Flow distribution analysis of a novel fcc system through experiment study and atomic model

As the largest palm oil producer in the world, Indonesia has a promising potential to produce green fuel through the Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) process. A novel FCC configuration, FCC Proto X 3, which combines a riser reactor and downer reactor in the system, has been developed. However, several valves including in the FCC system remain a black box to the flow distribution in the system. The objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of the valve setting variation on the airflow distribution of the FCC system. The methodology uses experiment and acausal modeling. The effect of valve setting variation on pressure and average velocity of the airflow has been investigated. The experiment is conducted under cold test conditions, while the acausal model of the FCC system is built by using OpenModelica. It is obtained that valve 2 which controls the flow at the channel toward the regenerator is essential due to its role in controlling the air supply combustion process in the regenerator and driving the spent catalyst particles to the regenerator. Valve 3 is responsible for controlling the flow toward the riser reactor directly. Later, it is responsible for supplying the lifting fluid to support the catalytic cracking reaction at the riser sections. Valve 4 contributes to controlling the lifting fluid to the downer reactor. It will also be responsible for supplying thermal energy from the high-temperature particle catalyst to the reactor. When all valves toward the regenerator and reactor are 100 % open, the measured average velocity at the flue gas outlet and the product outlet are 8.04 m/s and 5.775 m/s respectively. The result shows that the airflow at the FCC system tends to flow through the regenerator. The atomic model estimation also shows a similar trend to the experiment result