Applied Catalysis A: General 487 (2014) 26–35 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Applied Catalysis A: General jou rn al hom epage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apcata Cumene cracking activity and enhanced regeneration of FCC catalysts comprising HY-zeolite and LaBO 3 (B = Co, Mn, and Fe) perovskites Negahdar Hosseinpour a,b,∗ , Yadollah Mortazavi a , Abbas Ali Khodadadi a,∗∗ a Oil & Gas Processing Center of Excellence, School of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, P.O. Box 11155/4563, Tehran, Iran b Institute of Petroleum Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, P.O. Box 11155/4563, Tehran, Iran a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 5 June 2014 Received in revised form 26 August 2014 Accepted 28 August 2014 Available online 6 September 2014 Keywords: Catalytic cracking Perovskite Coke Oxidation Regeneration a b s t r a c t The effects of LaBO 3 (B = Co, Mn, Fe) perovskites physically mixed with HY-zeolite (Y), denoted as LBO-Y binary catalysts, on both cumene cracking and the catalysts regeneration were studied. All the catalysts exhibit more than 82% cumene conversion and their activities decrease in the order of Y- zeolite > LCoO-Y > LFeO-Y > LMnO-Y. During cumene cracking, the perovskites are reduced leading to increase in dehydrogenation coking and oxidation of a portion of the carbon content of the feed into carbon oxides. As compared to the Y-zeolite with no promoter, a decline of about 8.3% and increase of around 75.0 and 83.3% in coke formation are observed for LMnO-Y, LCoO-Y and LFeO-Y, respectively. Furthermore, the addition of LCoO, LFeO and LMnO to the Y-zeolite lowers the ratio of CO evolution per deposited carbon in the coked catalysts regeneration by about 91, 48 and 34%, respectively. Finally, among the screened perovskites, LMnO exhibits both the lowest coke formation tendency and a considerable CO oxidation activity, thus it is a potential additive to fluid catalytic cracking catalysts. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit is the heart of petroleum refining industry, still remained committed to producing diesel fuels and high octane gasoline from atmospheric and vacuum gasoils [1]. Higher amounts of gasoline and diesel fuels are in demand in different societies every year. On the other hand, light feedstocks are being gradually replaced by the relatively heavier feeds with greater processing difficulties. In addition, stringent environmental regulations have come into force all over the world to mitigate the progressive deterioration of air quality. In order to address these challenges, many studies have been underway to optimize the FCC catalysts. The FCC units consist of a riser reactor and a regenerator. Atom- ized feed in contact with hot catalyst particles is vaporized, cracked and goes across the riser reactor, resulting in the production of lower boiling hydrocarbon products and formation of coke on the ∗ Corresponding author at: Oil & Gas Processing Center of Excellence, School of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, P.O. Box 11155/4563, Tehran, Iran. Tel.: +98 21 66967793; fax: +98 21 66967793. ∗∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 21 66967793; fax: +98 21 66967793. E-mail addresses: nhosseinpour@ut.ac.ir (N. Hosseinpour), khodadad@ut.ac.ir (A.A. Khodadadi). catalyst. In the regenerator of the FCC plants, the coke is burned off and the regenerated catalyst is returned back into the riser reactor [2,3]. Modern FCC catalysts are composed of crystalline Y-zeolite (13–35 wt%), active matrices (10–25 wt%), low-activity fillers (10–70 wt%) balanced with a binder and some proprietary addi- tives [1–7]. The catalysts formulation is dictated by refineries, enabling them to meet the demands of their markets with a min- imum investment. The acidic Y-zeolite, with a stable crystalline framework of 7.4 ˚ A openings, is the most active and selective component of the FCC catalysts [1–6]. The cracking activity of the zeolite is attributed to its Brønsted acidity which catalyzes hydrocarbon cracking reactions via carbenium ion chemistry [1,2]. Although there are high density acid sites on the outer surface of the zeolite crystallites, the majority of the strong acid sites are located within the zeolite pores which are not accessible to large molecules [8]. Thus, the cracking of nowadays heavy feeds is essentially diffusion-controlled and tends to produce more coke than lighter feeds due to their wide variety of unsaturated species [5]. Precious metal particles are conventional oxidation promot- ers added to the FCC catalysts to enhance combustion of coke and oxidation of CO formed during the catalysts regeneration process [1,2,9–13]. CO is formed through coke combustion in dense-catalyst region immediately above air distributor of the http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apcata.2014.08.035 0926-860X/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.