YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
How can we raise butanes production from our FCC unit?
A Mark Pilling, Head Refinery System Business Group,
Sulzer, mark.pilling@sulzer.com and Celso Pajaro, Head
Refinery System Business AME, Sulzer, celso.pujaro@
sulzer.com
Net butanes production in an FCC unit is a func-
tion of the reactor and the gas plant recovery sec-
tion. Reactor conditions enable higher butanes
production while the gas plant enables recovery
of the butanes produced in the reactor.
• Some reactor adjustment/changes that
increase butanes production are:
■ Increasing conversion increases C4
production
■ Changing catalyst formulation targeting
higher C3/C4 production
■ Adding ZSM-5 increases C /C
3 4
■ Modifying the reactor by adding state of the
art feed injection nozzles and riser termination
devices. This reduces coke and dry gas, allow-
ing the use of higher activity catalyst and cat/oil
ratio, improving the unit conversion.
• Gas plant adjustments
■ There are several improvements that can
increase butanes recovery in the gas plant; some
involve small equipment changes (like replacing
trays in the absorbers with a fourth generation
random packing like NeXRing). Another option
is to improve the process configuration (like add-
ing a saturator drum downstream of the primary
absorber). The following is a list of potential
changes per column:
■ Primary absorber
◆ Lowering the temperature of the naphtha
absorbent increases recovery
◆ Adding an intercooler reduces the absor-
bent temperature and improves C4s recovery
◆ Increasing the amount of debutanised
naphtha to the top of the absorber
◆ Increasing the operating pressure of the
absorber
■ Sponge absorber
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◆ Increasing absorbent rate
◆ Increasing operating pressure
■ Debutaniser
◆ Adjust debutaniser conditions to produce
lower RVP FCC naphtha
A Tom Ventham, Sales & Technical Europe and
Africa, Unicat, tom.ventham@unicatcatalyst.com, CJ
Farley, Senior Technical Services Engineer, G. W. Aru,
LLC, cj.farley@gwaru.com, Natalie Herring, Director
of Technology and Business Development, G. W. Aru,
LLC, natalie.herring@gwaru.com, Kate Hovey, Senior
Technical Services Engineer, G. W. Aru, LLC, kate.
hovey@gwaru.com
Normal butane is generally the lowest value FCC
LPG component, along with propane. Propane
and normal butane are sold as liquefied petroleum
gas to be used as portable fuel for domestic
heating and cooking or for light industrial use.
C4s can be blended into gasoline up to a vapour
pressure limit, used as a refinery fuel gas, or as
incremental fuel in a refinery hydrogen plant or
steam cracker. This balance shifts, sometimes
seasonally, depending upon local economics and
final product specification.
Iso-butane on the other hand is of high value
due to its use in the alkylation process. Most
refineries that operate an alkylation unit typically
enjoy an excess of butylene produced by the FCC
and are required to import incremental iso-bu-
tane to achieve the required stoichiometric bal-
ance. The Butamer process isomerises low value
normal butane into iso-butane, making it a highly
valued unit.
Options to increase iso-butane (iC4) production
from the FCC will involve the use of an effective
ZSM-5-based additive and balancing the main
FCC catalyst rare earth content and other cat-
alytic properties. Selective FCC cracking reac-
tions, whether taking place on the main catalyst
or ZSM-5, produce olefins via β-scission mech-
PTQ Q1 2021 1
 anisms. Butane can be directly pro-
duced from unselective thermal
cracking reactions, or will result
from secondary reactions whereby
an olefin is saturated to a paraffin
via hydrogen transfer. The degree to
which hydrogen transfer reactions occur
depends on many variables, with FCC cat-
alyst unit cell size (UCS) being a key factor.
Production of LPG olefins, including iso-butene
and normal-butene, can be performed using a
ZSM-5-type additive. For this purpose, special-
ity C4 selective additives, such as Ultra C4Booster
from G. W. Aru and Unicat, may be selected to
2 PTQ Q1 2021
give particular focus on the production
of C4 species. Iso-butylene is the most
readily saturated olefin in the LPG
range via hydrogen transfer, hence a
balancing approach needs to be taken to
account for the relative values of all iso-
mers of both butane and butylene.
LINKS
More articles from: Sulzer Limited
More articles from the following categories:
Catalysts and Additives
Fluid Catalytic Cracking
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