1 Study of promoters to Reverse Boudouard reaction under regeneration step conditions of FCC process Sérgio Pereira 1* , Filipa Ribeiro 1 , Marcelo Maciel Pereira 2 1* s.fcpereira5@gmail.com 1 Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal 2 Instituto de Química, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Av. Athos da Silveira Ramos, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil ABSTRACT The fluid cracking catalytic process (FCC) contributes with about 30% of the total CO 2 emissions in a refinery. The possibility to react CO 2 and coke (Reverse Boudouard reaction) during the spent catalyst regeneration using a rich atmosphere in CO 2 and O 2 , instead of air, can mitigate CO 2 emissions and, simultaneously, produce CO for sequential uses. In this work, alumina catalysts modified by both alkali and alkaline earth metals in presence or not of vanadium were prepared, with the purpose of finding promoters for this reaction. Therefore, it was shown that this goal was achieved by an alumina catalyst modified with lithium and vanadium under normal regeneration temperatures, i.e. in the range of 690 to 720ºC, with the best efficiency among all catalysts, verifying a great synergy between lithium and vanadium. This synergy is noticed by comparing the values of average conversion during the first five minutes of reaction in 13 CO 2 /O 2 /He atmosphere of Li-V/Al 2 O 3 and Li/Al 2 O 3 . At 720ºC, the first catalyst attained a value of 39% while the second attained only 6%. The first formed product was 13 CO, followed by 12 CO and then by 12 CO 2 . The 12 CO was formed by both RB reaction and by burning the coke with O 2 . Considering the amount of coke produced in FCC units, we notice that this process could be performed in a CO 2 /O 2 atmosphere. Keywords: CO 2 , FCC, Coke, Vanadium, Lithium, Reverse Boudouard reaction 1. Introduction The industry quick development in the second half of the twentieth century led to a serious decline of planet’s ecological situation. A major problem has been the combustion of hydrocarbons, which during the last few decades caused a significant increase of carbon dioxide in atmosphere, it’s the main greenhouse gas. Currently, less than 1% of total CO 2 production by anthropogenic sources is recycled [1] and the concentration of this gas is about 400 ppm. Although there are measures to reduce CO 2 emissions, it is estimated that, if there is no additional effort by the major emitting countries, this situation will become worse [2]. This makes the study of new technologies to reduce CO 2 emissions increasingly important. The Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) is one of the most important processes in a refinery and its objective is converting vacuum gasoil from atmospheric or vacuum distillation in high added value products, such as gasoline. The process consists mainly of three steps: reaction, separation, and catalyst regeneration. In the reaction step, there is the formation of coke (6- 1