Chemical Engineering & Processing: Process Intensification 142 (2019) 107553

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Chemical Engineering & Processing: Process Intensification

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Canola oil/glycerol mixtures in a continously operated FCC pilot plant and T

comparison with vacuum gas oil/glycerol mixtures
⁎
Marco Büchelea, , Matthias Swobodaa, Alexander Reichholda, Wolfgang Hoferb
a
Vienna University of Technology, Institute for Chemical, Environmental & Bioscience Engineering (ICEBE), Getreidemarkt 9/166-3, 1060 Vienna, Austria
b
OMV Marketing & Refining GmbH, Trabrennstraße 6-8, 1020 Wien, Austria

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Catalytic cracking of glycerol/canola oil mixtures was conducted in a continuously operated FCC pilot plant at
Fluid catalytic cracking TU Wien. The range of mixtures was from pure canola oil to pure glycerol with several mixtures in between. The
Glycerol aim of this research was to prove if the addition of glycerol to the feed can be feasible and to determine changes
VGO in product quality. The set riser temperature was 550 °C and the selected feedrate was 2.7 kg/h. As bed material
Canola oil
a zeolite-based commercially available FCC-equilibrium catalyst was used. Utilizing a 7 lump model the products
Refinery technology
were characterized. Viable products like cracking gas (C1–C4) and the gasoline lump (paraffins, olefins and
aromatics) were analyzed in detail. The experiments showed that product distribution was mainly dependent on
the glycerol content in the feed. The gas, gasoline and LCO + residue lump decreased dramatically. Non-viable
products like water, coke and carbon oxides, on the other hand, increased significantly. Hence, it was concluded
that under set conditions and parameters glycerol might only be beneficial to the FCC process in small ad-
mixtures because of possible control coke-make. Additionally, a comparison was made between experiments
using canola oil/glycerol mixtures and VGO/glycerol mixtures.

1. Introduction
Even though there are concerns regarding the exhaust fumes of
diesel engines and their harmfulness to health, in particular NOx, diesel
engine cars are still widely used in many parts of Europe. Especially in
countries like Austria, Spain or France diesel engine cars are still a
dominant factor regarding market share [1,2]. On a global perspective,
the usage of diesel/gasoil is expected to at least stagnate on a high level
with rising demand in developing countries and due to new regulations
in the marine bunker sector [3].
Additionally, strict environmental regulations and the promotion of
using higher quantities of environmental sustainable feedstock through
legislation makes it challenging for refineries in the EU to satisfy the
demand for middle distillates [4]. In Austria the widely used method of
replacing fossil fuel is the addition of so called Biodiesel (FAME – fatty
acid methyl ester). The addition of which is allowed up to the amount of
7 v% in Diesel so far [5].
Hence, the production of Biodiesel surged to fulfil the political
target values. On a global perspective biodiesel production grew by
around 23 percent annually between the years 2005 and 2015. This
corresponds to a sevenfold increase in only a decade [6].
The main production process for biodiesel is the transesterification
of vegetable oils. There, a plant based oil like canola oil is esterified to
FAME and the by-product glycerol using a base or acid as a catalyst [7].
Consequently, the leaping production of FAME leads to an exponential
growth of glycerol production. This glycerol flooded the market and
glycerol prices collapsed since demand remained stable [8]. Even price
drops down to 10% of the original level were observed [9].
To resolve this issue, new applications for glycerol needed to be
found. Therefore, the possible usage of glycerol as a cheap feedstock for
fuel production was researched. One possible way is the co-processing
of glycerol with other feedstocks in the fluid catalytic cracking (FCC)
process which leads to this work.
The FCC-process is one of the core processes in a refinery which
basics were developed in the 1930s [10]. The basic principle behind the
process is the cracking of low value high-boiling hydrocarbons into
smaller molecules utilizing a catalyst and high temperatures. The va-
luable products produced are olefins (like ethylene and propylene),
high-octane gasoline and to a smaller amount light cycle oil (LCO).
Standard feeds for the catalytic cracking unit are normally gas oils from
vacuum distillation units (VGO) but also heavy oil residues [11].
In general the FCC process is a very versatile and robust conversion
process regarding feedstocks where different product spectrums can be
obtained. This has been proven by various studies that utilized different

