Kinetic Study Of Palm Oil Catalytic Cracking Over A Zeolite-based Catalyst

Abstract

A study on catalytic cracking of palm oil (RBDPO) over an equilibrium zeolite-based catalyst to produce gasoline fraction was carried out. The effect of contact times between the feed and catalyst was studied by experimenting with WHSV in the range of 6 h-1 to 25 h-1, and the effect of catalytic reaction temperatures was observed at 490 °C, 510 °C, and 530 °C. The results show that yields of gasoline fraction tend to decrease with the decrease of WHSV, due to “over-cracking” of gasoline fraction into gaseous products. A four-lump kinetic model consisting of gasoline fraction, gaseous products, and coke was applied to derive sets of reaction rate equations. A numerical method was used to estimate the kinetic parameters.