Developing an adaptive catalyst for an FCC reactor using a CFD RSM, CFD DPM, and CFD DDPM–EM approach

•A new catalyst has been developed for an FCC process.•Catalyst is designed for producing diesel fuel from a waste crude oil.•A computational fluid dynamics model is used for designing the catalyst.•The newly designed catalyst is applied to our experimental setup and promising results are observed.•Detailed experimental results are planned for mapping purposes. Cyclone separators, which have an important role in the recovery of catalysts, constituted one of the aims of the study. In the work to be done, the pressure drop occurring during the fcc reaction is also calculated using the Ergun equation and it is aimed to provide the same value in a cyclone separator. In this study, which was presented for the first time in the literature, the best working conditions were determined by simulating the pressure drop in the cyclone separator modeled by using the various catalyst types namely NiMo/ASA–Al2O3, NiMo/p–Al2O3, NiMo/Y–Al2O3, Co-Mo, HZSM-5 zeolite, HY zeolite, pAl2O3, ASA-Al2O3, Y-Al2O3 determined from the literature in the Ergun equation. Among them, NiMo/ASA Al2O3, Co-Mo, HY zeolite, and ASA-Al2O3 were determined as the best catalyst for producing diesel from high oil fractions. Unlike previous studies, the condition that the cyclone separator modeled cleans the catalyst with maximum efficiency also determines the condition that provides low catalyst porosity in the determination of the catalyst type to be determined in diesel production. Due to the accuracy between the calculated and the predicted pressure drop results (about 1,8%), HY zeolite is the best catalyst for cyclone separator geometry. It is widely used to convert high molecular weight hydrocarbon fractions, the high boiling point of petroleum crude oils into olefinic gases, more valuable gasoline, and other products. The purpose of the FCC unit is to increase the refinery conversion and white product yield by converting heavy vacuum gas oil (HVGO) into light hydrocarbons at high temperatures with the aid of fluid catalysis. These two zones (reactor and regenerator) are placed as two different pressure vessels. For these two different systems to work in harmony with each other, unlike in previous studies, the “dense discreet phase-Eularian” approach was used in the modeling of the catalytic unit and the “discreet phase” approach was used in the modeling of the cyclone separator. The values required for both processes to work together have been determined approximately.