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: marco.buechele@tuwien.ac.at (M. Büchele).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cep.2019.107553
Received 8 February 2019; Received in revised form 7 May 2019; Accepted 30 May 2019
Available online 04 June 2019
0255-2701/ © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
M. Büchele, et al.
feeds like e.g. vegetable oils or oils derived from pyrolysis [12–18].
Therefore, due to its flexibility and its establishment as one of the core
refinery processes the FCC process is predestined to test alternative,
more sustainable feedstocks. However, since industrial FCC plants
produce around the clock and every production issue means money
loss, feedstock tests on pilot plants are necessary to minimize economic
risk for the industrial plant owner and prove viability. The objective of
this work is to co-process glycerol/canola oil mixtures in an FCC pilot
plant and to compare the results with another series of experimental
runs of glycerol/vacuum gas oil mixtures conducted at the same pilot
plant.
At Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) an FCC pilot plant
has been developed by Hofbauer and Reichhold which was designed as
an internally circulating fluidized bed system [19]. Later a second pilot
plant was built by Bielansky and Reichhold which can process higher
feedrates and introduced several improvements build in compared to
the first plant [20]. Both plants show a high flexibility regarding pro-
cess parameters (mainly riser temperature and feedrate) and can be
operated with different feedstocks. Additionally, results of these pilot
plants can be conveyed to industrial plants. This was shown in past
cooperations with oil and gas companies when under similar setups
(riser temperature and used catalyst) results of the pilot plant where
compared with corresponding industrial FCC units.
2. Material and methods
2.1. Pilot plant
A schematic of the FCC pilot plant located at TU Wien is shown in
Fig. 1. Pilot plant.
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Chemical Engineering & Processing: Process Intensification 142 (2019) 107553
Table 1
Key data.
Pressure Atmospheric
Regenerator temperature 500–800 °C
Riser temperature 400–700 °C
Total height 3.2 m
Riser height 2.5 m
Riser diameter 0.0215 m
Regenerator diameter 0.33 m
Catalyst mass 45 – 65 kg
Feed rate 2 – 8 kg/h
Riser residence time ∼1 s
Particle circulation rate 0.5 – 5 kg/min
C/O – ratio 10 – 50
Fig. 1. The corresponding key data is listed in Table 1. The plant is
designed as an internally circulating fluidized bed system which results
in a compact design. However, a side-effect of this construction type is
the thermal coupling of the 2 plant sections: reactor and regenerator.
The feed is pumped to a tubular oven using a gear pump where it is
pre-heated. From there it flows through the feed inlet pipe into the riser
where it evaporates immediately as soon as it gets in contact with the
hot catalyst particles. This results in an increase in volume and thus the
feed is transported pneumatically together with the catalyst particles to
the top while cracking reactions occur. The residence time in the re-
actor is about 1 s. During the cracking reactions coke is generated which
deposits on the catalyst particles and therefore, inactivates them. Once
the catalyst-gas-mixture reaches the particle separator the spent cata-
lyst is removed from the gas stream. The product gas leaves the plant at
the top and is burned in a flare. A small portion of the product gas
stream bypasses the torch and flows into a condensation apparatus
where the products are gathered for analysis and separated into liquid
and gaseous phase. The coke-loaded particles descend in a return flow
pipe through the syphon into the regenerator section. Here, the particle
bed is fluidized with air and coke deposits are combusted to provide the
energy needed for the endothermal cracking reactions. The regenerated
particles are then passing through the cooler system towards the bottom
where they act again as a catalyst for the cracking reaction. This cycle
provides a continuous plant operation.
Except for the regenerator, all plant sections are fluidized with ni-
trogen which is especially important for the syphon and the bottom
fluidization. Both act as a gas barrier that prevents oxygen from en-
tering the product stream and product gas entering the regenerator.
Additionally, the syphon acts as a stripper that removes remains of
product gas from the spent particles.
Parameters like regenerator temperature, riser temperature, particle
circulation rate and feed rate can be adjusted in the ranges mentioned
in Table 1. Depending on the chosen parameters the total residence
time of feed in the plant is between 20–80 s.
2.2. Catalyst and feedstock
The used FCC equilibrium catalyst is a zeolite – based catalyst de-
veloped for enhanced olefin and gasoline production. Its fluid dyna-
mical properties were studied in advance to optimize plant operation.
The minimal fluidization velocity was found to be 1.195 mm/s at 620 °C
(Fig. 2). The catalysts particle size distribution is shown in Fig. 3. The
mode, which defines the maximum of the particle size density dis-
tribution, is 82 μm.
The feed utilized for the experiments consisted of glycerol and ca-
nola oil. In total 5 pilot plant runs were conducted where 3 different
mixtures where fed into the plant with additionally one run with both
pure glycerol and canola oil.
Canola oil is a plant based oil which consists mainly of triglycerides
with one glycerol molecule bound to 3 fatty acids. The hot filtrated
canola oil was obtained from Rapso GmbH (Aschach, Austria). Some
M. Büchele, et al. Chemical Engineering & Processing: Process Intensification 142 (2019) 107553

