Creating Opportunities from Challenges: Maximizing Propylene Yields from Your FCC

Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) technology has been the refining industry’s conversion mainstay for gasoline production over the last 70 years. Over the decades, it has proven to be the cheapest form of carbon rejection in the conversion of heavy gasoil feedstocks into lighter, more valuable fuel products. However, emphasis on energy independence and climate change is leading to significant changes in the motor gasoline market as ethanol addition and vehicle efficiency reduce the demand for petroleum-derived blend components, thus creating a challenge for FCC-based refineries. At the same time, petrochemical producers are looking for propylene yields exceeding 20 wt% and BTX yields approaching 10 wt% of gas oil feed. This demand for petrochemicals offers a potential answer to this challenge by re-purposing the FCC unit as a means to increase propylene yields.

This presentation will summarize UOP’s response to customer requirements for a high propylene-yielding FCC process and through case studies. It will also highlight key features of and learnings from the development of UOP’s 2-stage RxPro FCC process.