(67c) Lco Upgrading

Current world capacity of FCC light cycle oil (LCO) is
approximately 3 million BPD.  In the past, this stream has frequently been
blended into the diesel pool despite its poor cetane value and
high sulfur content.  However, as requirements for fuel sulfur have become
more stringent, this option has become even less attractive.  This
relegates the LCO to low value heating and fuel oil pools which are also
shrinking markets in many countries.  LCO therefore presents problems for
the modern refiner.       

Hydrotreating and hydrocracking have been two of the best
suited upgrading technologies used to meet the increasingly challenging clean
and reformulated fuels specifications.  UOP has previously introduced the
LCO Unicracking^TM process, which provides the opportunity to upgrade
LCO to ULSD and high octane gasoline products via hydrotreating and
hydrocracking.  The design and flexibility of this process allows the
refiner to take advantage of the market situation by shifting conversion to
high quality naphtha or distillate.

Recently UOP has introduced LCO-X^TM process to
produce xylenes and benzene suitable for petrochemical processing.  After
fractionation, high purity benzene and xylene may be taken as products from the
process, in addition to LPG, ULSD and light naphtha.  The continued
increasing demand for aromatics, especially xylenes, provides attractive
economics for this process.