Apparatus and processes herein provide for converting hydrocarbon feeds to light olefins and other hydrocarbons. The processes and apparatus include, in some embodiments, feeding a hydrocarbon, a first catalyst and a second catalyst to a reactor, wherein the first catalyst has a smaller average particle size and is less dense than the second catalyst. A first portion of the second catalyst may be recovered as a bottoms product from the reactor, and a cracked hydrocarbon effluent, a second portion of the second catalyst, and the first catalyst may be recovered as an overhead product from the reactor. The second portion of the second catalyst may be separated from the overhead product, providing a first stream comprising the first catalyst and the hydrocarbon effluent and a second stream comprising the separated second catalyst, allowing return of the separated second catalyst in the second stream to the reactor.

Apparatus and processes herein provide for converting hydrocarbon feeds to light olefins and other hydrocarbons. The processes and apparatus include, in some embodiments, feeding a hydrocarbon, a first catalyst and a second catalyst to a reactor, wherein the first catalyst has a smaller average particle size and is less dense than the second catalyst. A first portion of the second catalyst may be recovered as a bottoms product from the reactor, and a cracked hydrocarbon effluent, a second portion of the second catalyst, and the first catalyst may be recovered as an overhead product from the reactor. The second portion of the second catalyst may be separated from the overhead product, providing a first stream comprising the first catalyst and the hydrocarbon effluent and a second stream comprising the separated second catalyst, allowing return of the separated second catalyst in the second stream to the reactor.

The invention relates to a catalytic process for upgrading a renewable crude oil produced from biomass and/or waste comprising providing a renewable crude oil and pressurizing it to a pressure in the range in the range 60 to 150 bar, contacting the pressurized renewable crude oil with hydrogen and at least one heterogeneous catalyst contained in a first reaction zone at a weight based hourly space velocity (WHSV) in the range 0.1 to 2.0 h.sub.−1 and at a temperature in the range of 150° C. to 360° C., hereby providing a partially upgraded renewable crude oil, separating the partially upgraded renewable crude oil from the first reaction zone to a partially upgraded heavy renewable oil fraction, a partially upgraded light renewable oil fraction, a water stream and a process gas stream, introducing the separated and partially upgraded heavy renewable oil fraction and separated process gas to a second reaction zone comprising at least two reactors arranged in parallel and being adapted to operate in a first and a second mode of operation, the reactors comprising dual functioning heterogeneous catalyst(-s) capable of performing a catalytic steam cracking reaction in a first mode of operation or a steam reforming reaction in a second mode of operation, where the partially upgraded heavy renewable oil fraction from the first reaction zone is contacted with the dual functioning heterogeneous catalyst and steam at a pressure of 10 to 150 bar and a temperature of 350° C. to 430° C. whereby a catalytic steam cracking of the partially upgraded heavy renewable oil is performed in the reactors in the first mode of operation, hereby providing a further upgraded heavy renewable oil fraction, while separated process gas from the first and/or second reaction zone is contacted with the dual functioning catalyst and steam at a pressure of 0.1 to 10 bar and a temperature of 350 to 600° C. in the reactors in the second mode of operation and contacted with the dual functioning catalyst, thereby producing a hydrogen enriched gas, separating the further upgraded heavy renewable oil fraction from the catalytically steam cracking reactor to at least one light renewable oil fraction, a heavy renewable oil fraction, a hydrogen rich process gas and a water phase, separating hydrogen from the hydrogen enriched gas from the catalytic steam cracking zone and/or from the catalytic steam reforming and recycling it to the first reaction zone, alternating the reactors between the first mode of operation and the second mode of operation at predetermined time intervals thereby allowing for regeneration of the heterogeneous catalyst for the catalytic steam cracking in the first mode of op

A hydrocarbon material may be processed by a method that includes separating the hydrocarbon material into at least a lesser boiling point fraction, a medium boiling point fraction, and a greater boiling point fraction. The method may further include steam cracking at least a portion of the lesser boiling point fraction, catalytically cracking at least a portion of the medium boiling point fraction, and hydrocracking at least a portion of the greater boiling point fraction.

