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Asia leads the way in FCCU planned production growth.

Increasing demand for gasoline, olefinic gases, and petroleum products is led by China, India, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia and Indonesia to meet growing fuel and power needs. Asia is expected to account for 54% of global refinery Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit capacity by 2022. China alone is planning to add eight FCCUs.

FCCU planned capacity 2018-2022

FCCU capacity 2018-2022

Low labor costs and inexpensive raw material supply has led to a shift in manufacturing from Western countries to the Asia Pacific which complements FCC demand. High consumption of petroleum-based products owing to wide availability and low costs will increase product demand. Increasing backward integration of FCC manufacturers in order to reduce overall ownership costs is also expected to provide several growth opportunities over the forecast period.

Africa will add approximately 800 thousand barrels per day (mbd) of FCCU capacity. Nigeria leads the way with 462 mbd capacity additions.

The Middle East and Former Soviet Union countries are next with planned FCCU production. In Europe and North America FCC growth is negatively impacted by gradual decline in gasoline demand.

Largest planned and announced capacity FCCU’s are Dayushan Island refinery in China 304 mbd, Lagos I refinery in Nigeria at 247 mbd and Pulau Muara Besar refinery in Brunei with 172 mbd.

Key players in the global FCC market include BASF, Albemarle, and Grace. Technology licensors include Technip, Flour, Shell Global, UOP, Exxonmobil, Chevron Lummus Global, CB&I Company, KBR and Axens.

Information is based on GlobalData’s report: Global Refinery Fluid Catalytic Cracking Units (FCCU) Outlook to 2022 – Capacity and Capital Expenditure Forecasts with Details of All Operating and Planned Fluid Catalytic Cracking Units and Grandview Research report: Grandview Research Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) Market Research Report.

 

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Posted by: Paul R Orlowski

Paul Orlowski is General Manager for the Refining Community which includes Coking.com, CatCracking.com, SulfurUnit.com, Resid Hydrocracking and SDA. They consult at refineries around the world. They've hosted 36 technical conferences around the globe, trained 1,000's and completed very beneficial consulting and troubleshooting projects. Paul co-founded Coking.com Inc in 1998 with Gary Pitman. Evan Hyde later joined the team. Besides being an educator and software applications engineer, he worked 18 years at ARCO and BP refineries near Seattle, WA USA. Previously he worked for Science Applications International Corporation and Dealer Information Systems. In 2019 look for #RefComm Galveston Coking | CatCracking | Resid Hydrocracking and RefComm® Rotterdam Coking | CatCracking. In 2020 Galveston; Gdansk, Poland and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Singapore.

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