Effect of catalyst circulation rate on the bifurcation behavior of an industrial FCC unit

Abstract EN

The effect of catalyst circulation rate (17.721-150.63 kg/s) on the bifurcation behavior of an industrial fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit is investigated for both the open loop as well as the closed loop systems.

Five regions of qualitatively different bifurcation behavior are identified.

For the open loop system it is found that decreasing the catalyst circulation rate stabilizes the point of maximum gasoline yield but higher values of air feed temperatures are required.

The closed loop analysis shows that higher value of controller gains are required to stabilize the point of maximum gasoline yield as the catalyst circulation rate is increased.