Production of High Octane Gasoline by Catalytic Cracking of Petroleum Gasoil with Palm’s Triglyceride and Oleic Acid

The use of gasoline with appropriate octane number will affect directly to meet superfine engine performance and avoiding from knocking effect. Improvement of gasoline quality in fluid catalytic cracking process usually is achieved by replacement of new catalyst which needs higher production cost. This research work aimed to describe the alternative method for improving gasoline octane in catalytic cracking by means of feedstock modification using mixture of vacuum gasoil and few of palm's triglyceride and oleic acid. The experimental work of cracking reaction was performed in a fluid-bed reactor of ACE unit using REY zeolite catalysts at temperature of 530 °C and catalyst-oil ratio of 5.5 g/g. The liquid product was analyzed by a gas chromatograph of simulated distillation to determine yields of gasoline, light cycle oil and bottom product continued by a gas chromatograph of detailed hydrocarbon analysis to obtain hydrocarbon composition and calculated research octane number of gasoline. Analysis of gaseous product was performed using a gas chromatograph of refinery gas analyzer to detect yields of dry gas and LPG, whereas coke deposited on spent catalyst was analyzed using the infra-red method. From the research work, it was found that feedstock prepared from vacuum gasoil added with 5 % refined bleached deodorized palm oil and oleic acid (9:1) had increased gasoline RON from 91.8 to 98.2. The improvement of gasoline octane was contributed by the presence of double-bond fatty acid that triggered promoting effect to aromatisation and hydrogen transfer reactions in the formation of more iso-paraffins, olefins and aromatics in gasoline.