Steam catalytic cracking of vacuum gas oil: Effect of co-feeding naphtha or gas condensate on light olefins yield

Herein, we have investigated the steam catalytic cracking of heavy VGO (HVGO) blends with naphtha (NAPH) and gas condensates (GCON) in a microflow fixed-bed reactor using synthesized nano-ZSM-5 catalyst for increased light olefins yield. The co-feeding of HVGO with NAPH in the steam cracking reaction increased HVGO conversion from 38.2 % to 65.3 %, and slightly decreased the coke yield. Ethylene and propylene yield increased from 10.2 % and 9. 8 % in HVGO to 15.0 % and 13.4 % in the HVGO+20 %NAPH respectively. The co-feeding of HVGO with GCON in the steam cracking reaction increased HVGO conversion from 38.2 % to 47.5 %, however, lower yield of light olefins was recorded. The catalytic cracking of HVGO with NAPH over synthesized nano-ZSM-5 zeolite resulted in higher conversion and light olefins yield. This has been ascribed to the available acid sites and shape selectivity of the nano-zeolite that favors high yield of light olefins. The HVGO+20 %GCON conversion increased to 68.6 % during catalytic cracking over nano-ZSM-5 zeolite, and the light olefins increased from 33.2 % to 41.1 %. The effect of steam/oil ratio on the catalytic cracking reactions of HVGO+20 %NAPH and HVGO+20 %GCON for steam/oil ratio 0–2 showed that higher conversion and light olefins yield were achieved at the steam/oil ratio of 2.