Parameter estimation of a six-lump kinetic model of an industrial fluid catalytic cracking unit

• Published in: Fuel (Guildford) Vol. 235; pp. 1436 - 1454
• Main Authors: John, Yakubu M., Mustafa, Mustafa A., Patel, Raj, Mujtaba, Iqbal M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.01.2019; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Catalytic cracking; Coke oven gas; Computer simulation; Crude oil; Diesel; Drying oils; FCC riser; Fluid catalytic cracking; Gas oil; Gasoline; Heats (energies); Kinetics; Liquefied petroleum gas; Mathematical models; Modelling and simulation; Parameter estimation; Petroleum refining; Reaction kinetics; Six-lumped model; Steady state models; Modelling and simulation; Parameter estimation; Six-lumped model; FCC riser
• ISSN: 0016-2361; 1873-7153
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fuel.2018.08.033

•A new six-lump kinetics scheme was developed.•New six-lump activation energies, frequency factors and heat of reactions developed.•The estimated parameters can be used to simulate any type of FCC riser. In this work a simulation of detailed steady state model of an industrial fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit with a newly proposed six-lumped kinetic model which cracks gas oil into diesel, gasoline, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), dry gas and coke. Frequency factors, activation energies and heats of reaction for the catalytic cracking kinetics and a number of model parameters were estimated using a model based parameter estimation technique along with data from an industrial FCC unit in Sudan. The estimated parameters were used to predict the major riser fractions; diesel as 0.1842 kg-lump/kg-feed with a 0.81% error while gasoline as 0.4863 kg-lump/kg-feed with a 2.71% error compared with the plant data. Thus, with good confidence, the developed kinetic model is able to simulate any type of FCC riser with six-lump model as catalyst-to-oil (C/O) ratios were varied and the results predicted the typical riser profiles.