What is light coker naphtha?

Answer 1

Coker naphtha is an intermediate hydrocarbon product of a delayed coker unit. The boiling point is closest to that of gasoline. In some cases the delayed coker unit will contain a unit operation called a naphtha splitter, in which the coker naphtha is distilled by fractional distillation into light and heavy coker naphtha. The heavy coker naphtha may be discarded back into the light coker gasoil or used as an intermediate elsewhere the in refinery.

A naphtha splitter is often required when the cut point of naphtha at the refinery is "low" (approximately less than 135°C). Low naphtha cut points are the result of stringent environmental regulations. Since most of the sulfur is in the heaviest third of the total gasoline, excluding it from the gasoline blending pool may be the easiest way to comply with strict environmental regulations. In this case the higher sulfur heavy coker naphtha may be discarded as a blending component for synthetic crude oil or blending with light cycle oil (LCO).