Process for making a distillate product and/or c2-c4 olefins

Abstract

A process for making a distillate product and one or more C2-C4 olefins from a FCC feedstock containing a cellulosic material and a hydrocarbon co-feed is provided.

Description

[0001]The present application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61 / 583,678, filed Jan. 6, 2012, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The invention relates to a process for making a distillate product and / or C2-C4 olefins.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]The fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) of heavy hydrocarbons to produce lower boiling hydrocarbon products such as gasoline is well known in the art. FCC processes have been around since the 1940's. Typically, a FCC unit or process includes at least a riser reactor, a catalyst separator and a regenerator. A feedstock is introduced into the riser reactor wherein it is contacted with hot FCC catalyst from the regenerator. The mixture of the feedstock and FCC catalyst passes through the riser reactor and into the catalyst separator wherein the hydrocarbon product is separated from the FCC catalyst. The separated hydrocarbon product passes from the...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0021]Operating an FCC process in a mode for the production of a distillate product and one or more C2-C4 olefins—rather than a mode for the production of a gasoline product—further has the advantage that a lower temperature can be used in the riser reactor, thereby further reducing coke formation due to the cellulosic material feed. Operating at such lower temperature may result in lower yields of C3 and / or C4 hydrocarbon products, such as for example propane, propene, butanes and / or butenes. In addition, operating at such lower temperature may result in a more olefinic gasoline that may be more difficult to blend with other components in a fuel. Conveniently, however, the process according to the invention allows one to optionally recycle any olefinic gasoline, made as a product in the riser reactor, as a feed to the intermediate reactor in step d) of the process. In this intermediate reactor such olefinic gasoline can advantageously be converted into C3 and / or C4 hydrocarbon products and a blendable gasoline.

[0022]Hence, the process of the present invention advantageously allows one to use a non-edible renewable energy source, such as a cellulosic material, as a feedstock in an FCC process for the making of a distillate product and one or more C2-C4 olefins.

Problems solved by technology

In this case, it is argued that the rate at which biomass is converted to fossil resources is in total imbalance with the rate at which fossil resources are consumed and liberated.

A disadvantage of the process as described in WO2008 / 127956, however, is that the use of plant oils and / or animal fats as an FCC feedstock may compete with their use as food.

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