Innovative technology allows refiners to convert FCC off-gas olefins to high-octane gasolines
WICHITA, Kan. – Koch-Glitsch and INVISTA Performance Technology (IPT), affiliates of Koch Industries, announced today a new partnership to offer innovative DTL™ process technology, allowing refineries to capture the value spread between replacement fuel costs and high-octane gasoline blend stock.
DTL process technology converts light olefins, present in fluidized-bed catalytic cracking (FCC) off-gas, coker off-gas and other refinery streams, into high-octane gasoline blend stock, significantly increasing their value.
“Today’s market is looking for higher octane fuels, and this process allows refiners to deliver more of the high-value, high-octane fuels consumers seek,” said Christoph Ender, Koch-Glitsch vice-president of sales and marketing. “Through this partnership, we can provide our customers full-service project execution along with advanced technologies.”
Commercially demonstrated in 12 refineries with another unit under construction, DTL technology uses proprietary catalysts that oligomerize and aromatize off-gas olefins, converting difficult to recover components such as ethylene, propylene and butylene into high-octane gasoline blend stock.
The technology delivers approximately 75 wt% C5+ liquid yields and 10 wt% LPG, which can be blended to the gasoline pool for increased gasoline production. This low CAPEX process has a small footprint and is integrated into the refinery downstream of the FCC gas plant using standard refinery equipment, such as fixed-bed reactors, absorption and separation columns and heterogenous catalysts. The unsaturated fuel gas leaving the FCC gas plant and other unsaturated gases blended as feed are diverted to the DTL process where it converts the stream into high-octane gasoline blend stock.
Additionally, DTL complements propylene producing FCC units — revamped or new — as it converts excess ethylene, butylene and any unrecovered propylene present in the fuel gas back to high-octane gasoline blend stock. This provides flexibility to refiners to take advantage of high propylene prices without worrying about excess fuel gas production.
“This partnership couples IPT’s licensing and technology transfer capabilities with Koch-Glitsch’s market knowledge and refinery technology expertise,” said Mike Massa, INVISTA Performance Technology commercial licensing director. “The extensive capabilities of the broader Koch Chemical Technology Group allow us to offer project execution strategies — including EP, EPCM, EPC, etc.— that meet the needs of individual refiners. This is a winning combination for our existing and future clients.”
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