Parametric model based control and optimization of an FCC unit

Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) plays the most important role in the economy of a modern refinery as it is used for value addition to the refinery process. Due to its relative importance, considerable effort has been spent in modeling and optimizing the FCC Unit for better understanding and improved productivity respectively. This paper presents a parametric model based approach of controlling an FCC Unit by solving a nonlinear optimization problem. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate how a statistical model can be applied to the optimization of an FCC unit. The FCC mathematical modeling was achieved by modifying the model of Stratiev and Dinkov and the resulting non-linear program was applied to a multi-objective function which was subsequently solved in GAMS (General Algebraic Modeling System). The model was modified to include Residual Oil from external sources which is a key control lever that may arise from cheaper external sources in comparison to local production costs. To demonstrate the utility of the approach, we solve several instances of the objective function. The results show that the proposed modified model can be used to optimize the production of an FCC Unit.