Development of a bench-scale fluid catalytic cracking microriser

Catalyst performance testing procedures for fluid cracking catalysts have been evaluated. A benchscale microriser is described and results are compared with those of a so-called microsimulation test. The two tests result in significant differences in light cycle oil, gasoline and LPG yield. The microriser experiments yielded a higher LPG olefinicity. This is explained by the dilution of the feed with the nitrogen carrier gas, which decreases the amount of bi-molecular hydrogen transfer reactions. Experiments at a very short contact time of 0.7 seconds were carried out. It is striking that the coke yield does not differ significantly from that in experiments performed at a much greater contact time of 5 seconds. This indicates that the majority all the coke formed during reaction is already deposited in the first few tenths of a second.