Dry gas is the common name for the off-gas stream from a fluid catalytic cracking unit which contains gases with boiling points lower than ethane, one of which is ethylene. Currently, the FCC dry gas stream is burned as fuel gas. A typical FCC unit of 50k bpd capacity will generate and burn about 200 tons of dry gas containing about 40 tons of ethylene as fuel per day. Because a large price difference exists between fuel gas and motor fuel products or pure ethylene it would appear economically advantageous to attempt to recover this ethylene. A method of recovering the ethylene is through oligomerization to fuels. However, the dry gas stream contains impurities that can poison typical oligomerization catalysts and is quite dilute in ethylene (usually <25%). We have devised a catalyst comprising nickel on an amorphous silica-alumina base capable of converting greater than 40% of this ethylene to fuels in a single pass in the presence of typical impurities. Herein, we discuss the mechanism of the catalytic reaction, characterization of the catalyst and the effect of process conditions on conversion and selectivity.

Conversion of ethylene in FCC dry gas streams to gasoline and diesel fuels

245th National Meeting (2013)

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