Catalytic conversion of vegetable oils in a continuous FCC pilot plant

In this paper the influence of admixtures of rapeseed, soybean and palm oil into VGO on FCC performance has been studied. The oils were mixed in steps of 20 wt.% and tested in a fully continuous operated FCC pilot plant. The experiments show that the product distribution changes slightly. Higher ratios of vegetable oils hardly affect the gasoline yields but cause a decrease in cracking gas. Oxygen contained in the vegetable oils is converted predominantly to water. It has been demonstrated that the obtained gasoline is oxygen free and shows improved properties for RON and MON. The cracking gas contains high amounts of propene and ethene, which can be used as base materials for the production of synthetic materials from renewable sources. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.