Steady State Modeling and Simulation of the Riser in an Industrial RFCC Unit

The aim of this study is to obtain a steady state model that can simulate an industrial Residue Fluid Catalytic Cracking (RFCC) unit. This unit is one of the technologies for producing more gasoline from residue. The yield of gasoline in RFCC strongly depends on certain process variables. In this work, an RFCC model is developed by combining the material and energy balance equations with a 7-lump kinetic model and a modified two-dimensional hydrodynamic model. Simulation has been performed based on the data from an operating unit at Khartoum Refinery Company (KRC) and the results are reported. Optimum values of process variables for a required cracking efficiency, such as space velocity, catalyst to oil ratio and catalyst circulation rate, are also reported.