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When processing highly aromatic (>650 deg F material) bitumen derived feedstocks through a refinery, they become saturated to various extents due to the primary upgrading and secondary hydrotreating of these heavy aromatics. Therefore, the refinery's FCCU will need to crack a significant amount of naphtheno aromatic ring structures. In order to crack these ring structures to gasoline and distillate, what catalyst functionalities are required to perform these ring-opening reactions? How do these catalyst functionalities differ from those used in processing more conventional VGO feeds, which involve more paraffinic chain (rather than ring) cracking?
 
Answers
11/08/2008 A: Vikas Badhan, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, vikasbadhan01@gmail.com
Probably the question refers to hydrotreating of AR (343 +deg c) and then cracking the residues in RFCC. Normally in FCC saturated napthenes (cyclo paraffins) crack down to olefins and smaller ring compounds. In this case the RFCC feed will consist of more of the resids. Eventually the concentration of matrix in FCC catalyst is to be upgraded & yields can be seen, aromatic feedstocks are not desirable in RFCC will lead to more of slurry oil, and dry gas etc.