Patent ID: 11905468
Assignee: MARATHON PETROLEUM COMPANY LP
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC C  B  G | IPC B  C  G

Claim 25:
26. A fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) process controller to enhance control of a fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) processing assembly associated with a refining operation, the FCC process controller being in communication with one or more spectroscopic analyzers and one or more first processing units, the FCC process controller being configured to:
predict one or more hydrocarbon feedstock sample properties associated with a hydrocarbon feedstock sample based at least in part on hydrocarbon feedstock sample spectra generated by the one or more spectroscopic analyzers;
predict one or more unit material sample properties associated with a unit material sample based at least in part on unit material sample spectra generated by the one or more spectroscopic analyzers; and
control, based at least in part on the one or more hydrocarbon feedstock sample properties and the one or more unit material sample properties, one or more of:
(i) a feedstock parameter associated with the hydrocarbon feedstock supplied to the one or more first processing units,
(ii) content of the intermediate materials produced by one or more of the first processing units,
(iii) operation of the one or more first processing units,
(iv) content of the one or more unit materials, or
(v) operation of one or more second processing units positioned downstream relative to the one or more first processing units,
so that the controlling results in enhancing accuracy of target content of one or more of the intermediate materials, the unit product materials, or downstream materials produced by the one or more second processing units, thereby to more responsively control the FCC process to achieve material outputs that more accurately and responsively converge on target properties.