Methods and systems for enhancing processing of hydrocarbons in a fluid catalytic cracking unit using a renewable additive

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2025382530-A1
Application number	US-202519245822-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 23, 2025
Priority date	Oct 10, 2021
Publication date	Dec 18, 2025
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems and methods for enhancing the processing of hydrocarbons in a FCC unit by introduction of the coked FCC catalyst from the FCC reactor and a renewable feedstock to the FCC regenerator to facilitate regeneration of the coked FCC catalyst. The renewable feedstock can contain biomass-derived pyrolysis oil. The biomass-derived pyrolysis oil and coke from the coked FCC catalyst are oxidized by oxygen to provide a regenerated catalyst that is recycled to the FCC reactor.

First claim

1 - 30 . (canceled)

31 . A system to process a feed in a fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit into a plurality of FCC products, the system comprising:
a reactor having (i) a reactor inlet, (ii) an FCC reaction zone operable to crack a feed stream received via the reactor inlet in presence of steam and an FCC catalyst, (iii) a separation zone to separate the plurality of FCC products from coked FCC catalyst, and (iii) one or more outlets to remove the plurality of FCC products from the reactor; a regenerator in fluid communication with the reactor, the regenerator having a regenerator inlet in fluid communication with a biomass-derived pyrolysis oil, a regenerator outlet in fluid communication with the reactor to supply a regenerated FCC catalyst to the reactor; and a controller configured to adjust an amount of the biomass-derived pyrolysis oil supplied to the regenerator based on an indication of one or more of a temperature within the reactor, a biomass-derived pyrolysis oil flow rate, a flow rate of the FCC coked catalyst flowing into the regenerator, a temperature of the FCC coked catalyst, a temperature within the regenerator, or a wt % of the supplied biomass-derived pyrolysis oil to one or more of the FCC coked catalyst flowing into the regenerator or the feed flowing into the reactor.

32 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the biomass-derived pyrolysis oil is injected into the reactor.

33 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the separation zone includes a cyclone configured to separate the FCC coked catalyst and biomass-derived pyrolysis oil from the plurality of FCC products and send the FCC coked catalyst and biomass-derived pyrolysis oil to the regenerator.

34 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a stand-pipe connecting the reactor to the regenerator inlet, wherein the biomass-derived pyrolysis oil is injected into the stand-pipe.

35 . The system of claim 4 , wherein the stand-pipe connects into a stripping zone of the reactor, wherein the stripping zone operated to remove adsorbed and entrained hydrocarbons from the coked FCC catalyst prior to supplying the coked FCC catalyst to the regenerator.

36 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the regenerator inlet includes a conduit and a nozzle, wherein the biomass-derived pyrolysis oil flows through the conduit and is injected through the nozzle into the regenerator.

37 . The system of claim 6 , wherein steam is used to inject the biomass-derived pyrolysis oil through the nozzle into the regenerator.

38 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the biomass-derived pyrolysis oil is introduced into a bottom portion of the regenerator.

39 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the biomass-derived pyrolysis oil is introduced into a bed of the coked FCC catalyst positioned within the regenerator.

40 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to adjust an amount of air and/or oxygen supplied to the regenerator based on an indication of a temperature within the regenerator.

41 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to, in response to a determination that the temperature within the regenerator is below a selected value, increase the amount of the biomass-derived pyrolysis oil supplied to the regenerator, thereby to increase the temperature within the regenerator to oxidize the coke on the coked FCC catalyst.

42 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the controller is configured to, in response to a determination that the temperature within the regenerator is above a selected value, decrease the amount of the biomass-derived pyrolysis oil supplied to the regenerator.

43 . The system of claim 12 , further comprising a temperature sensor positioned to measure a temperature within the regenerator, wherein the controller is in signal communication with the temperature sensor and is configured to receive the indication of the temperature within the regenerator from the temperature sensor.

44 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a temperature sensor positioned to measure a temperature within the reactor, wherein the controller is in signal communication with the temperature sensor and is configured to receive the indication of the temperature within the reactor from the temperature sensor.

45 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a temperature sensor positioned to measure a temperature within a riser, wherein the controller is in signal communication with the temperature sensor and is configured to receive the indication of the temperature within the riser from the temperature sensor.

46 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a temperature sensor positioned to measure a temperature within a well, wherein the controller is in signal communication with the temperature sensor and is configured to receive the indication of the temperature within the well from the temperature sensor.

47 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to determine a rate or amount of regenerated FCC catalyst to supply to a riser based on an indication of one or more of a temperature within the riser, the temperature of the reactor, the temperature within the regenerator, the temperature of the regenerated FCC catalyst, the temperature of fresh FCC catalyst, the temperature of the feed, or the amount of regenerated catalyst in a well of the system.

48 . The system of claim 17 , wherein the controller is configured to, in response to a determination that the indicated temperature within the reactor is below a preselected value, increase the amount of the regenerated FCC catalyst supplied to the reactor, thereby to increase the temperature within the reactor.

49 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is configured to introduce the biomass-derived pyrolysis oil in an amount less than about 2 volume percent of the feed stream introduced into the reactor.

50 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the amount of biomass-derived pyrolysis oil introduced into a riser is about 1 wt % to about 2 wt % of the feed stream.

Assignees

• Marathon Petroleum Co Lp

Inventors

• Larsen Nikolas A
• Sexton Jeffrey A
• Brooks Ray

Classifications

• B01J38/02

  Heat treatment · CPC title

• C10G2300/708

  Coking aspect, coke content and composition of deposits · CPC title

• C10G2300/4006

  Temperature · CPC title

• C10G2300/202

  Heteroatoms content, i.e. S, N, O, P · CPC title

• C10G2300/4081

  Recycling aspects · CPC title