Discrepancies in FCC Catalyst Evaluation of Atmospheric Residues

Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2007

Processing of atmospheric residues in fluid catalytic crackers (FCC) is a field of considerable interest today. When this application was new, around 1984, Statoil initiated a test program related to fluid catalytic cracking of North Sea atmospheric residues. Within this program catalysts and feeds are tested in a Micro Activity Test (MAT) reactor at Statoil and in a circulating Arco Pilot Unit at Chalmers. The catalysts are tested with the same atmospheric residue feed that is used in the commercial FCC unit at the Statoil Mongstad refinery in Norway. This is essential because erroneous ranking of the catalysts might otherwise occur. The equilibrium catalyst in a commercial residue FCC unit has normally high metals content. This is simulated by testing the catalysts impregnated by nickel and vanadium and deactivated by the cyclic propene steaming (CPS) method. New catalysts are tested together with a reference catalyst in both the MAT and Pilot Unit reactors. Usually the catalysts show the same ranking in both the MAT and Pilot Unit reactors but there are exceptions. If the matrix properties for two catalysts are different, the ranking of the two catalysts might be different in the MAT and PIlot Unit reactors.