Using low carbon fuel with a catalyst charge heater

A fluidized bed catalytic cracking (FCC) process for treating gaseous hydrocarbons from a cracking catalyst, the process comprising the steps of:

• i) regenerating catalyst in a catalyst regenerator;
• by contact with oxygen containing gas to produce regenerated catalyst;
• and
• ii) recycling the regenerated catalyst to a standpipe for transfer to a cracking zone;
• iii) transferring the regenerated catalyst to a riser;
• iv) feeding a low carbon fuel and an oxidizing gas to a FCC catalyst heater for maintaining and adjusting unit heat balance in a catalytic cracking unit
• v) providing the FCC catalyst heater with a fuel gas/catalyst combustion chamber and structured packing;
• vi) using the fuel gas/catalyst combustion chamber with a flowthrough or backmixed catalyst flow configuration;
• vii) feeding the low carbon fuel and the oxidizing gas from the fuel gas/catalyst combustion chamber into the catalyst regenerator;
• and
• viii) using the FCC catalyst heater to control the rate of burning by controlling the amounts of oxidizing gas and the low carbon fuel introduced into the catalyst regenerator.