Acidic and basic catalytic cracking technologies and its development prospects for crude oil to chemicals

The transformation of oil refining into chemical processing is an obvious trend for oil industry, which can efficiently process and utilize oils to reduce carbon emission and is an interesting topic in green chemistry and technology. The technology for direct conversion of crude oil to chemicals (COTC) is the key to achieve this transformation. In this paper, according to the core principles and main characteristics of various existing and developing COTC technologies, they are classified into catalytic and non-catalytic technologies, and the catalytic technologies are further divided into traditional catalytic technology (e.g. acidic catalytic technology) and innovative catalytic technology (e.g. basic catalytic technology). This paper reviews the development status, core principles and main characteristics of various COTC technologies, and focuses on the industrial application of CNOOC DPC (Direct Petroleum Cut to Chemicals & Material) technology and the original COTC technology centered on base catalysis technology. Industrial test data show that DPC base catalysis technology is especially suitable for naphthenic base or intermediate base of all kinds of crude oil and residue. Moreover, the feedstock adaptability is very strong, and the reaction mechanism is unique without hydrogen transfer and aromatic condensation reaction, leading to a much lower coke yield and much higher yield of light olefins and aromatic chemicals. In addition, DPC technology can effectively reduce CO2 emissions through inhibiting coke formation. Besides, the inferior heavy crude oil and vacuum residue can be deeply refined without hydrogen by using DPC technology, further contributing to reduce CO2 emissions. DPC's core catalytic technology is thus the preferred technology for petroleum refining companies to reduce fuel and increase chemicals production, and transform petroleum refining into chemical processing.