Study on efficient utilization of light cycle oil with combined process

A combined process of hydrotreating, fractionating, solvent extraction, and fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) was proposed to improve the added value of light cycle oil (LCO). In the process, hydrotreating LCO (HLCO) was divided into light and heavy fractions by fractionating. The bicyclic and tricyclic aromatics in the heavy fraction of HLCO were extracted to produce chemical products by solvent extraction. The raffinate oil and the light fraction of HLCO, rich in saturated hydrocarbons and monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, were processed to produce high-octane gasoline by FCC. According to the results, the combined process solved the problem of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons of HLCO being challenging to be cracked in FCC reaction, reduced the yield of dry gas and coke by 43.01 wt%, reduced the yield of diesel with low added value by 32.33 wt%, and optimized the product structure. In other words, the process makes efficient use of the aromatic and nonaromatic components in LCO.