Fig. 2. Pressure drop as a function of superficial velocity at 620 °C.

selected properties and the composition of fatty acids of canola oil are Table 2
shown in Table 2. Fatty acid composition and physical and chemical properties of
The glycerol utilized in this research is from the company Wasser canola oil.
Hygiene Chemie GmbH (Hilgertshausen-Tandern, Germany). It is solely Fatty acid composition
plant-based and fulfils the quality requirements of the pharmaceutical Palmitic acid C16:0 4.5 wt%
and food industry. Some additional data is listed in Table 3. Stearic acid C18:0 1.8 wt%
Oleic acid C18:1 60.8 wt%
Linoleic acid C18:2 18.5 wt%
2.3. Analysis Linolenic acid C18:3 8.0 wt%
Other 6.4 wt%
Due to the wide variety of hydrocarbons produced in cracking re- Physical and Chemical Properties
actions an analysis model had to be developed that offers high accuracy Viscosity (40 °C) 35.9 mm²/s
Density (20 °C) 915 kg/m³
with reasonable effort. This was solved using a so called lump model
Bromine number 69.1 g Br/100 g
that is also used in industrial refining processes. Details of this 7 lump Acid number 0.1 mg KOH / g
model are described in Table 4. Oxygen content 10.9 wt%
The product gas is divided into a gaseous and liquid fraction uti- Water content < 0.1 wt%
lizing a 3 stage condensation apparatus. The gained gaseous phase (not
liquid at room temperature) is then analyzed in a gas chromatograph
(SHIMADZU GC 17-A). Here, the gaseous fraction is studied using 2 Table 3
separate columns and detectors. The gas lump (hydrocarbons C1 – C4) Glycerol properties.
are analyzed using a FID and a Varian CP-Al2O3/Na2SO4 column. The Density 1.26 kg/m³
N2 content is measured with a TCD and a CP CarboPLOT P7 column. Purity > 99.5 wt%
Oxygen content 52.1 wt%
The carbon oxide lump (CO, CO2) is measured online with a Rosemount
Water content < 0.5 wt%
NGA 2000 MLT3 of the company Emerson, an infrared gas analyzer.
The liquid fraction consists of 2 phases, an aqueous and an organic
one which are split up using a separation funnel. The aqueous phase Additionally, a manual atmospheric distillation was conducted to gain a
that makes up the water lump is measured gravimetrically. The organic gasoline lump for further analysis. This gasoline lump is analyzed in an
phase, on the other hand, is analyzed in a Simulated Distillation IROX 2000 FTIR fuel measurement device of Grabner Instruments.
(SimDist) utilizing a second gas chromatograph. This GC is equipped However, what must be mentioned, is that traces of C5 and C6 hydro-
with a Zebron ZB-1 column and a flame ionization detector (FID). carbons are not condensed in the used condensation apparatus but are
Further information can be found in the supplementary data section. In measured in the gas lump and accredited to the liquid lump. These
a SimDist the organic phase is divided into 3 categories: gasoline, LCO traces cannot be analyzed with the IROX 2000 since they are not in the
and residue. Here, the separation criteria is the boiling range (Table 4).

Fig. 3. Particle size distribution of FCC catalyst.

