Global Major Refining Catalysts Development Trends(1)

Most of the countries in the world use gasoline post-treatment for FCC gasoline quality upgrading technology, while the U.S. uses a combination of pretreatment and post-treatment to improve FCC gasoline quality. In the U.S., 50% to 70% of the refineries use FCC gasoline post-hydrotreating technology to produce products that meet Tier III standards (gasoline with a sulfur mass fraction of less than 10×10-6); other refineries use pretreatment technology and then post-treat heavy FCC gasoline, which reduces the octane loss of FCC gasoline due to full-distillation hydrotreating.

The RT-335 catalyst developed by this company is suitable for production units with significant desulfurization. Compared to the RT-235 catalyst already applied, the former has improved desulfurization activity along with a significant increase in selectivity and consequently improved plant reliability. RT-235 catalyst, with its high activity and selectivity, has been used in more than 20 units worldwide with good profitability. Industrial applications have shown that the catalyst has a service life of 5a or more, and the operational flexibility it offers can improve the handling of poor quality feedstocks and the research method octane number (by more than 1 unit).

UOP has introduced a desulfurization and denitrogenation catalyst (ULTIMet) for the production of ultra-low sulfur diesel. The catalyst is characterized by: (1) it can be used to process inferior feedstocks with higher sulfur content (coked crude diesel, circulating oil, viscosity-reducing crude diesel, etc.) that cannot be processed by existing catalysts, and can produce clean diesel with sulfur mass fraction less than 10×10-6; (2) the catalyst prepared with high-strength materials avoids particle fragmentation and also improves wear strength, extending the service life by 50 to 75%. The catalyst can either replace the existing hydroprocessing catalysts or be used in combination with conventional catalysts to improve the hydroprocessing capacity.

In order to meet the needs of refineries with flexible feedstocks and diverse products, the company has developed two (ICR-316, 548-DX) highly active and stable diesel hydrotreating catalysts with hydrodesulfurization, denitrogenation and de-aromatization. These two catalysts use the company's innovative surface chemistry and new pore structure technology to improve catalytic activity. Applications in industrial plants have shown an increase in total activity of more than 20%.

The ICR-316 catalysts are used in diesel hydrotreating units to process both straight-run feedstock and cracked feedstock, as well as in high and low pressure units. In the ULSD unit, the former catalyst showed a significant increase in activity and extended unit cycle time compared to the 425-DX catalyst for feedstocks containing 15% mass fraction of cracked fraction in both low and high pressure operations.

The 548-DX catalyst, prepared using ART's latest complexation enhancement and alumina surface modification technologies, has improved the total activity of HDS, denitrogenation and de-aromatization, and has been used in many units worldwide, both in ULSD and other units, with satisfactory results. Industrial pilot production has shown that the aromatic saturation activity of 548-DX is much higher compared to 545-DX catalyst, while the yield and economics of ULSD are also improved.