FLUID CATALYTIC CRACKING UNIT

AND

RECENT ADVANCEMENTS

Submitted by-
ISHPREET KAUR
CM15237
B.E.(CHEMICAL) WITH MBA
4TH YEAR
 Introduction
• Fcc- primary conversion unit
• Function- convert or crack heavy HC’s petroleum
fractions into more usable, lighter fraction.

Such as gasoline, middle distillates, light olefins.

• Deployed for about 60 years in industries.
 Process description
4 parts of the plant-
• Catalyst section
• Fractionation section
• Gas concentration section
• Energy recovery section
 Catalyst section
• Consists of reactor and regenerator.
 Main fractionation column
Vapours coming out of the reactor top at very high
temperature are fractionated into various products
like-
• Off gas
• LPG
• Naphtha
• LCO
• HCO
• Decanted oil
• slurry
 Gas concentration section
• it consists of absorbers and strippers.
 Energy recovery section
COCO2
Also called CO incinerator.
Due to incomplete combustion in regenerator,
CO is formed.
ADVANCEMENTS
 Feed injection system
Aspects of feed injection nozzle design-
1. Feed atomization-the objective is to generate fine
droplets for fast vapourizaton.
a) 1st generation of fcc feed nozzles
b) 2nd generation of fcc feed nozzles
c) Newest generation of fcc feed nozzles
2. Feed distribution-

Also called riser coverage.

o Limited number of nozzles.
o Multiple nozzles with angle

o The newest generation - more uniform feed

distribution as a result of better control of
homogeneity of two phase flow at the nozzle exit.
3. Mixing the catalyst-
Objective- to achieve a uniform radial riser
temperature profile as quickly as possible.

 The newest generation- faster mixing with catalyst

because of sudden expansion of two phase chock
flow at the nozzle exit.
 Riser internals

• Due to progress of cracking reactions, the

molar flow rate, hence the volumetric flow
rate of HC vapour increases as it moves up the
riser.
• In order to keep vapour velocity within
desirable range, riser diameter maybe
increased twice after feed injection.
• An effective solution to improve the riser
hydrodynamics is the use of wall baffles.
• Overall pressure drop is reduced with the wall
baffles, due to reduction of catalyst back mixing.
 Three stage separator
• Continuous regeneration of spent catalyst required.
• Usually 2 stage cyclones.
• For large volume of flue gas, they are relatively large
in diameters and are not very efficient for small
particles.
• Solution - three stage separator(TSS).
• specially designed element -swirl tube(small dia).
• swirl vane at inlet to induce fast rotating motion.
• By using axial flow, a large number of swirl tubes
can be installed in common TSS vessel to handle
large volume of gas.

TSS
 References
• Ya-Mon Chen— recent advancements in FCC
technology. Shell Global Solutions (US) Inc.,
United States.
• Yang Maying ; Rong Gang ; Wang Shuqing ;
(1) (2) (3)

Kang Biao ; lang Hongsen ; Chen Qinghai .

(3) (3) (3)
(1)- institution of information technology, Zhejiang university of technology.
(2)- institute forindustrialprocess , Zhejiang university
(3)- Fujian refinery, Huian
THANK YOU