Flow Diagram and Process Description
The modern FCC units are all continuous processes which operate 24 hours a day for as long as 2 to 3 years between scheduled shutdowns for routine maintenance.
There are several different proprietary designs that have been developed for modern FCC units. Each design is available under a license that must be purchased from the design developer by any petroleum refining company desiring to construct and operate an FCC of a given design.
There are two different configurations for an FCC unit: the "stacked" type where the reactor and the catalyst regenerator are contained in a single vessel with the reactor above the catalyst regenerator and the "side-by-side" type where the reactor and catalyst regenerator are in two separate vessels. These are the major FCC designers and licensors:
Side-by-side configuration:
- CB&I
- ExxonMobil Research and Engineering (EMRE)
- Shell Global Solutions International
- Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation (The Shaw Group) / Institut Francais Petrole (IFP)
- Universal Oil Products (UOP) — currently fully owned subsidiary of Honeywell
Stacked configuration:
- Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR)
Each of the proprietary design licensors claims to have unique features and advantages. A complete discussion of the relative advantages of each of the processes is beyond the scope of this article. Suffice it to say that all of the licensors have designed and constructed FCC units that have operated quite satisfactorily.
Read more about this topic: Fluid Catalytic Cracking
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