The cold regenerant recycle technology in ChemChina’s heavy oil fluid catalytic cracking unit won the first science and technology progress award for 2014 from the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation. The project was jointly conducted by ChemChina Petrochemical and a Henan-based company. It was also picked by the federation to enter the ring for the national science and technology progress award for 2015.
Catalytic cracking technology has matured after more than 30 years of development. However, regeneration, feedstock and reaction temperatures as well as catalyst-oil ratio control is a persistent problem. The regenerant cooling and recycle system has managed to solve the problem. The two companies managed to develop technical inventions and innovations through long-term research. They developed the cold regenerant recycle technology and complete equipment, and received seven patents of inventions authorized. It's the first time that the technology was industrialized on a worldwide and multiregional scale and in-depth reaction optimization was achieved in catalytic cracking.
"The technology has improved China's catalytic cracking development," said the website of the petroleum and chemical industry federation.
"It has realized the third catalytic cracking technological revolution and clean production, with all technical and economic indexes significantly better than existing FCC technology in China and abroad."
At the moment, the technology has been applied in catalytic cracking units at ChemChina Petrochemical's subsidiaries. It has improved light oil yield, olefin content in gasoline, gasoline octane value, diesel cetane number and unit catalyst consumption, as practical operation data showed.