Special Focus Plant Design, Engineering and Construction

P. WEI and L. YANSHENG, State Key Laboratory of Heavy

Oil Processing China University of Petroleum, Beijing, China;
and Q. HONGWEI, PetroChina Karamay Petrochemical Co.,
Xinjiang, Karamay, China

Increase FCCU processing capacity

with debottlenecking revamp
Fluid catalytic cracking units (FCCUs) are still the main units possibility exists for the oil-gas to enter the regenerator. The
for modern refineries to obtain high-efficiency profits thanks to standpipe’s unstable operation also caused large fluctuations in
their low construction investment and ability to convert heavy the reactor temperature, which consistently maintained a ± 3°C
oil into clean transportation fuels and high-grade petrochemical fluctuation. Due to a high recycle ratio of slurry and a low reac-
feedstocks.1,2 Recently, maximizing the production of gasoline tor temperature, the conversion ratio was low and the gasoline
products with low olefin content and liquefied petroleum gas yield was only 42%, which failed to meet the company’s gaso-
(LPG) with high propylene content3 has become the main pur- line blending requirements.
pose for FCCUs. For many old units, technical modifications or To produce clean gasoline that meets the China 6 gasoline
new process packages are often adopted to overcome produc- standard and reduces the diesel-to-gasoline ratio, a series of
tion bottlenecks to achieve the goal of changing production. advanced technologies were adopted to revamp the unit in Au-
The FCCU at CNPC’s Karamay Petrochemical Co. refin- gust 2018. The main objective was to increase the unit’s pro-
ery in China was built in 1994 with a processing capacity of 0.5 cessing capacity to 1 MMtpy, eliminate existing bottlenecks,
MMtpy; a recent revamp in 2001 increased its capacity to 0.8 and achieve better product yields and higher profitability. The
MMtpy. The reactor and regenerator scheme is shown in FIG. 1. revamped unit has been restarted and operated continuously
In recent years, with the change of feedstock properties, higher and smoothly for nearly 2 yr. The objective of this article is to
processing capacity and different product yields favoring a lower describe the changes in the FCCU after the revamp.
diesel-to-gasoline ratio, this unit has been overloaded and op-
erations have been unstable. For example, the particle separation REVAMP FACETS
efficiency of the riser termination separator was reduced due to This revamp was only in the reactor-regenerator system of
serious wear at its inlet cylinder. the FCCU. To minimize cost, the Karamay Petrochemical Co.
In April 2015, an unplanned unit shutdown was triggered wanted the licensor to retain major existing hardware, including
due to serious catalyst loss. The standpipe to convey the regen- the riser, vortex separation system (VSS), cyclones and main
erated catalyst to the riser had operated abnormally for some air blower, and to replace some other components. Detailed re-
time, as the differential pressure across the slide valve was only vamp contents are listed in TABLE 1.
5 kPa–10 kPa. This indicates a potential safety hazard, as a high
Adjustment of pressure distribution. The pressure dis-
TABLE 1. Detailed revamp contents tribution of the reaction-regeneration system was adjusted to
Reactor part Regenerator part ensure sufficient solids separation efficiencies by the cyclones,
Pressure adjustment Pressure adjustment
although the processing capacity was increased by 25%. The
comparison of the pressure distributions before and after the
Adding vortex breakers in Replacing with a new main
the VSS outlet tube air distributor
revamp can be seen in FIG. 1. Note: The pressure values in the
squares and circles represent the pressure parameters at each
Replacing previous disc-donut Adding a ring-pipe distributor
stripping baffles with the in the second-stage regenerator
point before revamp and after revamp, respectively, and the
new AF packings units of all the circled pressure values are denoted in kPa. The
Adding two-layer grating and Redesigning the regenerated
main change in pressure distributions lie in the reactor part,
downcomer grid above the catalyst standpipe and replacing with a nearly 40-kPa increase.
stripping packings with a new slide valve
Adding an steam distributor Redesigning the recirculation Solution to fluidization problem. The operation of the in-
in the lower section of the catalyst standpipe and replacing clined pipe conveying catalyst is a dense phase conveying pro-
stripper with a new slide valve cess. A stratified flow between gas and solids is easily formed
Using a new Wye section Replacing with a new spent in the inclined pipe. Most bubbles flow along the upper part
for the riser catalyst slide valve of the pipe, and not all gas fluidized solids produce static pres-
26DECEMBER 2020 | HydrocarbonProcessing.com
 Plant Design, Engineering and Construction