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M. Büchele, et al. Chemical Engineering & Processing: Process Intensification 142 (2019) 107553

Table 4 in Fig. 5. Contrary to the gas and gasoline lump the water content in-
The Lump Model with analysis method. creases drastically with rising glycerol content. It rises from 11.1 wt%
Fraction Lump Composition/ Boiling Range Analysis method with pure canola oil to 59.9 wt% when using pure glycerol. Again, a
linear regression was applied to describe the trend. The decrease in TFY
Gaseous Carbon oxide CO, CO2 Infrared and the increase in water content where expected due to the high
Gas C1 – C4 GC
oxygen content in the glycerol molecule and since in FCC, oxygen
Liquid Gasoline < 215 °C GC (Simdist)
LCO 215–320 °C GC (Simdist)
mainly converts to H2O. Regarding LCO + residue and coke lump the
Residue > 320 °C GC (Simdist) changes weren’t as severely as they were with other lumps. The
Water Gravimetric LCO + residue lump decreases slightly with a stronger decline at higher
Solid Coke Paramagnetic, Infrared glycerol contents. Contrary to that, rising glycerol content promotes the
formation of coke with an increase from 6.8 wt% to 12.2 wt%.

gasoline lump physically.

The solid fraction, the coke that is deposited on the catalyst parti-
cles’ surface, is measured indirectly using the online measurement of
the regenerator flue gas. In the regenerator the coke is combusted and
the formed carbon oxides (CO, CO2) are detected with an infrared gas
analyzer.
The total fuel yield (TFY) describes the valuable products, which are
the gas and gasoline lumps, in comparison to the feedrate.
m˙ gas + m˙ gasoline
TFY =
m˙ feed
3. Experimental results
The experiments were conducted at a constant feedrate of 2.7 kg/h
and a riser temperature of 550 °C during all runs. The gained results for
the product are depicted in the following figures.
3.1. Lumps and total fuel yield
The values for the total fuel yield are depicted in Fig. 4. Here, it can
be seen that a rising content of glycerol in the feed has a negative in-
fluence on the total fuel yield. With no glycerol in the feed the TFY is
68.5 wt%, while on the other hand, a feeding of pure glycerol leads to a
TFY of 13.8 wt%. The values for glycerol-canola oil mixtures are in
between. The influence of the glycerol content on the TFY can be de-
scribed as approximately linear.
Consequently, when the TFY decreases, the gas and gasoline lumps
must decline as well. Here, a linear regression was also used to describe
the trend. The gas lump decreased from 28.8 wt% to 3.3 wt%, while the
gasoline lump went from 39.7 wt% to 10.5 wt%.
The non-viable products LCO + residue, coke and water are shown
3.2. Composition of gas lumps
In Fig. 6 the gas composition regarding valuable gases like olefins
are depicted. The gas lump declines tremendously at higher admixtures
of glycerol (see Fig. 4). Valuable products for polymer production like
propylene are the main components of the gas lump when using pure
canola oil. This does not change through the experimental runs. How-
ever, the feedbased amount decreases significantly from 12.3 wt% to
1.2 wt%. Naturally, since the gas lump itself decreases, each component
has to decline as well with ethylene going down from 2.1 wt% to 1.1 wt
% and butenes dropping from 8.4 wt% to 0.5 wt%.
Regarding the composition of the gas lump different findings were
discovered. The glycerol content has a drastic influence on the gas
composition as well. Especially smaller gas molecules like propylene
increase with rising glycerol content in the feed. As depicted in Fig. 7
the ethylene content of the gas rises from 7.4 wt% to 33.6 wt%. Pro-
pylene, however, decreases only when glycerol rich feeds are processed.
Notably, between pure canola oil and 50 wt% glycerol in the feed no
significant changes can be determined (propylene content around 43 wt
%) whereas 35.2 wt% propylene are produced with pure glycerol. These
results can be explained by the structure of glycerol since it comprises
only 3 carbon atoms. Similar to propylene, butenes show the same trend
with no significant changes until 50 wt% glycerol in the feed and a
decrease with contents higher above that. Here, the decline is from
around 30 wt% to 13.7 wt%.
In addition to the gas lump the carbon oxide lump has been studied
in detail as well. As depicted in Fig. 8, the combined carbon oxide lump
as well as carbon monoxide and dioxide increase significantly when
feeding higher admixtures of glycerol. CO rises from 2.0 wt% to 8.2 wt
% and CO2 from 0.9 wt% to 3.2 wt%. Combined, the COx lump in-
creases from 2.8 wt% to 11.4 wt%. The trend of the carbon oxides was
described using a polynomic function of second order. The high amount

Fig. 4. TFY, gas and gasoline.

