Novel equipment for testing catalytic cracking and catalyst regeneration with short contact times

A new piece of equipment was developed for testing catalytic cracking and c atalyst regeneration, particularly for short contact times. The gas oil to be cracked is injected into the upper section of the reactor, which can be operated in the temperature range 400-800 degrees C, catalyst-to-oil ratios from 0 to 300 g(cat)/g(oil) and residence times between 0.01 and 2.3 s. Th e product is led directly into the analysis section where hydrocarbons from C-1 to C-12 (in total 350 compounds) are separated by a capillary column. In catalyst regeneration studies oxygen/nitrogen pulses are fed into the re actor via a gas-loop. The carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide formed are fir st separated in a packed column after which they are converted to methane b y hydrogen on a Ni/gamma-Al2O3 catalyst ensuring the determination of even small amounts of coke. The reproducibility of the experiments has proved to be excellent. With this new reactor system, accurate information can be ob tained on the initial activity of the catalyst and product distribution. (C ) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.