Energy & Fuels, Vol.31, No.5, 5662-5672, 2017
Novel Chemical Looping Combustion Assisted Residue Fluid Catalytic Cracking Process in Order To Reduce CO2 Emission and Gasoline Production Enhancement
In this novel study, application of chemical looping combustion (CLC) as the heat source for the endothermic residue fluid catalytic cracking (RFCC) process has been investigated to stabilize the RFCC riser temperature for increasing efficiency and proficiency of the process. A mathematical conceptual model has been presented to analyze the performance of RFCC process coupled with chemical looping combustion (RFCC-CLC). NiO18-alpha-Al2O3 particles have been employed as the oxygen carrier agents in CLC system, which have shown unprecedented reactivity and allow for working under high temperatures with complete conversion of CH4 in RFCC-CLC configuration. This structure consisting of three coaxial vertical tubular reactors and the riser reactor is surrounded by the air and fuel reactors, respectively (all three reactors operate in the fluidized regime). The most illustrious advantage of applying CLC technique is the inherent CO2 separation from flue gas. In addition, results indicate that methane conversion tends toward 1 and a 10% by weight increase in gasoline production and a 1.3% by weight reduction in coke formation have been achieved which reveals the supremacy of the RFCC-CLC configuration.