Multiple steady states in FCC unit operations

✍ Scribed by William M. Edwards; Hak N. Kim

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 695 KB
• Volume: 43
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-2509
• DOI: 10.1016/0009-2509(88)87048-9

✦ Synopsis

Commercial

fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) units potentially can exhibit steady-state multiplicity owing to the net exothermicity of the process and the complex interactions that exist between the reactor and regenerator heat balances. In the event that multiplicity exists, then operation of a commercial FCC unit near an intermediate unstable steady-state condition requires the introduction of a suitable control system. The possibility that multiple steady states can exist in commercial FCC unit reactor-regenerator systems has been a topic for discussion among process modeling experts for some time. In this paper, implications derived from Shell Oil Company's FCC Process Model concerning steady-state multiplicity and the control of commercial units are reported and compared with field experience.