Revamp improves FCC performance at BP's Texas City refinery

In early 2003, BP Products Co. revamped its Texas City, Tex., refinery. Changes to FCC Unit 1 reduced the true boiling point distillation curve’s 90%-final boiling point tail for the heavy catalytic naphtha (HCN) to 36° F. from 58° F., lowered gasoline sulfur content, and improved gasoline recovery from the light catalytic cycle oil (LCCO) by 800 b/d. Since the 2003 revamp, the unit has processed 60,000 b/d of feed at maximum conversion, which it could not do before the turnaround. Heat and material balance principles, field data gathering and interpretation, and packed-column internal design basics were critical to the success of this revamp.