Heat Coupling of Gasoline Upgrading and Fluid Catalytic Cracking Processes

Heat supplement is necessary for FCC gasoline upgrading processes to keep the heat balance of reaction-regeneration system, while excess heat would be removed in FCC process due to the processing of heavy feedstock. Combining gasoline upgrading processes with FCC process can realize the heat coupling so as to achieve the maximum energy utilization. In this paper, the heat balance calculations of a commercial FCC unit and a FCC gasoline aromatization process were carried out, and the feasibility as well as the way to accomplish the heat coupling for the two processes was investigated. The results showed that the coked aromatization catalysts could be heated to the desired temperature by the direct contact with the hot regenerated FCC catalysts. The pilot experiment and CFD simulation was carried out to investigate the flow behavior and heat transfer of the direct coupling system of FCC process and FCC gasoline aromatization process. The results indicated that the well-mixing and efficient heat transfer between FCC catalysts and aromatization catalysts, as well as the sufficient regeneration of aromatization catalysts, could be achieved at appropriate operating conditions.