Fluid catalytic cracking, main process for
gasoline production, has three main steps, reaction, product separation and
regeneration.
The figure shows the flowchart of fluid catalytic process. The catalyst rise receives preheated petroleum feedstock and recycle slurry oil from the distillation column. They are then vaporized and cracked into low molecular weight hydrocarbons. These vapors fluidize the catalyst particles and the cracking reaction takes place throughout the column.
In the reactor, vapor
products are separated from catalysts and the later flows down to stripping
section where any vapor left is removed using two stage cyclones (see No 5 ) The
