Cylindrical DBD Plasma Reactor: Cracking of Petroleum Fuel Oil into Light Olefins

Petroleum fuel oil components such as light and heavy fuel oil (LFO and HFO) are various liquid or semi-solid materials from several industrial processes. Negligible quantities of fuel oil (C۶+) are produced by olefins plants using feedstocks of light paraffin such as ethane, whilst plants using naphtha or gas oil as feedstocks produce higher quantities of fuel oil.Conversion (reforming, cracking, upgrading) of fuel oil to valuable hydrocarbon products is a very important technology for a variety of applications. In cracking process, it is necessary to get various useful hydrocarbon gases and oils. However, the chemistry of fuel oil upgrading is extremely complicated. Recently, a novel technology of plasma and catalytic process was studied by many researchers for hydrocarbon reforming [۱-۲]. In a plasma reactor there are many energetic electrons, ions and neutral particles being able to collide with hydrocarbons and provide the energy required to crack the bands. Therefore, the produced radicals can join and introduce another hydrocarbon. These electrons could play the role of catalyst in FCC (Fluid Catalytic Cracking) process. Our approach in this work is to present briefly a new type of non-catalytic-non-thermal dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma reactor [۳] to convert C۱۱-C۱۸ heavy fuel oil (such as aromatic, naphthene and paraffin hydrocarbons) to lighter and marketable products at room temperature and under atmospheric pressure

کلیدواژه ها:

Fuel Oil ، Cracking ، Non-thermal ، Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) plasma