Napthta Cracking to Produce Light Olefins

Abstract

Light naphtha produced from the fractionation of crude oil is usually cracked to produce light olefins (Ethene, propene, Butene etc.). The demand for olefins particularly propylene is increasing day by day. This report involves the details for the production of olefins and it also deals with the problems of secondary cracking and coking. Coking is hazardous for the furnace as well as the proceeding equipment. Prior art techniques use steam cracking for this purpose. The steam cracking requires a high temperature of 850ºC.This report focuses on the use of novel catalytic cracking of naphtha which requires a lower temperature of 650ºC and also deals with the coking problem in a very efficient way by deriving energy from the combustion of the produced coke in a simultaneous regeneration system of Fluid Catalytic Cracker. The front end de-propanizer scheme used for the recovery of fractions lowers the requirement of pressure by inducing three instead of four compressors. The Propylene to Ethylene ratios of the catalytic cracking technique is higher than that obtained from steam cracking, which is boon for the economics of the project, as Propylene has comparatively greater demand and a more stable market than ethylene.