Recent advances in fluid catalytic cracking process

Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) is one of the processes applied world-wide for upgrading of heavy petroleum cuts by converting them into lighter products in the gasoline, light, and heavy cycle oil ranges. Catalytic cracking process was developed in the early stages of petroleum refining. It started by utilizing chemically treated natural clays as catalysts. In the early 1960s the introduction of zeolite containing catalysts, mainly the wide pore faujasite family (X-and Y-type) has significantly contributed to the yield as well as FCC process design consider The overall process performance is strongly dependent on the catalyst characteristics. Therefore, fee catalvst manufacturers and~33 ' ‘rensearchers are continuously searching for catalyst characteristics improved thermal and hydrothermal stability, higher activity and better selectivity for high barrel-octane qasoline production). This research activity resulted in the introduction of several fee catalysts with.