Comprehensive sulfur control in the FCCU

PETR 10

Julie Francis, Julie.Francis@albemarle.com, Lin Luo, and Jorge A. Gonzalez, Jorge.Gonzalez@albemarle.com. FCC Research and Development, Albemarle Catalysts LLC, 13000 Bay Park Rd., Pasadena, TX 77507
Recent technological advances in FCC additives provide attractive solutions to reduce sulfur and regenerator emission levels. For example, it has been found that Albemarle's Resolve FCC additive technology can reduce sulfur in gasoline and cycle oils up to 50% without undercutting while also reducing SOx emissions as much as 99%. For this reason, a study was undertaken to better understand the mechanisms these additives can utilize to lower the sulfur content of FCC gasoline and cycle oils. The focus of this work is to show how Resolve materials work primarily by selectively adsorbing aromatic sulfur compounds present in the gasoline and LCO range. These compounds, which end up as coke after the cracking process, do not result in an increase in the overall coke yield but rather in an increase in the sulfur content of the coke.