Fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) particles account for 40 to 45% of worldwide gasoline production. The hierarchical complex particle pore structure allows access of long-chain feedstock molecules into active catalyst domains where they are cracked into smaller, more valuable hydrocarbon products (for example, gasoline). In this process, metal deposition and intrusion is a major cause for irrevers...

Porosity in catalyst particles is essential because it enables reactants to reach the active sites and it enables products to leave the catalyst. The engineering of composite-particle catalysts through the tuning of pore-size distribution and connectivity is hampered by the inability to visualize structure and porosity at critical-length scales. Herein, it is shown that the combination of phase...

This paper introduces a novel modeling and statistical framework (based on Bayesian theory) that utilizes extensive distributed control system and emergency shutdown databases, to perform thorough risk and vulnerability assessment of chemical/petrochemical plants. Quality variables are utilized, in addition to safety (or process) variables, to enhance both process safety and product quality. To...

We used single-molecule fluorescence microscopy to study self-diffusion of a feedstock-like probe molecule with nanometer accuracy in the macropores of a micrometer-sized, real-life fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) particle. Movies of single fluorescent molecules allowed their movement through the pore network to be reconstructed. The observed tracks were classified into three different states by...

Tar removal from biomass gasification gas is a crucial problem in applying syngas from biomass for its downstream applications. Catalytic biomass gasification has given promising results for tar cracking. A few research groups have investigated the use of olivine for tar cracking [2,3,4,7,8,9,10]. The presence of oxides of iron and magnesium in the mineral olivine give it the ability to crack h...

This contribution aims to present a methodology to model and simulate the reactive dividing wall column (RDWC) using commercial software. Feasibility of separation scheme was established with ASPEN DISTILTM. Simulation of flowsheet configuration was performed with ASPEN HYSYSTM, using the two columns model. The reactive zone hosted by the prefractionator was modelled and simulated as backward f...

The pozzolanic activity of the spent catalyst produced by fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) has been studied by various methods in recent years. However, no quick and easy method has been reported for this activity based on the associated studies. In this work, the pozzolanic activity of a spent catalyst was investigated by measuring its electrical conductivity in aqueous suspensions of pozzolan/c...

A modified Quadratic Partial Least Squares (MQPLS) algorithm based on nonlinear constrained programming is proposed. Sequential Unconstrained Minimization Technique (SUMT) is employed to calculate the outer input weights and the parameters of inner relationship. It was found that MQPLS can not only explain more of the underlying variability of the data, but also has improved modelling and predi...

This paper presents a systematic methodology for building causal models that can be used for fault detection and isolation. The aim of a causal model is to capture the influences between the variables of a continuous process and to generate qualitative and quantitative knowledge that is interpreted by a diagnostic module. Following a model-based approach for fault detection, the diagnostic modu...