Catalytic cracking of rapeseed oil to high octane gasoline and olefins

Rapeseed is the most important energy crop in Europe. The basic idea of the presented work was to add vegetable oils to the standard FCC-feed in order to meet requirements on the increasing demand for climate-friendly produced fuels. The experimental test program was conducted in a fully continuously operated FCC pilot plant with internal CFB-design at Vienna University of Technology. Rapeseed oil was added in steps of 20 m% to the conventional feedstock, up to 100 m% addition. The influence on the process was observed. The obtained product spectrum at 550 °C was slightly modified in relation to standard feed VGO. The gasoline yield stayed roughly constant while the crack-gas yield decreased at higher ratios of rapeseed oil. Due to the oxygen content of rapeseed oil the additional lumps water and CO2 are formed. Using pure rapeseed oil as feedstock for FCC leads to a total fuel yield on total feed of approximately 65 m% (23 m% gaseous hydrocarbons plus 42 m% gasoline). The gasoline achieved is oxygen free at high octane numbers of approximately RON 100 and MON 86.