(129f) Computational Modeling for FCC RTD Design Optimization

Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) is one of the most important conversion processes in the refining industry. The key to achieve a good performance from the FCC unit highly depends on the internal components, such as riser termination device (RTD), spent catalyst distributor, catalyst cooler, stripper internals etc, In the R2R type of Resid FCC unit, a mushroom type distributor is used to distribute air and spent catalyst into the 2^nd regenerator catalyst bed. Uniform distribution is key to achieve a good temperature profile throughout the bed, resulting in better coke burn and improved catalyst activity retention. In PropyleneMax Catalytic Cracking (PMcc) process, a mushroom distributor is used as a riser termination device “RTD”. The distributor partially separates the gas and catalyst and distributes the gas into the reactor catalyst bed. Proper distribution of the hydrocarbon vapor into the reactor bed is key to provide proper contact for the vapor to further crack to valuable products. The paper discusses recent developments of Technip Energies mushroom distributor used as a riser termination device in the PMcc reactor and in the RFCC 2^nd stage regenerator. The use of CFD modeling to optimize the design will be presented and discussed.