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This issue of the Review includes a thorough evaluation of state-of-the-art commercial technology, plant operations and design, and innovative research and development work for fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) technologies.

This section of the Review contains an in-depth look at current FCC process, hardware, and catalyst technologies. The technologies discussed will help a refiner to maximize the profitability of the FCCU by allowing the refiner to adapt to changing market conditions, specifically a shift from gasoline to diesel.

Historically, the fluid catalytic cracking unit has been tailored to be the refinery's top gasoline producer. The global economic recession since H₂ 2008, however, has recently kept gasoline demand low, especially in the West, making many FCC-based refineries unprofitable due to their surplus of gasoline. Thus, the current market encourages a reduction in gasoline production and an increase in middle distillates with growth in distillate demand more than doubling that of gasoline since 2002.

Global fluid catalytic cracking capacity increased by 1.15% or over 152K b/d to 13.22MM b/d between Jan. 2009 and Jan. 2010 with Asia-Pacific (200K b/cd) and Western Europe (54.3K b/cd) accounting for almost all of this growth. The US still ranks first in total FCC capacity (5.6MM b/cd) but has seen FCC capacity decrease over the last year due to decreasing demand and margins for gasoline.

With a call for reduction in CO₂ emissions to combat global warming, refiners will need to begin to look for ways to curb GHG emissions to meet upcoming reduction targets. One area to consider will be the burning of catalyst coke in the FCC regenerator as it accounts for approximately 15-25% of a refinery's CO₂ emissions.

More detailed information regarding fluid catalytic cracking in terms of supply and demand, capacity additions, and technology competition/development are discussed as part of the Market/Technology Trends and Opportunities section in this issue of the Review. Also, in the FCC section, new processes, catalysts, and topics covered include:

• Shell's dual-riser MILOS process;
• Albemarle's AMBER MD catalyst for use in gas oil operations looking to maximize bottoms conversion and LCO yields;
• Albemarle's new GO-ULTRA catalyst which is manufactured using the new ONYX manufacturing technology;
• BASF's novel Promixal Stable Matrix and Zeolite (Prox-SMZ) matrix material and a new catalyst (HDXtra) that utilizes Prox-SMZ to maximize distillate yields from the FCCU;
• Grace Davison's third generation of EnhanceR catalysts, DieseliseR and ResidCrackerR, which both boost LCO yields;
• Grace's second generation MIDAS catalyst, MIDAS-300, which maximizes LCO selectivity;
• Grace's two low NO_X combustion promoters, XNOX and DENOX-W;
• INTERCAT's FCC catalyst addition systems;
• SO_X reduction additives from Albemarle (SOXDOWN) and Grace Davison (Super DESOX); and
• A discussion of the latest patents and research papers regarding fluid catalytic cracking related to increasing the quantity and quality of gasoline produced from the FCCU, reducing NO_X, SO_X, PM, CO, and CO₂ emissions, increasing LCO yields, processing resid and biofeeds, catalyst separation and regeneration systems, and process monitoring and control and computer modeling technologies.

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