4
M. Büchele, et al.
Fig. 5. LCO + residue, coke and water.
Fig. 6. Composition of gas (feed based).
of carbon oxide in the gas fraction derives from the high oxygen content
in the glycerol molecule.
3.3. Composition of gasoline lump
Beside the gas lump, the gasoline lump is the second economically
valuable lump of the FCC products. It must be noted that sufficient li-
quid organic fraction could not be obtained when pure glycerol was
used as feed. Therefore, no analysis of the gasoline lump was possible.
In Fig. 9 the main components of gasoline are shown. It can be seen
that the aromatics content of the gasoline first rises from 52.9 wt% to
63.0 wt% and then declines back to 39.4 wt%. It must be noted that
none of the analyzed gasoline samples fulfil the requirement of max-
imum aromatics content which is limited to 35 vol% in DIN EN 228
[21]. Olefins, however, show a different trend. The highest olefin
content is 11.2 wt% when pure canola oil is fed to the plant. As soon as
glycerol is co-fed, the olefin content sinks. Unlike aromatics, the olefin
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Chemical Engineering & Processing: Process Intensification 142 (2019) 107553
content is below 18 vol% in all the gasoline samples and therefore,
fulfils the requirements [21]. The paraffin content, which is not directly
limited through regulations, is between 31.4 wt% and 54.6 wt%. Like
for carbon oxides a second order polynomic function was utilized to
describe the trends.
Information about the research octane number (RON) of the ana-
lyzed gasoline probes can be seen in Fig. 10. Here, the gasoline has a
RON above 100 in all feed-mixtures. A minimal value of 95 is required
by the applicable norms which is fulfilled [21]. Thus, the produced FCC
gasoline is a suitable blending component to mix high RON gasoline.
4. Comparison – glycerol/VGO – and glycerol/canola oil-mixtures
As has been described by Swoboda et al. [22] several experimental
runs of the TU Wien pilot plant utilizing vacuum gas oil (VGO)/glycerol
mixtures have been conducted as well. Similar to the research done for
this work, different feed mixtures were fed to the research plant ranging
M. Büchele, et al.
Fig. 7. Composition of gas (gas based).
from pure VGO (an industrial standard feed for FCC-plants) to pure
glycerol. However, unlike glycerol and canola oil, which are miscible, a
different feeding method using 2 different pumps was chosen since VGO
and glycerol are not miscible. In this chapter, a comparison between
canola oil/glycerol mixtures and VGO/glycerol mixtures regarding
several key results was made to determine potential differences be-
tween these two experimental series.
To determine if the co-feeding of glycerol is economically viable, the
total fuel yields of the 2 experimental series were compared (Fig. 11).
Here, it can be seen that the canola oil mixtures generally lead to a
lower total fuel yield and, hence, to a smaller amount of valuable
products. These differences between the 2 series decrease when feeding
higher admixtures of glycerol. Consequently, the shown differences
must primarily arise through the characteristics of canola oil and VGO.
Both experimental runs show a linear trend.
Since the TFY consists of the gas and gasoline lump the trends for
both lumps are usually the same as for the total fuel yield (see Figs. 12
and 13). In general, using VGO mixtures as a FCC-feed lead to a higher
Fig. 8. Carbon oxides.
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Chemical Engineering & Processing: Process Intensification 142 (2019) 107553
gas and gasoline lump than canola oil feeds which can be explained by
the significantly higher oxygen content in canola oil compared to VGO.
Again the differences decrease at higher glycerol content in the feed
mixtures.
The water content, however, shows a different trend. The more
glycerol is in the feed mixtures, the higher the water content rises. This
applies to all experimental runs and, therefore, the interpretation that a
serious amount of glycerol converts to water seems plausible. Notably,
VGO itself does not convert to water whereas pure canola oil leads to
10 wt% in the product. The higher water content for canola oil mixtures
is due to the catalytic conversions of the oxygen bonds in the canola
molecule.
The LCO + residue lump that is depicted in Fig. 13 shows a different
trend described by a second order function whereas the previous
mentioned lumps all show a linear trend. Again the differences between
the 2 experimental series decrease at higher glycerol content in the feed
and also the lumps in general decline. The higher amount of
LCO + residue lump for the canola oil mixtures can be explained by the
M. Büchele, et al. Chemical Engineering & Processing: Process Intensification 142 (2019) 107553

Fig. 9. Paraffins, olefins and aromatics in gasoline lump.

Fig. 10. RON in gasoline lump.

