Oxygen Enrichment for Fluid Catalytic Cracking Plants

Debottlenecking while Reducing Emissions in Refinery FCC Plants
Explore how you can improve the performance of your FCC unit with oxygen enrichment technologies and control emissions with LoTOx® low-temperature oxidation
“Oil refinery including cracker”
Meeting NOx Regulatory Thresholds

Fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) units produce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides (NOx) and these particulates are tightly regulated. This places refinery operators under pressure to manage NOx emissions and ensure they do not impair air quality.

We offer solutions to enrich regeneration air with oxygen to help you improve regenerator capacity. FCC oxygen enrichment (O2e) involves the addition of a controlled flow of gaseous oxygen into the combustion air.

We complement this upstream enrichment option with downstream treatment to reduce emissions and increase your operational flexibility. Our LoTOx technology was developed specifically to lower FCC particulate, sulfur dioxide and NOx emissions. This patented end-of-pipe innovation uses ozone to selectively oxidize insoluble NOx to form highly soluble species that can be easily removed in a wet scrubber. So you get to increase capacity while simultaneously lowering emissions.

Synergized Benefits of Upstream and Downstream O2e

The additional oxygen in the regenerator results in higher plant efficiency due to:

  • Increased plant capacity - with gains of as much as 35%
  • More flexibility in the selection of feedstock, especially to enable use of heavier feedstocks with a higher tendency to form coke
  • Increased conversion ratio and gasoline yield
  • Resolved air blower constraints
  • Reduced carbon monoxide (CO) in the regenerator off-gas
  • Less abrasion of the catalyst and less erosion of the cyclones due to reduced gas velocity, resulting in less downtime and repairs
“Pipelines in Linde hydrogen plant in oil refinery”

How can we help you?

Discover how process gases can help debottleneck your FCC unit and lower emissions
Contact us