Catalytic Cracking of Naphtha to Light Olefins

A catalytic process that produces light olefins from naphtha was developed to improve the yield of the conventional steam cracker. In laboratory-scale tests, a newly developed zeolite-based catalyst at a reaction temperature of 650 °C produced an ethylene-plus-propylene yield of about 60%, which is about 10% higher than the conventional process operated at around 820 °C. A feasibility study carried out for a catalytic cracking process using the developed catalyst, that cracks 3 000 tons-naphtha/day, indicated an energy saving of about 20% compared with the conventional process.