sure head, while the solids flow in the lower part of the pipeline. stripping efficiency and reduce oil-gas entrainment into the
So, the pressure head established by the inclined pipe is much regenerator, baffles were replaced by AF stripper packing, as
smaller than the vertical standpipe. The regenerated standpipe shown in FIG. 4B. The AF packing is structured packing used in
faced consistent problems of poor fluidization quality and fluc- fluidized beds, as shown in FIG. 4C. It was installed in the strip-
tuating solids transportation, indicated by a low differential per section to replace previous disc-donut baffles, as shown in
pressure across its slide valve. The layout of the regenerated cat- FIG. 4D. In this revamp, 13 layers of AF packing were placed in
alyst standpipe was modified to improve the fluidization quality the stripper section, and support beams were mounted on the
and increase its pressure drop. FIG. 2 shows a comparison of its stripper metal wall. Two ring-pipe stripping steam distributors
geometry and the layouts of aeration taps (C1–C11) before and were set below the packing section. Two layers of guide grating
after revamp. Before the revamp, the standpipe had two turning were also set above the packing section. Compared to the pre-
points and the catalyst was easy to bridge, which is not condu- vious disc-donut baffles, the AF packing has smaller gas-solids
cive to fluidization. The aeration gas was under a steam pres- contacting units and a high ratio of effective (filling) volume.
sure of 0.6 MPa and a temperature of 260°C. The total flowrate The design of AF packing is to enhance bubble breaking and
was about 400 Nm3/hr. After revamp, the standpipe became a improve steam-catalyst contacting. The AF packing can also
long, straight pipe. The aeration gas was changed into nitrogen reduce solids back-mixing and improve solids residence time
under a pressure of 1.4 MPa and a temperature of 30°C. Its to- distribution. These two aspects are both beneficial to higher
tal flowrate was increased to 650 Nm3/hr, which is beneficial to stripping efficiency.
improve the fluidization effect of catalyst.
Results and evaluation. After revamp, the processing ca-
Vortex breaker. The reactor cyclones have been in use for pacity of the FCCU increased to 120 tph, corresponding to
17 yr. In 2015, it was determined that some cyclones’ inlet cyl- 1 MMtpy. The main operating parameters are compared in
inders were worn through, which was attributed to a strong gas TABLE 2. In addition to increased processing capacity, several
vortex region cause by the upstream VSS.4 The high-speed ro- big changes occurred after revamp. The reaction temperature
tating catalyst particles in the VSS outlet tube and the cyclone increased from 500°C to 525°C and temperatures in the two-
inlet were the cause of wear. A vortex breaker was installed on stage regenerators both decreased by 15°C–20°C, which was
the inner wall of the VSS outlet tube, as shown in FIG. 3A. Some the main contributor to raising the catalyst-to-oil ratio from 6
plates are parallel to the gas flow direction, as shown in FIG. 3B. to 8 and one of the main methods for the significant increase
The aim is to weaken the swirling flow strength in the VSS out- in gasoline yield and conversion ratio. The increase in strip-
let tube and, therefore, reduce the solids speeds into the down-
stream cyclones and the wear on the cyclone inlet walls. Standpipe Riser Standpipe Riser
C1
AF stripper packing. Before the revamp, there were disc-do- C2
C1
nut baffles (FIG. 4A) in the spent catalyst stripper. To enhance C3
C2 C4
Regenerator Reactor
130 170 C5
C3
C1–C11: aeration taps C6
160 165 C7
C4
C8
C9
C5
C6
135 175 C10
C7 C11
Stripper
Dense phase bed Before revamp After revamp
Pi
185 183 210 243 FIG. 2. Comparison of the standpipe geometry before and after revamp.

Oil nozzle
256 260
180 250
Combustion Ps
175 210
200 225 Po

Air Steam

FIG. 1. Pressure distribution of the reactor-regenerator system. FIG. 3. Vortex breakers installed on the inner wall of the VSS outlet tube.

