Self-Etherification Process for Cleaner Fuel Production

Abstract

The process of fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) gasoline self-etherification with ethanol has several benefits. Firstly, the gasoline volume is effectively increased by adding ethers produced from ethanol which is renewable. Secondly, the etherified gasoline product has higher octane number with lower blending Reid vapor pressure (bRvp) and amount of olefins content. Two catalysts; i.e., Amberlyst 16 and Beta-zeolite are used for etherification in this study. The bRvp of etherified FCC gasoline is lower than that of ethanol direct blend gasoline (called gasohol) and also could be lower than that of original FCC gasoline with moderate ethanol conversion. However, the octane number of etherified FCC gasoline catalyzed by Amberlyst 16 is slightly lower than that of gasohol. Beta-zeolite is a more suitable catalyst than Amberlyst 16 for the etherification of FCC gasoline with ethanol because not only a better catalytic activity for etherification, but some isomerization also occurs without aromatization. Therefore it offers improved gasoline products with higher research octane number and gasoline renewability with lower bRvp than that of gasohol. Olefins and ethanol conversions increase with increasing ethanol ratio in feed. Nevertheless, ethanol feed ratio is limited specification of distillation temperatures which are dependent on the evaporation of ethanol and its amount. The cold start problem might not be occurred even in low bRvp as proven by satisfied drivability index.