COMPUTER APPLICATION AND SOFTWARE-DEVELOPMENT FOR THE AUTOMATION OF AFLUID CATALYTIC CRACKING PILOT-PLANT - EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

This application deals with the automation and computer aided operatio n including monitoring and control of a pilot plant scale fluid cataly tic cracking unit. The operation and monitoring of the pilot plant is carried out through graphical process flowsheets of the actual process which are presented on the screen of a personal computer. All operati onal results and all manipulating actions are logged and stored in a t ime sequential indexed file that can be recalled at any time. Through the use of automation and computer software a complex unit such the FC C unit can be operated unattended in long runs giving useful results u sed for process modeling and model evaluation, catalyst and process co ndition evaluation. Real experimental results will show the trends and the good comparison of the unit operation to the FCC theoretical esti mations.