AM-95-49 THE COST OF PRODUCING OXYGENATES FROM FCC GASOLINE VIA TWO PROCESSING SCHEMES

Description:

Until now there has been very little attention paid to etherifying heavy olefins (C6-C7) in light cat. gasoline. The literature has focussed mainly on the more theoretical aspects of this subject. This paper describes a new commercial process developed by Neste Engineering, which is capable of etherifying a heavier portion of FCC light cat. gasoline for reformulated gasoline (RFG) blending. The technology is being marketed jointly by Neste OY and Bechtel Corporation under the NExTAME acronym. In addition to providing a detailed description of the NExTAME process, this paper also compares the economics of this new technology with other available refinery processing options. The economic evaluation has been performed using Bechtel Corporation’s proprietary Process Industries Modelling System (PIMS) linear programming software to predict the increased refinery wide revenue generating potential of the technology.