Catalyst charge heater

1. A fluidized bed catalytic cracking apparatus (FCC) for treating gaseous hydrocarbons from a cracking catalyst, the apparatus comprising:

i) a catalyst regenerator for regenerating catalyst by contact with oxygen containing gas to produce regenerated catalyst;

ii) a standpipe for recycling the regenerated catalyst from the catalyst regenerator to a cracking zone;

iii) a stripping means for stripping inert gases from the regenerated catalyst as the catalyst flows from the regenerator;

iv) a riser for receiving the stripped catalyst; and

v) a FCC catalyst charge heater for preheating FCC feedstocks;

vi) wherein the FCC catalyst charge heater is a catalyst cooler;

vii) wherein the FCC catalyst charge heater is used in conjunction with an FCC catalyst heater in the regenerator; and

viii) wherein stripping steam is used to control the heat transfer coefficient of the catalyst charge heater to achieve the desired feed temperature.

2. An FCC apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the FCC catalyst charge heater is configured to maintain unit heat balance in the catalytic cracking unit.

3. An FCC apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the FCC catalyst charge heater is a catalyst cooler external to the regenerator.

4. An FCC apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the FCC catalyst charge heater is a catalyst cooler external to the regenerator with a flowthrough or backmixed catalyst flow configuration.

5. An FCC apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the FCC catalyst charge heater further comprises a feed inlet for FCC feed to enter the catalyst cooler and a feed outlet for the FCC feed to exit the catalyst cooler.

6. An FCC apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the use of the catalyst charge heater increases the liquid volume yield of transportation fuels.

7. An FCC apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising a catalyst outlet for conveying catalyst from the FCC catalyst charge heater to the regenerator.

8. An FCC apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the use of the catalyst charge heater debottlenecks the FCC capacity thereby allowing higher feed rates at constant CO2 emissions.

9. An FCC apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the use of the catalyst charge heater results in lower coke yield decreasing NOx, SOx and COx emissions.