Profiting With FCC Feedstock Diversity

Profiting with FCC feedstock diversity

T he FCC unit can process a variety of feeds, from severely hydrotreated gas oil (VGO) to resid (Figure 1). It can be operated to maximise gasoline or distillate production, or it can be operated at high severity to maximise petrochemical feed production such as propyl-ene. Some refiners have endeavoured to comply with clean fuels regulations while maximising profitability by processing cheaper, heavier and more sour crudes. This can be achieved by combining the proper process units either upstream or downstream from the FCC unit with the right catalytic solution. Units such as hydrot-reaters, hydrocrackers, cokers and visbreakers are common components of strategies used to upgrade low-value hydrocarbon streams before incorporating a portion of these streams in the feed to the FCC unit. Diesel or gasoline treat-ment units are also employed after FCC processing to further improve product quality and allow blending into the gasoline or diesel pool without compromising compliance with clean fuel requirements.

The changing needs of refiners present new challenges for FCC catalyst manufacturers. Many refiners increasingly require FCC catalysts capa-ble of handling diverse feed slates. Even if the feed composition to the FCC is relatively constant, the varieties of crude and refinery processing schemes have resulted in a huge range of needs for which the catalyst vendor must make optimum formulations. In addition, many refiners are finding that despite the instal-lation of new process units to reduce sulphur in gasoline and distillate products, the overall prof-itability of their operation can be enhanced by using FCC catalysts and additives that reduce gasoline sulphur. Such catalysts can improve economics, for example, by reducing the severity

Natalie Petti, Larry Hunt and George Yaluris Grace Davison

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000133 PTQ Q3 2006 1

Gasoline sulphur-reduction catalysts and additives can provide additional options and flexibility while maximising refinery profitability

Figure 1 Worldwide distribution of feed types by FCC units based on equilibrium catalyst metals

ImpactHigh Ni + V Polaris

High V

MidasMax bottoms

reduction

PinnacleHigh Ni

Advanta

Coke selectivityDRIVEN

Bottom reductionDRIVEN

High productolefinicity

LibraHydrotreated

feeds

AuroraLow coke and gas

Allfeed types

Features TRIM Tunable reactive matrices

Figure 2 Grace Davison FCC catalyst technologies based on the alumina-sol platform
www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000133

of operation of hydrotreating units upstream or downstream of the FCC unit and decreasing gasoline octane loss.

Catalyst technology platformAs refiner needs have become more complex and diverse, the importance of FCC catalyst technol-ogy to adapt and serve these needs has increased dramatically. Grace Davisons proprietary alumina-sol technology platform has been designed to allow maximum possible flexibility for formulating FCC catalysts. As shown in Figure 2, alumina-sol catalysts can be formulated to deliver the desired activity, coke selectivity and bottoms cracking activity to suit the needs of FCC units. Additional functionalities can be incorporated to further optimise catalyst performance. For example, while the alumina-sol technology is inherently coke selective, further improvement in coke selectivity as well as in bottoms cracking and activity retention has been achieved by incorporating special matrices to provide V and Ni passivation. The recently intro-duced proprietary Tunable Reactive Matrix (TRM) technology has further allowed for the extended application of alumina-sol catalysts to cover applications for units processing any type of feed.1

Through a combination of materials and processing technology advancements, TRM tech-nology provides control of the matrix acidity and porosity, so that the catalyst matrix has proper-ties specifically calibrated to the requirements of the feed to be processed. Alumina-sol catalysts with TRM technology have been used success-fully to process resid in the presence of high levels of contaminant metals with step-out coke selectivity and bottoms cracking activity; to maximise bottoms cracking in units processing hydrotreated feeds without a coke penalty; and to minimise coke and maximise bottoms crack-ing for units processing gas oil feedstocks.

In addition, alumina-based catalysts can provide a measure of resistance to iron (Fe) poisoning, because alumina resists the formation of low-temperature melting phases, which destroy the surface pore structure of catalytic particles and block access of the hydrocarbon molecules to the interior structure.2,4 Grace Davison catalysts made with alumina-sol tech-nology are especially resistant to Fe poisoning. The alumina from the alumina-sol process is the

2 PTQ Q3 2006 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000133

most effective form of alumina for Fe tolerance because it is dispersed throughout the catalytic particle, providing the pore structure required for diffusion of the heavy hydrocarbon mole-cules inside the particle for cracking. It also has active sites for bottoms cracking activity, and its pore structure is not susceptible to closing by Fe contamination. This technology has been incor-porated into premium resid cracking technologies, providing exceptional Fe tolerance.

Processing resid feeds As the availability of easy-to-process feeds continues to dwindle, efforts to improve profita-bility have resulted in increased resid processing. This is especially true for refiners having recently constructed FCC units, since new FCC units are often built to handle the high levels of coke made by cracking resid. Regardless of the FCC unit configuration, when processing resid feeds several considerations are important in selecting the best cracking catalyst: Amount of high boiling point feed components Amount of contaminant metals (for example, Ni, V, Fe, Na, Ca and Mg) on equilibrium cata-lyst (e-cat) Unit constraints and economics (for example, air blower and slurry handling limits, bottoms upgrading requirements).

