One-step conversion of crude oil to light olefins using a multi-zone reactor
Type
ArticleAuthors
Alabdullah, Mohammed A.
Rodriguez Gomez, Alberto
SHOINKHOROVA, Tuiana
Dikhtiarenko, Alla

Chowdhury, Abhishek Dutta

Hita, Idoia
Kulkarni, Shekhar Rajabhau

Vittenet, Jullian
Sarathy, Mani

Castaño, Pedro

Bendjeriou-Sedjerari, Anissa
Abou-Hamad, Edy
Zhang, Wen

Ali, Ola S.
Morales-Osorio, Isidoro
Xu, Wei
Gascon, Jorge

KAUST Department
Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering (BESE) DivisionChemical Engineering
Chemical Engineering Program
Chemical Science
Clean Combustion Research Center
Combustion and Pyrolysis Chemistry (CPC) Group
Imaging and Characterization Core Lab
KAUST Catalysis Center (KCC)
NMR
Optical Lab
Organic Team
Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division
Saudi Aramco, Chemicals R&D Lab at KAUST, Research and Development Center, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia.
Technology Transfer and Innovation
Date
2021-02-25Online Publication Date
2021-02-25Print Publication Date
2021-03Embargo End Date
2021-08-25Submitted Date
2020-02-11Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/667715
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
With the demand for gasoline and diesel expected to decline in the near future, crude-to-chemicals technologies have the potential to become the most important processes in the petrochemical industry. This trend has triggered intense research to maximize the production of light olefins and aromatics at the expense of fuels, which calls for disruptive processes able to transform crude oil to chemicals in an efficient and environmentally friendly way. Here we propose a catalytic reactor concept consisting of a multi-zone fluidized bed that is able to perform several refining steps in a single reactor vessel. This configuration allows for in situ catalyst stripping and regeneration, while the incorporation of silicon carbide in the catalyst confers it with improved physical, mechanical and heat-transport properties. As a result, this reactor–catalyst combination has shown stable conversion of untreated Arabian Light crude into light olefins with yields per pass of over 30 wt% with a minimum production of dry gas.Citation
Alabdullah, M., Rodriguez-Gomez, A., Shoinkhorova, T., Dikhtiarenko, A., Chowdhury, A. D., Hita, I., … Gascon, J. (2021). One-step conversion of crude oil to light olefins using a multi-zone reactor. Nature Catalysis. doi:10.1038/s41929-021-00580-7Sponsors
We acknowledge Saudi Aramco for financial support. Y. Saih, S. Telalovic and L. E. Gevers are gratefully acknowledged for technical support and S. Ramirez Cherbuy for the artwork design.Publisher
Springer NatureJournal
Nature CatalysisAdditional Links
http://www.nature.com/articles/s41929-021-00580-7ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1038/s41929-021-00580-7