Plastic upgrading using poison resistant core-shell catalysts

A process for producing valuable products by catalytically pyrolyzing polymeric hydrocarbonaceous materials, comprising:

• contacting a stream comprising polymeric hydrocarbonaceous materials with a core-shell zeolite catalyst in a fluid bed catalytic reactor,
• wherein the polymeric hydrocarbonaceous materials comprise at least 50% by mass plastics,
• wherein the core-shell zeolite catalyst comprises catalyst particles comprising:
• at least one core particle comprising a zeolite, and
• a shell which encapsulates or covers at least a portion of the surface of the at least one core particle;
• removing the core-shell zeolite catalyst from the fluid bed catalytic reactor and regenerating at least a portion of the removed catalyst by reaction with an oxygen-containing gas in a regenerator,
• washing at least a portion of the oxidatively regenerated catalyst with an aqueous wash solution,
• returning at least a portion of the oxidatively regenerated catalyst and the washed catalyst to the fluid bed catalytic reactor,
• separating vapor products exiting the fluid bed catalytic reactor from solids in a solid-separating device, and
• recovering paraffins, olefins, or aromatics or some combination thereof from the vapor products.

A system for managing and preserving catalyst activity in a process for producing valuable products by catalytically pyrolyzing polymeric hydrocarbonaceous materials, comprising:

• a pretreatment facility for removing impurities from a feed by washing the feed with a wash solution,
• a fluid bed catalytic reactor comprising a core-shell catalyst,
• wherein the core-shell catalyst comprises catalyst particles comprising:
• at least one core particle comprising a zeolite, and
• a shell which encapsulates or covers at least a portion of the surface of the at least one core particle,
• contacting the stream comprising washed polymeric hydrocarbonaceous materials with the core-shell catalyst in the fluid bed catalytic reactor,
• removing a portion of the core-shell catalyst from the fluid bed catalytic reactor to form a removed catalyst and oxidizing the removed catalyst with an oxygen-containing gas in a regenerator to form an oxidatively regenerated catalyst,
• washing the oxidatively regenerated catalyst with an acidic aqueous wash solution to make a washed catalyst,
• discarding a portion of the oxidatively regenerated catalyst, and
• returning at least a portion of the washed catalyst to the fluid bed catalytic reactor, and optionally returning at least a portion of the oxidatively regenerated catalyst to the fluid bed catalytic reactor, and adding to the reactor a fresh, unregenerated portion of the catalyst, wherein the mass of the fresh, unregenerated portion of the catalyst is equal to or within 20% (or within 10% or within 5%) of the mass of the discarded portion of catalyst,
• separating vapor products exiting the fluid bed catalytic reactor from solids in a solid-separating device,
• recovering paraffins, olefins, or aromatics or some combination thereof from the vapor products;
• and
• (a) wherein the shell has a thickness of from 0.01 to 100 microns (μm);
• or
• (b) wherein the core-shell catalyst comprises a plurality of core particles dispersed in a matrix material wherein the matrix material comprises at least 5 mass % Ca.