Equipment for microwave assisted thermal cracking of hydrocarbons

This paper exposes an application of microwaves to petroleum industry, the thermal cracking of hydrocarbons. An equipment to perform microwave assisted thermal cracking is described. This device includes a 2.45 GHz, 3 kW microwave generator and a continuous vapor phase flow reactor. The hydrocarbon feed is irradiated by microwaves over silicon carbide susceptor resulting in the hydrocarbon thermal cracking reaction. Analyses of mass spectrometry coupled with gas chromatography (GC-MS) of cracking outputs were performed and confirmed the occurrence of cracking. A naphtha feed with hydrocarbons with molecular weights within 106 and 196 produced light hydrocarbons with molecular weights within 42 and 106.