System and method for producing olefins are disclosed. The method includes using a radial flow moving bed reactor system to catalytically crack paraffins, in multiple stages with continuous catalyst regeneration, to form olefins. The system includes inter-stage heaters to facilitate increase in yield of olefins.

Systems and methods for producing light olefins and aromatics from light naphtha are disclosed. The light naphtha is fed to a first catalyst riser to crack the C.sub.5 to C.sub.7 hydrocarbons in the light naphtha stream. The cracked naphtha stream is fractionated to produce a stream comprising primarily C.sub.4 to C.sub.6 hydrocarbons or a stream comprising primarily C.sub.5 to C.sub.12 hydrocarbons. When the stream comprising primarily C.sub.4 to C.sub.6 hydrocarbons is fed to the second catalyst riser, the product stream from the second riser comprises light olefins as the main product. When the stream comprising primarily C.sub.5 to C.sub.12 hydrocarbons is fed to the second riser, the product stream from the second riser comprises aromatics as the main product.

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.

Methods for making higher-octane fuel components from a feed stream of C8+ paraffins, including catalytically cracking the C8+ paraffins using a Zeolite catalyst to produce a reaction product of mid-chain paraffins and olefins and short-chain paraffins and olefins. The reaction product comprises liquid phase paraffins having an increased Octane Value over the feed stream paraffins. The reaction product further comprises a gas phase of short-chain paraffins which are separated from the liquid phase. In embodiments, the short chain olefins are hydrogenated to form mid-chain paraffins and a gas phase containing short-chain paraffins.

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.

Processes for producing olefins include introducing a hydrocarbon feed to a high-severity fluidized catalytic cracking system, contacting the hydrocarbon feed with a cracking catalyst under high-severity conditions in the high-severity fluidized catalytic cracking system to produce a cracking reaction effluent comprising butene, and passing at least a portion of the cracking reaction effluent, which includes at least butene, to a metathesis system. The processes further include contacting the portion of the cracking reaction effluent with a metathesis catalyst in the metathesis system, which causes at least a portion of the butene in the cracking C4 effluent to undergo a metathesis reaction to produce a metathesis reaction effluent comprising at least one of ethylene, propene, or both. The processes may further include separating a metathesis C5+ effluent from the metathesis reaction effluent and passing the metathesis C5+ effluent back to the high-severity fluidized catalytic cracking unit.

Systems and methods for production of externally-pore-blocked, internally-pore-opened modified zeolite crystals, the method including mixing zeolite crystals with an organic pore blocking agent; heating the zeolite crystals mixed with the organic pore blocking agent to block internal pores of the zeolite crystals and produce internally-pore-blocked zeolite crystals; mixing the internally-pore-blocked zeolite crystals with an external pore blocking agent; and calcining the internally-pore-blocked zeolite crystals mixed with the external pore blocking agent, to re-open internal pores via decomposition of the organic pore blocking agent and to block external pores via formation of a silica layer over external pores of the zeolite crystals, forming the externally-pore-blocked, internally-pore-opened modified zeolite crystals.

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.

Processes and systems are disclosed for improving the yield from reforming processes. Aromatic complex bottoms, or a heavy fraction thereof, are subjected to catalytic conversion to produce additional gasoline and higher-quality aromatic compounds.

Provided herein are supercritical upgrading reactors and reactor systems for upgrading a petroleum-based composition by using one or more supercritical upgrading reactors and one or more supercritical standby reactors that alternate functions such that the supercritical upgrading reactor is converted to a supercritical standby reactor and the supercritical standby reactor is converted to a supercritical upgrading reactor. The supercritical upgrading reactor upgrades a combined feed stream while a supercritical standby reactor delivers a cleaning fluid into the supercritical standby reactor. The supercritical reactors may have one or more catalyst layers and one or more purging fluid inlets, and the catalyst layers may have differing void volume ratios.