Quantitative Approaches to Study Elemental Distribution on Fluid Catalytic Cracking Catalyst

Abstract

The Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) unit is one of the main conversion units in a refinery. It processes typically a vacuum gasoil or atmospheric residue hydrocarbon feed. These feeds contain contaminant transition metals that are deposited on the FCC catalyst. With the growth of shale oils usage in FCC units metal contaminants could become more problematic [1,2]. For example, feed iron poses a challenge and manifest itself in different ways. Every transition metal has different mechanisms how it poisons FCC catalyst: dissolving active components (vanadium), adding unwanted reactions (nickel) or forming a dense surface that makes the catalyst inaccessible (iron). Analyzing metal distributions on the catalyst surface plays an important role in understanding the deposition and mobility of the poisoning species.