A two-step process that includes a pyrolytic first step carried out in a mechanically or gravitationally impelled reactor and a catalytic fluid bed second step that upgrades the resulting vapor, for the conversion of waste plastics, polymers, and other waste materials to useful chemical and fuel products such as paraffins, olefins, and aromatics such as BTX is described.

Processes herein may be used to thermally crack various hydrocarbon feeds, and may eliminate the refinery altogether while making the crude to chemicals process very flexible in terms of crude. In embodiments herein, crude is progressively separated into light and heavy fractions utilizing convection heat from heaters used in steam cracking. Depending on the quality of the light and heavy fractions, these are routed to one of three upgrading operations, including a fixed bed hydroconversion unit, a fluidized catalytic conversion unit, or a residue hydrocracking unit that may utilize either an ebullated bed reactor with extrudate catalysts or a slurry hydrocracking reactor using a homogeneous catalyst system, such as a molybdenum based catalysts which may optionally be promoted with nickel. Products from the upgrading operations can be finished olefins and/or aromatics, or, for heavier products from the upgrading operations, may be used as feed to the steam cracker.

An H.sub.2-rich fuel gas stream can be advantageously produced by reforming a hydrocarbon/steam mixture in to produce a reformed stream, followed by cooling the reformed stream in a waste-heat recovery unit to produce a high-pressure steam stream, shifting the cooled reformed stream a first shifted stream, cooling the first shifted stream, shifting the cooled first shifted stream to produce a second shifted stream, cooling the second shifted stream, abating water from the cooled second shifted stream to obtain a crude gas mixture stream comprising H.sub.2 and CO.sub.2, and recovering a CO.sub.2 stream from the crude gas mixture stream. The H.sub.2-rich stream can be advantageously combusted to provide thermal energy needed for residential, office, and/or industrial applications including in the H.sub.2-rich fuel gas production process. The H.sub.2-rich fuel gas production process can be advantageously integrated with an olefins production plant comprising a steam cracker.

Methods for catalytic cracking hydrocarbon mixture have been disclosed. A hydrocarbon mixture having an initial boiling temperature of 30° C. to 70° C. is catalytically cracked in the presence of a catalyst to produce one or more olefins and/or one or more aromatics. The catalytic cracking is conducted such that the amount of coke formed on the catalyst is at least 5 wt. % (based on total weight of spent catalyst). The catalyst from the catalytic cracking step is then regenerated to produce regenerated catalyst.

Embodiments of catalyst systems and methods of synthesizing catalyst systems are provided. The catalyst system may include a core comprising a zeolite; and a shell comprising a microporous fibrous silica. The shell may be in direct contact with at least a majority of an outer surface of the core. The catalyst system may have a Si/Al molar ratio greater than 5. At least a portion of the shell may have a thickness of from 50 nanometers (nm) to 600 nm.

Embodiments of catalyst systems and methods of synthesizing catalyst systems are provided. The catalyst system may include a core comprising a zeolite; and a shell comprising a microporous fibrous silica. The shell may be in direct contact with at least a majority of an outer surface of the core. The catalyst system may have a Si/Al molar ratio greater than 5. At least a portion of the shell may have a thickness of from 50 nanometers (nm) to 360 nm.

Provided is a continuous process for converting waste plastic into recycle for polyethylene polymerization or for normal alpha olefins. The process comprises selecting waste plastics containing polyethylene and/or polypropylene and then passing the waste plastics through a pyrolysis reactor to thermally crack at least a portion of the polyolefin waste and produce a pyrolyzed effluent. The pyrolyzed effluent is separated into offgas, a naphtha/diesel fraction, a heavy fraction, and char. The naphtha/diesel fraction is passed to a crude unit in a refinery from which is recovered a straight run naphtha fraction (C.sub.5-C.sub.8) or a propane/butane (C.sub.3-C.sub.4) fraction. The straight run naphtha fraction, or propane and butane (C.sub.3-C.sub.4) fraction, is passed to a steam cracker for ethylene production. The ethylene is converted to normal alpha olefin and/or polyethylene. Also, a heavy fraction from the pyrolysis reactor can be combined with a heavy fraction of normal alpha olefin stream recovered from the steam cracker. The combined heavy fraction and heavy fraction of normal alpha olefin stream can be passed to a wax hydrogenation zone to produce wax.

A processing facility is provided that includes a feedstock separation system configured to separate a feed stream into a lights stream and a heavies stream, a hydrogen production system configured to produce hydrogen and carbon dioxide from the lights stream, and a carbon dioxide conversion system configured to produce synthetic hydrocarbons or the carbon dioxide. The processing facility also includes a hydroprocessing system configured to process the heavies stream, and a hydroprocessor separation system configured to separate a hydroprocessing system effluent into a separator tops stream and a separator bottoms stream, wherein the separator bottoms stream is fed to the hydrogen production system.

Processes for producing olefins include integration of steam cracking with a dual catalyst metathesis process. The processes include steam cracking a hydrocarbon feed to form a cracking reaction effluent containing butenes, separating the cracking reaction effluent to produce a cracking C4 effluent including normal butenes, isobutene, and 1,3-butadiene, subjecting the cracking C4 effluent to selective hydrogenation to convert 1,3-butadiene in the cracking C4 effluent to normal butenes, removing isobutene from a hydrogenation effluent to produce a metathesis feed containing normal butenes, and contacting the metathesis feed with a metathesis catalyst and a cracking catalyst directly downstream of the metathesis catalyst to produce a metathesis reaction effluent. Contacting with the metathesis catalyst causes metathesis of normal butenes to produce ethylene, propene, and C5+ olefins, and contacting with the cracking catalyst causes C5+ olefins produced through metathesis to undergo cracking reactions to produce additional propene, ethylene, or both.

Disclosed are a method and apparatus of predicting properties of feed and products in a reformer. The method of predicting properties of feed and products in a reformer includes training a first predictive model for predicting the properties of feed in the reformer and a second predictive model for predicting the properties of products in the reformer; predicting the properties of feed being currently supplied to the reactor in real time by allowing a first prediction unit including the trained first prediction model to receive a current operating condition of the reactor in the reformer; and predicting the properties of products being produced in the reactor in real time by allowing a second prediction unit including the trained second prediction model to receive the current operating condition and the predicted properties of feed.