TEHRAN - Technologists at an Iranian knowledge-based company in addition to indigenizing the catalysts needed for gasoline production, succeeded in producing the nanocatalysts needed for the RFCC unit, which were previously imported from other countries.
The catalysts produced by the company are of the ‘fluid bed cracking’ type, which play a key role in refinery processes, and their production requires high technology and advanced knowledge.
The fluid bed cracking catalyst, known as FCC for short, consists of zeolite, rare earths, and other valuable compounds, through which the heavy cut of the atmospheric distillation tower is converted into valuable products, including the strategic products of gasoline, diesel, and LPG.
The indigenization of advanced nanocatalysts for the RCD unit is another achievement of this company. The RCD process is used to treat atmospheric and vacuum residual heavy oil cuts and prepares the feed for the RFCC unit by reducing sulfur compounds (HDS) and other contaminants. This measure not only helps to reduce the nanocatalyst consumption, but also brings significant profitability to refineries due to cost reduction.
The RCD process input feed consists of atmospheric (AR) and vacuum (VR) distillation tower bottoms, which after passing through the feed filter, enter the fixed bed reactors. The HDS reaction is carried out by using hydrogen and in the presence of advanced nanocatalysts and its output includes a variety of products like light gases, light and heavy naphtha, and low sulfur fuel oil.
The unit of RCD (Reduced Crude Desulfurization) was applied for decreasing of Sulfur, CCR (coradson carbon residue), metals of heavy feeds AR (Atmospheric Residue), VR (Vacuum Residue), and also prepared the feed of RFCC (Reduced Fluid Catalytic Cracking) unit.
The unit includes the following parts; Feed pretreating (Filter) Section, Reactor Section, Fractionator Section, and make-up Hydrogen Compression Section. These compounds were easily converted to H2S, however feedstocks containing heteroatomic aromatic molecules were processed with difficulty. Desulfurization of these compounds was preceded by initial ring opening and sulfur removal followed by saturation of the resulting olefin. Thiophene was processed 15 times more difficult compared to diethylsulfide. Fixed bed reactor type one is used for the process.