In some examples, a vapor phase product and a liquid phase product can be separated from a heated mixture that can include steam and a hydrocarbon. The liquid phase product can be catalytically cracked in the presence of a fluidized catalyst to produce a catalytically cracked effluent. A bottoms product can be separated from the catalytically cracked effluent. The bottoms product can be hydroprocessed to produce a hydroprocessed product. For example, the bottoms product can be hydroprocessed under pre-treater hydroprocessing conditions to produce a pre-treated bottoms product and the pre-treated bottoms product can be hydroprocessed under bottoms product hydroprocessing conditions to produce the hydroprocessed product. A hydroprocessor heavy product can be separated from the hydroprocessed product. The vapor phase product can be steam cracked to produce a steam cracker effluent. A tar product and an upgraded steam cracker effluent can be separated from the steam cracker effluent.

A steam-assisted catalytic cracking process for a hydrocarbon feed is provided. The process includes: introducing the hydrocarbon feed, a fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) catalyst, and steam to a FCC reactor with a mass ratio of steam to hydrocarbon feed between 0.05 and 1.0; cracking the hydrocarbon feed in the presence of the FCC catalyst and steam to produce a cracked hydrocarbon feed and spent FCC catalyst, the spent FCC catalyst comprising coke deposits and hydrocarbon deposits; stripping the hydrocarbon deposits from the spent FCC catalyst with steam in a stripper to obtain a hydrocarbon-stripped spent FCC catalyst; regenerating the hydrocarbon-stripped spent FCC catalyst in a regenerator by subjecting the stripped spent FCC catalyst to heat in the presence of oxygen to combust the coke deposits on the stripped spent FCC catalyst and produce a regenerated FCC catalyst; recycling the regenerated FCC catalyst.

A steam-assisted catalytic cracking process for a hydrocarbon feed is provided. The process includes: introducing the hydrocarbon feed, a fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) catalyst, and steam to a FCC reactor with a mass ratio of steam to hydrocarbon feed between 0.05 and 1.0; cracking the hydrocarbon feed in the presence of the FCC catalyst and steam to produce a cracked hydrocarbon feed and spent FCC catalyst, the spent FCC catalyst comprising coke deposits and hydrocarbon deposits; stripping the hydrocarbon deposits from the spent FCC catalyst with steam in a stripper to obtain a hydrocarbon-stripped spent FCC catalyst; regenerating the hydrocarbon-stripped spent FCC catalyst in a regenerator by subjecting the stripped spent FCC catalyst to heat in the presence of oxygen to combust the coke deposits on the stripped spent FCC catalyst and produce a regenerated FCC catalyst; recycling the regenerated FCC catalyst.

The invention relates to a process configuration for production of light olefins and aromatics from residual hydrocarbon streams. In this configuration a high severity catalytic cracking process is employed for producing higher yields of lighter olefins and various boiling fractions. C4 stream separated from gaseous product is subjected to metathesis and aromatized to form mono aromatics.

Methods for operating a system having two downflow high-severity FCC units for producing products from a hydrocarbon feed includes introducing the hydrocarbon feed to a feed separator and separating it into a lesser boiling point fraction and a greater boiling point fraction. The greater boiling point fraction is passed to the first FCC unit and cracked in the presence of a first catalyst at 500° C. to 700° C. to produce a first cracking reaction product and a spent first catalyst. The lesser boiling point fraction is passed to the second FCC unit and cracked in the presence of a second catalyst at 500° C. to 700° C. to produce a second cracking reaction product and a spent second catalyst. At least a portion of the spent first catalyst or the spent second catalyst is passed back to the first FCC unit, the second FCC unit or both.

Methods for operating a system having two downflow high-severity FCC units for producing products from a hydrocarbon feed includes introducing the hydrocarbon feed to a feed separator and separating it into a lesser boiling point fraction and a greater boiling point fraction. The greater boiling point fraction is passed to the first FCC unit and cracked in the presence of a first catalyst at 500° C. to 700° C. to produce a first cracking reaction product and a spent first catalyst. The lesser boiling point fraction is passed to the second FCC unit and cracked in the presence of a second catalyst at 500° C. to 700° C. to produce a second cracking reaction product and a spent second catalyst. At least a portion of the spent first catalyst or the spent second catalyst is passed back to the first FCC unit, the second FCC unit or both.