyst activity decreases with use, and reactor temperatures
are raised during a run to increase reaction rate and maintain
conversion.
• Regeneration is accomplished by burning off the catalyst
deposits.
 HYDROCRACKING PROCESS

• The hydrocracking process may require either one or two

stages, depending upon the process and the stocks used.
• The process flows of most of the fixed-bed processes are
similar and the GO-Fining process will be described as a
typical fixed-bed hydrocracking process feed