FCC is fluid catalytic cracking  and Fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) receives residues from different parts of a refinery (atmospheric and vacuum distillation units) the purpose of a FCCU is the cracking of heavy molecules of the residues. This is an endothermic process and takes place in a vertical tube reactor with ascending flow (riser). The feedstock charge gets in contact with a catalyst at a high temperature (500 to 700) and it is cracked in dearer products, such as gasoline and LPG. After that, the products are separated from the catalyst to stop the cracking and to avoid loss in the performance of the process. The reactions also produce, light gas oil, fuel gas and coke that is deposited on the surface of the catalyst. The coke deposition reduces the available area for the reactants and the catalyst is deactivated. In order to recover its activity, the catalyst is sent to a regenerator. Air is injected in the regenerator and forms a non-homogeneous fluidized bed with the catalyst. The coke on the catalyst surface is thus burnt in this bed.
The burring of the coke has two essential functions; - the regeneration of the catalyst restoring its catalytic activity and the increase of the catalyst temperature providing energy for the cracking while returning to the risen.

RFCC (Residue Fluidized Catalytic Cracking) Process Description.

Residue fluidized catalytic cracking (RFCC) is essentially an evolution of the well-known FCC process. To accommodate residue while maintaining acceptable yields, licensors and catalyst suppliers have modified the traditional FCC technology in such key areas as:

- Catalyst design

- Feed injection

- Riser design

- Catalyst oil product separation and

- Overall reactor / regenerator design

These developments have enabled FCC operators to greatly increase residue processing so that today worldwide approximately 75 percent of units process a portion of residue in their feedstock.

Modern catalysts substantially reduce riser residence time providing greater selectivity and control over the required distillate product. Licensors are now looking forward to shorten the residence time or remove the riser altogether.

With these modern very active catalysts, separating out hydrocarbon products from the catalyst efficiently and rapidly becomes essential. Other wise cracking fractions will continue leading to unwanted gas and
coke production.

FCC process  in refinery

Product Distribution in FCC Process:
 

The Aim of FCC Process Plan in RIPI:

Ø Conceptual Design of FCC and RFCC Pilot plan with the use of Groznii FCC
technology (TCI company) from Russia

Ø Basic & Detail Engineering of pilot plants

Ø Installation and construction of FCC Pilot plant

Ø The capacity of FCC pilot plant is 10kg/hr

Ø The capacity of FCC super pilot plant is 100kg/hr

Ø Atomization nozzle Design and Fabrication

Ø Atomization nozzle optimization

Ø CFD (computational fluid dynamic) Modeling of the Atomizer

Ø CFD Modeling of Riser & Regenerator 

Ø Modeling and simulation of FCC process .

Ø Biological treatment of RFCC feed for nitrogen, Nickel and Vanadium removing 

Ø Catalyst synthesis and characterization of FCC process

Basic & Detail Engineering of Pilot Plants

FCC Feed Atomization

FCC Feed atomization has main effect on FCC product yield and Distribution.

Design and construction of a new two-phase atomizer of Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) process has been studied for atomizing the heavy oil feed by steam in low pressure. This atomizer has been tested quantitatively in air-water cold system using particle dynamic analyzer (PDA). The Taguchi Method of Experimental Design has been used to optimize the two-phase atomizer’s design parameters based on the proper average droplet size and distribution. The effects of spray flow pattern (upward  and downward sprays) and different distances from feed injection on droplet size and velocity distribution
have been studied for optimized atomizer.

FCC ATOMIZATION NOZZELE (RIPI)

The two-phases atomizer is designed as three following sections:

-Primary Atomization

-Hard Mixing

-Final Atomization

ATOMIZATION NOZZELE DESIGN BY RIPI

FCC COLD ATOMIZATION INVISTIGATION SYSTEM

 FCC HOT ATOMIZATION INVESTIGATION SYSTEM(RIPI)




 

COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMIC (CFD)

One of the latest RIPIs research in FCC plan is computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling. The research is focused on modeling FCC Nozzle in order to find the optimum configuration for the nozzle.

 
Biological Upgrading of Crude Oil

§  Screening to selective optimum bacteria

 §  Selective Denitrogenation of crude oil by microorganisms to feed FCC unit

 §   Selective removal of heavy oil fractions metals (Ni ,V) using microorganisms under mild reaction condition.