Fluid catalytic cracking

Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) is the conversion process used in petroleum refineries to convert the high-boiling point, high-molecular weight hydrocarbon fractions of petroleum (crude oils) into gasoline, alkene gases, and other petroleum products. The cracking of petroleum hydrocarbons was originally done by thermal cracking, now virtually replaced by catalytic cracking, which yields greater volumes of high octane rating gasoline; and produces by-product gases, with more carbon-carbon double bonds (i.e. alkenes), that are of greater economic value than the gases produced by thermal cracking. The feedstock to the FCC conversion process usually is heavy gas oil (HGO), which is that portion of the petroleum (crude oil) that has an initial boiling-point temperature of or higher, at atmospheric pressure, and that has an average molecular weight that ranges from about 200 to 600 or higher; heavy gas oil also is known as “heavy vacuum gas oil” (HVGO). In the fluid catalytic cracking process, the HGO feedstock is heated to a high temperature and to a moderate pressure, and then is placed in contact with a hot, powdered catalyst, which breaks the long-chain molecules of the high-boiling-point hydrocarbon liquids into short-chain molecules, which then are collected as a vapor. Oil refineries use fluid catalytic cracking to correct the imbalance between the market demand for gasoline and the excess of heavy, high boiling range products resulting from the distillation of crude oil. As of 2006, FCC units were in operation at 400 petroleum refineries worldwide, and about one-third of the crude oil refined in those refineries is processed in an FCC to produce high-octane gasoline and fuel oils. During 2007, the FCC units in the United States processed a total of of feedstock per day, and FCC units worldwide processed about twice that amount. FCC units are less common in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) because those regions have high demand for diesel and kerosene, which can be satisfied with hydrocracking.