Vacuum residue is
utilized by a process involving the residue cracking
and coke gasification regeneration. In this process, vacuum residue
is first converted into the products of light olefins and light oils
by catalytic cracking, and then the cracking-generated coke is gasified
into H2-rich syngas by using a bifunctional base catalyst.
Their cracking gasification effects of vacuum residue are studied
in a dual fluidized bed reactor. The results show that the solid base
catalysts could enhance light olefin yield (have high olefinicity)
and inhibit the formation of coke in comparison with silica sand and
a hydrothermal treatment zeolite catalyst (FCC catalyst). Furthermore,
the catalyst prepared at a CaO/Al2O3 molar ratio
of 12:7 displayed a better cracking effect than the one produced at
the molar ratio of 1:1. The effects of the reaction temperature and
the catalyst-to-oil ratio on the distribution of cracking liquid from
vacuum residue solid base cracking are discussed. The results showed
that the heavy oil conversion of more than 93.0%, the light oil yield
of about 81.0 wt %, the coke of ca. 5.2 wt %, and the C2–C3
olefinicity of higher than 53.0% are achieved by cracking at 700 °C
with a catalyst-to-oil ratio of 7.0. The coke over solid base catalyst
is well gasified at 800 °C in an atmosphere of steam–oxygen.
The content of H2 is about 55.5 vol % and with the CH4 content of less than 0.2 vol % in comparison with 36.6 and
2.4 vol % over the FCC catalyst, respectively. The cracking effects
of solid base catalysts are stable via a few cycles process, although
a decrease in catalytic effect is observed.