Triglycerides in Oil Refining

[ClaireS]

Hi,

We are looking at the possibility of feeding straight triglycerides (tallow) into any stage of an oil refinery. I understand that this may cause coking on the Fluid Catalytic Cracker catalyst. Is this true? Are there any other stages of the refinery that may operate poorly with triglyceride contamination? (at a low concentration)

Thanks

 

[25362]

Ruminating on your query, these are my thoughts:

Tallow's BP should bring it into the diesel boiling range. But who knows, a low mol fraction might move it into the VGO boiling range.

Evidently tallow's carbon residue is high enough to cause troubles by coking up the catalyst on a FCC unit.

Thermal degradation would release fatty acids, the corrosivity of which should be considered.