Oil refineries contribute around 4-6 % of global CO2 emissions, with the regenerator part of the Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) unit responsible for roughly a quarter of standard refinery emissions. As the FCC unit is the largest single source of CO2 emissions at a refinery, the capture of this CO2 would lead to a significant decrease in emissions. Post-combustion and Oxy-combustion technologies have been suggested as potential means of mitigating these CO2 emissions. However, a high-energy penalty and requirements for additional equipment are cited as problems with both of these technologies. In addition, Chemical Looping Combustion (CLC) has also begun to be investigated as an alternative process for CO2 capture that avoids the high costs and energy penalties inherent in gas separation and CO2 capture. In this study, the integration of CLC to FCC units has been proposed as a novel CO2 capture method (Figure-1). The CLC tests of coke deposited on commercial FCC catalyst (ECat) with CuO and Mn2O3 have been investigated in lab-scale fixed-bed and fluidised-bed reactors equipped with an online mass spectrometer to monitor CO2 release. Although it is possible to reach about 90 vol.% combustion efficiency of the coke deposited on ECat mechanically mixed with CuO and Mn2O3, the required regeneration temperature, 800 °C, was considerably higher than that found under commercial regenerator conditions; 650-750 °C for 30-60 min. However, wet impregnation of ECat, with the stoichiometrically required amount of CuO and Mn2O3 resulted in high combustion efficiencies of greater than 94 vol. % of the coke deposited on ECat at 750 °C for 45 min. The results demonstrate that CLC is a promising technology to incorporate into the next generation of FCC units to optimise CO2 capture.

Capturing CO2 emissions from oil refineries: Integration of chemical looping combustion (CLC) into fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) units

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

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