A molecular kinetic model for heavy gas oil catalytic pyrolysis to light olefins

Abstract Petroleum catalytic pyrolysis to light olefin technology has received wide‐ranging research interest in the refining industry. This work built a molecular kinetic model for the catalytic pyrolysis of a heavy gas oil from bitumen synthetic crude oil (SCO) to light olefins. A feedstock compositional model was constructed containing 1311 molecules using bulk properties information. A variety of reaction rules was summarized and digitized, and from which, a reaction network involving 2631 substances and 6793 reactions was generated via a reaction network autogeneration algorithm. The reaction network for the catalytic pyrolysis was transformed into reaction rate equations. Systematical pilot‐scale catalytic pyrolysis experiments were carried out, which were used to regress the molecular kinetic model parameters. The tuned model is able to predict the product yield and molecular distribution. Moreover, a range of sensitivity analysis was performed, revealing the dependence of light olefins yields on the reaction conditions.