Design and control of fluid catalytic cracking gasoline fractionator

The gasoline fractionation scheme used in catalytic cracking has a significant impact on the blended gasoline's octane number. This study proposes an improved three-cut fractionation scheme for the fluid catalytic cracking gasoline fractionator and optimizes the process with respect to evaluation metrics such as total annual cost (TAC), light gasoline recovery, and CO2 emissions (ECO2). To achieve energy efficiency and reduce emissions in the process, the dividing wall column is employed for process intensification. In comparison to the cascaded binary columns process, the middle cracked naphtha recovery of the FCC-DWC-M has increased by 1.96%, the TAC has decreased by 22.15%, and the ECO2 has decreased by 26.18%. Finally, the study investigates the dynamic characteristics of the FCC-DWC-M process, establishes a control scheme, and examines its performance while experiencing disturbances in feed flow rates of ±10% and ±20%. The findings indicate exceptional control performance of the FCC-DWC-M process.