Impact of feed properties on gasoline olefin content in the fluid catalytic cracking

ABSTRACT

Eight vacuum gas oils (VGOs) having different hydrocarbon composition and different distillation characteristics were cracked in a laboratory fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) advanced cracking equipment (ACE) unit. The experimental results showed that FCC VGO feedstock reactivity correlates with the content of saturates plus light aromatics, and with the content of nitrogen. The FCC gasoline olefin content was found to depend on T_50% and saturate content of the FCC VGO feedstock. The results from a commercial FCC unit that processes a hydrotreated straight-run VGO and a VGO from ebullated bed residue H-Oil hydrocracker confirmed the results from the laboratory FCC ACE unit showing that reducing T_50% and increasing saturate content of the FCC feedstock leads to a reduction of the FCC gasoline content.

KEYWORDS:

• Fluid catalytic cracking
• vacuum gas oil
• ebullated bed residue H-oil hydrocracking
• gasoline olefins
• FCC feedstock reactivity