AM-96-24 FCC RELIABILITY/MECHANICAL INTEGRITY

Description:

Fluid Catalytic Cracking continues to play a key role in a modem refinery as the primary conversion process. The process has maintained this role for the past fifty years since it was first commercialized by Exxon in 1942 with the start-up of PCLA-1 at the Baton Rouge Refinery. Exxon is the owner/operator of 22 FCC’s around the world and licenser of over 50 additional units. These range from several Model II’s up through our most recent FLEXICRACKING IIlR design. Exxon maintains a strong commitment to continued evolution and development of the process and enhanced long term process reliability. Improvements in the reliability of the units result from robust mechanical design features developed in conjunction with successive process improvements. Unit design integrity is evident in both new and existing plants. As a result, run lengths in excess of 60 months have been achieved, there has been greater than a 50 % reduction in the unplanned feed outages, a 30 % reduction in planned turnarounds, and nearly flawless startup and operating experience of new as well as SCT revamped units.