Simultaneous Production of US Grade Gasoline and High Purity Benzene 

Due to the strict environmental regulation, worldwide, there is a demand for low benzene gasoline, e.g. benzene < 0.62 vol % in the USA. FCC Naphtha is mainly responsible for high benzene concentration in the gasoline pool.

With the increase in Propylene demand, FCCU severity is increasing, which results in more benzene in FCC gasoline. Thus, Technology will soon become the need of the hour, given not only producing clean benzene lean gasoline but also for efficient recovery of high-value aromatics (like benzene) from alternative feedstocks such as FCC Gasoline.

CSIR-IIP and RIL developed extractive distillation based novel technology overcome the challenges of existing process and unavailability of a commercial process for reducing the benzene concentration in unprocessed FCC Gasoline.  This Technology serves a dual role of recovering high purity benzene (>97 wt. % pure) and producing environmental friendly gasoline (Bz. < 0.4 wt. %) from FCC C6 heart cut stream containing benzene in the range of 11-19% without the requirement of any pre-processing step to saturate di-olefins and reduce reactive impurities (chlorides, peroxides etc.) impurities in the feedstock. Successful commercialization of the Technology with design capacity 0.7 MMTPA (17.4 KBPSD) at RIL Jamnagar in May 2016 has given due credence to its novelty and deliverables not only in India but in abroad as well. The estimated payback for the Technology based on the benefits realized by the RIL Jamnagar is ~1.1 year. Technology has proved its mettle with  uninterrupted run since 2016.

This Technology is first of its kind in the world. Some of its salient features are as follows:

• Technology does neither require any prior hydrogenation step to saturate di-olefins nor requires expensive types of equipment, which makes it simple, energy-efficient, and low cost.
• Technology is based on thermally and oxidative stable Solvent system with unique process configuration to minimize solvent loss and maximize product recoveries
• Fully indigenous Technology developed jointly by Indian corporations located in India.
• The technology can be extended for recovery of other aromatics like toluene from similar feedstock