Fig. 11. Comparison of TFY of canola oil mixtures vs. VGO mixtures.

chemical structure. Unlike VGO which is a mix of different categories of
molecules, canola oil is made up of long chained molecules (fatty acids)
which are linked to a glycerol frame. Therefore, the LCO + residue
lump which also consists of longer molecules is produced in a larger
amount when using canola oil.
Finally, a comparison between the propylene lumps was made since
propylene is one of the most valuable products of the FCC-process. The
feedbased content (Fig. 14) of the two mixtures shows a linear trend
with decreasing amounts of propylene in the product. Here, VGO
mixtures show a higher propylene content (feedbased) than canola oil
mixtures. Interestingly, the gasbased content shows a different result. In
mixtures with low glycerol content the canola oil mixtures lead to a
higher gasbased propylene lump. This effect disappears at higher
glycerol content.
5. Conclusion
It could be shown that glycerol with a purity of 99.5 wt% and
mixtures with canola oil can be processed in an FCC pilot plant.
Experimental runs were conducted with pure canola oil and pure gly-
cerol at a constant feedrate of 2.7 kg/h. Additionally, experiments with
feed mixtures of 30 wt%, 50 wt% and 80 wt% glycerol were conducted.
For all experiments the riser temperature was set to 550 °C.
The findings are that under given conditions rising glycerol content
in the feed leads to a decreasing conversion, meaning that the amount
of valuable products like gases (C1-C4) and gasoline decreases which is

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M. Büchele, et al. Chemical Engineering & Processing: Process Intensification 142 (2019) 107553

Fig. 12. Comparison of gas and water lump of canola oil mixtures vs. VGO mixtures.

Fig. 13. Comparison of LCO + residue and gasoline content of canola oil mixtures vs. VGO mixtures.

Fig. 14. Comparison of feedbased and gasbased propylene lump between canola oil mixtures and VGO mixtures.

undesirable. This trend can be described as linear leading to the lowest
conversion rate when pure glycerol is used. The conversion rate
plummets from 68 wt% to around 14 wt%. Corresponding to that,
carbon oxide, water and coke lumps show a rising, linear trend.
However, these lumps are of no commercial value which leads to the
conclusion that from an economic point of view it is reasonable to only
use feeds with a low glycerol content.
Put in numbers, it can be seen that glycerol mainly converts to water
and carbon oxides with the water content surging from 11 wt% to al-
most 60 wt% and the carbon oxides increasing from 2.8 wt% to 11.4 wt
%. An explanation can be found in the molecular structure of glycerol
which is a trivalent alcohol. Thus, the three oxygen atoms in the mo-
lecule are the main cause for this behavior. Additionally, the reaction
mechanism of catalytic cracking inherently promotes water formation if

8
M. Büchele, et al.
oxygen is present in the feed.
Since propylene and ethylene are the most valuable products of the
FCC process the gas lump has been looked into in more detail. The main
components of the gas lump namely ethylene, propylene, different
butenes and other gases behave similar to the total gas lump. All show a
linear decreasing trend with rising glycerol content in the feed.
Especially the feedbased propylene content drastically decreases from
around 12 wt% to a little over 1 wt%. This further indicates that co-
feeding glycerol will only be viable if the glycerol content is low
(around 10 wt% or less).
Even though the results show that co-processing glycerol in the FCC
unit is not promising regarding the product composition, the coke
promoting properties of glycerol might still be useful. The FCC process
runs mainly autothermal with the necessary energy required for the
cracking reactions being provided by the burning of coke in the re-
generator. VGO forms few coke during the process which can be a
problem for process stability since too little energy is provided for the
process. Therefore, often heavy residues are co-processed with VGO
which promote coke formation. This role could also be taken over by
glycerol since it also shows strong coke promoting properties. Thus,
additional experimental runs with canola oil/glycerol mixtures at a low
glycerol content are recommended to research its behavior in the pro-
cess in more detail.
The comparison between canola oil/glycerol mixtures and VGO/
glycerol mixtures has shown that in general the VGO/glycerol feed
leads to a higher conversion and therefore a higher amount of valuable
products. Hence, the addition of glycerol to a VGO feed is favorable in
an economically point of view. Regarding the trends no essential dif-
ference was found between the two experimental series.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest regarding
the publication of this article.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by OMV Marketing and Refining GmbH
(Österreichischer Mineralölverband).
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary material related to this article can be found, in the
online version, at doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cep.2019.107553.
Chemical Engineering & Processing: Process Intensification 142 (2019) 107553
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