Refining Industry Fluidized-Bed Catalytic Cracking Unit - Application Note

Fluidized-Bed Catalytic Cracking (FCC) is the most important and widely used refinery process for converting low value, heavy oils into more valuable gasoline and lighter products. The typical FCC process will convert 75% or more of the heavy oils into gasoline and lighter products. Originally, chemical cracking was accomplished by thermally heating the oil to extremely high temperatures, but the catalytic process has almost completely replaced thermal cracking. The catalytic process produces more gasoline with a higher octane value, and with less unsaturated compounds. The light gases produced by the catalytic process are sent to a Vapor Recovery Unit (VRU), where the olefins are recovered. The olefins will then be used as feed to an alkylation unit for conversion to high octane products.