Sci, Vol. 6, Pages 11: A Review of Catalyst Modification and Process Factors in the Production of Light Olefins from Direct Crude Oil Catalytic Cracking

Sci, Vol. 6, Pages 11: A Review of Catalyst Modification and Process Factors in the Production of Light Olefins from Direct Crude Oil Catalytic Cracking

Sci doi: 10.3390/sci6010011

Authors: Ruth Eniyepade Emberru Raj Patel Iqbal Mohammed Mujtaba Yakubu Mandafiya John

Petrochemical feedstocks are experiencing a fast growth in demand, which will further expand their market in the coming years. This is due to an increase in the demand for petrochemical-based materials that are used in households, hospitals, transportation, electronics, and telecommunications. Consequently, petrochemical industries rely heavily on olefins, namely propylene, ethylene, and butene, as fundamental components for their manufacturing processes. Presently, there is a growing interest among refineries in prioritising their operations towards the production of fuels, specifically gasoline, diesel, and light olefins. The cost-effectiveness and availability of petrochemical primary feedstocks, such as propylene and butene, can be enhanced through the direct conversion of crude oil into light olefins using fluid catalytic cracking (FCC). To achieve this objective, the FCC technology, process optimisation, and catalyst modifications may need to be redesigned. It is helpful to know that there are several documented methods of modifying traditional FCC catalysts’ physicochemical characteristics to enhance their selectivity toward light olefins’ production, since the direct cracking of crude oil to olefins is still in its infancy. Based on a review of the existing zeolite catalysts, this work focuses on the factors that need to be optimized and the approaches to modifying FCC catalysts to maximize light olefin production from crude oil conversion via FCC. Several viewpoints have been combined as a result of this research, and recommendations have been made for future work in the areas of optimising the yield of light olefins by engineering the pore structure of zeolite catalysts, reducing deactivation by adding dopants, and conducting technoeconomic analyses of direct crude oil cracking to produce light olefins.