Hydrocarbon Processing | DECEMBER 202027

 Plant Design, Engineering and Construction

TABLE 2. Comparison of main operating parameters

Before After
Item revamp revamp
Reaction pressure, kPa 130 170
Reaction temperature, °C 500 525
Top pressure in second regenerator, kPa 160 165
Temperature in second regenerator, °C 700 685
Fresh feedstock, tph 100 120
Preheat temperature of fresh feed, °C 270 250
Atomizing steam flowrate, tph 2.2 2.5
Main air flowrate, Nm3/hr 80,000 80,000
Stripping density, kg/m3 690 780
Stripping steam flowrate, tph 1.5 1.5
Stripping temperature, °C 490 515
First-stage regenerator temperature, °C 705 685
Density in the first-stage regenerator, kg/m3 150 220
Catalyst-to-oil ratio (based on fresh feed) 6 8
Recycle oil, tph 45 9
Slurry oil, tph 30 5
Solid content in slurry oil, g/l 0.7 1
FIG. 4. Structure and installation of the AF packing.

TABLE 3. Comparison of product yields

respectively, which correspond to a 3.64% and 7.64% net in-
Product Before revamp After revamp Change crease for LPG and gasoline, respectively. LCO yields reduced
Net gas, m% 1.16 1.36 0.2 to 29.06%, a 10.08% decrease from that before revamp. Total
LPG, m% 9.55 13.19 3.64 liquid yields and conversion increased to 92.64% and 69.66%,
Gasoline, m% 42.75 50.39 7.64 respectively. The net increases for both are 1.2% and 11.61%,
respectively. Although the reaction temperature increased
Diesel, m% 39.14 29.06 –10.08
25°C after revamp, dry gas yield was still low, with only a
Coke, m% 4.59 4.72 0.13 0.2% increase. The hydrogen content in the coke of the spent
Slurry, m% 2.56 1.04 –1.52 catalyst was reduced from 7.4% before revamp to 6.3% after
Loss, m% 0.25 0.24 –0.01 revamp (TABLE 4), which indicates an increase of stripping ef-
Conversion ratio, % 58.05 69.66 11.61 ficiency due to the installation of AF packing. The improved
performance of stripper packing is also responsible for the de-
Light distillate yield, m% 81.89 79.45 –2.44
creased regenerator temperatures and the increased catalyst-oil
Total liquid yield, m% 91.44 92.64 1.2 ratio. The carbon content in the spent catalyst increased from
0.98% to 1.09% due to higher reaction temperature and con-
TABLE 4. Comparison of catalyst properties before and version. However, the carbon content in the regenerated cata-
after revamp lyst increased only slightly, which indicates the improvement
Item Before revamp After revamp of regenerator performance due to the new air distributor, suc-
Carbon content in the 0.98 1.09 cessfully offsetting the increased coke burning capacity.
spent catalyst, m% TABLE 5 compares the properties of gasoline and diesel
Hydrogen content of the 7.4 6.3 before and after revamp. It can be seen that the final distilla-
spent catalyst, m% tion point of gasoline increased from 179°C to 191°C with an
Carbon content in the 0.08 0.1 increase in the top temperature of the main fractionating col-
regenerated catalyst, m% umn. Although the olefin content was reduced by 12.3% due to
Equilibrium catalyst activity, % 67 66 the increase in heavy gasoline components, the octane number
of gasoline still increased by 0.7% with the increased aromatic
per density from 690 kg/m3 to 780 kg/m3 and the increase in content. The diesel fraction range did not change much, but
combustion density from 150 kg/m3 to 220 kg/m3 provided the diesel density increased to 918 kg/m3 due to the addition
much more residence time for stripping and combustion. The of the aromatics content, which reduced the cetane number of
significantly decreased flowrates of the recycled oil and slurry diesel by approximately 7%.
indicate a higher one-way conversion rate. The composition of LPG is presented in TABLE 6, where it
The product yields are compared in TABLE 3. It can be seen can be seen that the propylene content in LPG was increased by
that LPG and gasoline yields increased to 13.19% and 50.36%, approximately 17% (by volume), which resulted mainly from
28DECEMBER 2020 | HydrocarbonProcessing.com
 Plant Design, Engineering and Construction

28
TABLE 5. Properties of gasoline and diesel products
pi Before revamp
Gasoline Diesel
24 After revamp
Before After Before After
Item revamp revamp revamp revamp
20
Distillation, °C
Elevation/m

