Molecule-Based Modeling of Gasoil Fluid Catalytic Cracking

Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) is a major refinery process designed to upgrade heavy and less valuable petroleum products to gasoline and lighter products. The feedstock for the FCC process ranges from light gas oils to heavy hydro-treated resids. The complexity of the feedstock, and the associated analytical chemistry and computational obstacles, helped shape early FCC modeling approaches (2.3.7). The traditional need for easily deployed reaction models led to the formulation of simple, lumped kinetic models. Lumped models often fail to capture the complex FCC chemistry and as a result are specific to the feedstock, the catalyst used and the operating conditions. Additionally, lumped models do not give the detailed product distribution required for process design and optimization.