Spent FCC E-Cat: Towards a Circular Approach in the Oil Refining Industry

Francesco Ferella, Idiano D’Adamo, Simona Leone, Valentina Innocenzi, Ida De Michelis and Francesco Vegliò
Additional contact information
Francesco Ferella: Department of Industrial Engineering, Information and Economics, University of L’Aquila, Via G. Gronchi 18, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
Idiano D’Adamo: Department of Industrial Engineering, Information and Economics, University of L’Aquila, Via G. Gronchi 18, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
Simona Leone: Department of Industrial Engineering, Information and Economics, University of L’Aquila, Via G. Gronchi 18, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
Valentina Innocenzi: Department of Industrial Engineering, Information and Economics, University of L’Aquila, Via G. Gronchi 18, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
Ida De Michelis: Department of Industrial Engineering, Information and Economics, University of L’Aquila, Via G. Gronchi 18, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
Francesco Vegliò: Department of Industrial Engineering, Information and Economics, University of L’Aquila, Via G. Gronchi 18, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-19

Abstract: Every year the oil refining industry consumes thousand tons of fluid catalytic cracking zeolite from the E-cat generated in the fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit. In the present paper, a new process for recycling of fluid catalytic cracking catalysts (FCCCs) is presented. The process, previously tested at laboratory scale, was simulated by SuperPro Designer catalysts (FCCCs, also known as equilibrium catalysts, E-cat), which are mainly landfilled. Their intrinsic value is quite low and the content of rare earth elements (REEs), as lanthanum and cerium oxides, is around 3%wt. Moreover, their reuse in other industrial processes as raw material is very scarce. For each metric ton of spent FCCC treated for recovery of REEs, nearly the same amount of waste is generated from the process, the majority of which is represented by the solid residue resulting from the leaching stage. The manuscript presents a technological study and an economic analysis for the recovery of REEs, as well as the production of synthetic © software package. The plant was designed for a capacity of 4000 metric tons per year. The discounted cash flow (DCF) method was applied and Net Present Value (NPV) equal to about two-million € and Discounted Payback Time (DPBT) equal to two years defined the profitability of the process for recycling of FCCCs. This result depends on the selling price of zeolite. Consequently, a break-even point (BEP) analysis was conducted on this critical variable and the condition of economic feasibility was verified with a price of 1070 €/ton. This study tried to implement recycling strategies towards circular economy models.

Keywords: catalyst; circular economy; E-cat; FCC; rare earths; zeolite (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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