IBP 33.5 31 179 187.5

16
10% 52.5 49 204.5 207.5
50% 95.5 93.5 273 260.5
12
90% 168.5 165.5 353.5 354.5
ps
FBP 179 191.5 370 372.5
8
po Density, kg/m3 719.5 722.5 881.7 918

4 Saturates content, % 30.5 40.1

160 170 180 190 200 210 220 230 240 250 260 Aromatic content, % 11.5 16.6
p/kPa
Olefin content, % 55.6 43.3
FIG. 5. Pressure profiles of the regenerated standpipe.
RON 91.8 92.5
CN 36.3 29.2
the high reaction temperature and the increased catalyst-to-oil
ratio. The increased propylene yield can provide more feed-
stock for the downstream propylene polymerization unit. TABLE 6. Composition of LPG properties
Composition Before revamp After revamp
Operation stability of the revamped FCCU. After revamp, Propane,% 12.58 9.97
the VSS and cyclone separators still maintained higher separa-
Propylene,% 30.57 47.02
tion efficiencies at a higher processing capacity. This is indicated
by the low solids content in slurry of 1 g/l, slightly higher than n-Butane,% 8.42 4.06
before revamp. The particulate concentrations in the inlets of Iso-butane,% 24.09 21.02
the third-stage cyclone and the flue gas turbine could meet the n-butene,% 3.76 2.79
requirements for long-cycle operation. The increased system Iso-butene,% 10.84 7.49
pressure reduced the steam consumption by the steam turbine
Trans-butene ,% 4.79 3.45
and the power consumption for the main air blower.
The fluidization performance of the revamped FCCU was Cis-butene,% 4.84 3.51
improved with the redesigned regeneration standpipe. After re- Iso-pentane,% 0.11 0.1
vamp with the new operation condition, the reaction tempera-
ture fluctuation dropped from ±0.5°C to ±1°C, which was the LITERATURE CITED
best level of operating stability in the operating history of the Complete Literature Cited available online at www.HydrocarbonProcessing.com.
unit. FIG. 5 compares the pressure distributions in the regener-
ated catalyst standpipe before and after revamp. Note that pi is PENG WEI is a Process Engineer for the catalytic cracking unit
the inlet pressure of the regenerated catalyst standpipe, pS is the of the petrochemical branch of Petrochina. He has worked on
the FCCU for 11 yr and is committed to plant production,
pressure before the slide valve and po is the pressure after the management and technical revamp. Dr. Wei earned his PhD
slide valve. After revamp, the apparent density in the standpipe in chemical engineering from the China University of Petroleum,
was approximately 410 kg/m3. The measured axial pressure dis- where his research included oil and gas processing and
fluidization technology, among other areas.
tribution was consistent with the designed values. The pressure
before the slide valve increased significantly, from 175 kPa to LIU YANSHENG is a Professor of chemical engineering
250 kPa, as shown in FIG. 5. The pressure drop across the slide at China University (Beijing) and is the Principal of chemical
industry, where he is mainly engaged in distillation processes,
valve increased to 42 kPa, seven times that of the previous value. equipment development and application of basic research.
The FCCU ran smoothly after revamp. The whole auto- His research interests include transmission and separation
mation level of this unit was also improved considerably after processes, distillation processes, equipment development
revamp, which significantly improved the unit’s safe operation and fault diagnosis. He has worked in the chemical engineering
field for more than 30 yr and has been responsible for the technical revamp
performance. Due to the combination of new technologies used of several FCC devices, with extensive experience in device debottlenecking
in this revamp, the revamped FCCU has achieved high gasoline in the process industries.
yield and high conversion. As the main air blower and gas com-
QI HONQWEI is a Senior Engineer and the Director of the
pressor were not changed, the investment cost was significantly science and technology department in the petrochemical
reduced and a shortened construction period was realized. branch of Petrochina. With more than 30 yr of experience,
he is mainly responsible for the fuel oil system technology
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS management ofthe company. He has been responsible for the
The authors would like to express their gratitude to the Research Foundation of technical revamp of many units, such as the catalytic cracking
Karamy campus of China University of Petroleum (Beijing) for their support (Grant unit, delayed coking unit and distillation units. He has
no. RCYJ2016B-02-001). extensive experience in best management practices in the process industries.

Hydrocarbon Processing | DECEMBER 202029