As has been reported elsewhere, there are three types of bottoms cracking mechanism: Type I involves vapourisation and pre-cracking of the feed; Type II is dealkylation of alkyl-aromatics primarily catalysed by the zeolite component of the catalyst; Type III involves the cracking and conversion of naphtheno-aromat-ics.5 All types of mechanism are operative during the processing of any type of feed. However, because a large amount of the feed is too heavy to vapourise since the regenerated catalyst cools down from the vapourisation of the lighter and easier-to-vapourise feed components when processing resid the ability of the catalyst to conduct Type I bottoms cracking acquires added importance. Heavy feed components prevalent in resid feeds are more likely to be multicore naph-theno-aromatics, chal-lenging the catalyst to upgrade them into valuable products while mini-mising their natural tendency to make coke.

In addition to containing heavy hydrocarbon components, resid feeds tend to contain high levels of contaminant metals, most often Ni and


V, but also other metals having a deleterious effect on catalyst perform-ance such as Na, Fe and Ca. These contaminants affect catalyst perform-ance in two ways. First, they deactivate the catalyst, reducing conversion, and thus decreasing the yields of valuable products and increasing bottoms make. The mecha-nism of deactivation depends on the metal, but it is often the result of zeolite destruction (V, Na, Ca) or destruction of the pore structure of the exterior surface of the particle (Fe, Na, Ca). In addition, many contaminant metals (for example, Ni, V, and Fe) are active as dehydrogenation cata-lysts, increasing H2 and dry gas, as well as coke make. Thus, to be able to process resid within the limits and constraints of the unit, a resid catalyst must be formulated to be resistant to poisoning by contaminant metals and it must be able to passivate metals causing dehydrogena-tion reactions, both of which are detrimental to the FCC units operation and economics.

Alumina-sol technology provides an excellent platform for building catalysts with the superior coke selectivity and capability to handle heavy and high boiling-point feed components, bottoms upgrading activity and the needed resistance to poisoning by metal contaminants when process-ing resid feeds. Proprietary resid cracking catalyst, such as Impact, utilise the new TRM-100, an advanced stability zeolite (Z-28) and an integral vanadium trap. Impact provides the lowest coke and dry gas in high metals resid applications and is suited to processing resid feeds. This technology has now been applied in 15 units, of which 13 are processing resid as part of the FCC units feedstock.

For refiners with high levels of Ni contamina-tion in the resid feed, Pinnacle, utilising TRM-400 and zeolites Z-28 or Z-32 (depending on the degree of hydrogen transfer required), provides maximum bottoms upgrading and minimum gas and coke selectivity. This new technology is in use in 12 units worldwide. In some units, profitability depends heavily on the ability of the catalyst to maximise bottoms upgrading. In others, profitability may suffer when the refiner attempts to process a feedstock considerably heavier than what is usually


processed. For these units, which demand the maximum ability to convert the heaviest of feed molecules, the proprietary Midas bottoms crack-ing catalyst has been shown to be the most effective catalyst.6

Refiners can take advantage of the improved coke selectivity and bottoms cracking provided by these catalyst technologies by increasing the feed rate or the amount of resid they process within the unit constraints. Alternatively, they can choose to increase both conversion and the yield of valuable products while reducing slurry at a constant feed rate. They can also choose to take advantage of the improved catalyst stability and activity by combining increased conversion with decreased catalyst additions.

Increasing bottoms conversion Kashima Oil recently wanted to improve profita-bility by increasing the conversion of RDS bottoms to gasoline or fuel oil while processing

Figure 3 Conversion and yield effects of using Impact at Kashima Oil

Base case ImpactMAT Base +5RE

2O

3, wt% Base +4

Zeolite SA m2/g Base +20 Matrix SA, m2/g Base -3Coke factor 1.5 1.4 Gas factor 5.0 4.4Ni, ppm 2900 3000 V, ppm 4800 5000V + Na, ppm 7000 8500

E-cat properties at Kashima Oil before and after switching to Impact

Table 1
www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000133www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000133

as much feed as possible. However, on a base competitor catalyst, the unit could not achieve this goal because of an air blower constraint, which limits the amount of coke burned in the regenerator. The Kashima Oil FCC unit is a UOP side-by-side design and typically processes a 50:50 blend of hydrotreated VGO and hydrot-reated ATB. Metals on the unit e-cat are typically around 8000ppm, with V constituting the major-ity (about 5000ppm).

To address the needs of the refiner, an Impact catalyst was recommended, which is specifically formulated for maximum resistance to V deacti-vation, increased ability to passivate the dehydrogenation activity of the contaminant metals, ultra-low selectivity for making coke and increased bottoms upgrading. As seen in Table 1, after switching to Impact, the e-cat properties improved, including an increase in MAT activity of five points, an increase in SA by 20m2/g, and reductions in the coke and gas factors.

Review of the unit data showed that during the trial feed quality worsened, with CCR increasing by 10% and feed metals (Ni+V) by 30%. Despite the poorer feed quality, the refiner was able to achieve the goal of increasing the feed rate and was able to operate with a feed rate that was not achievable with the base catalyst. However, the changing feed complicated a quantitative evalua-tion of the benefits of Impact. Thus, Kashima Oil conducted a lab study with unit e-cat. The results of this study are summarised in Figure 3. The data show increased conversion (one of the refin-ers goals) and improved gasoline and LPG yields

(including more propylene), as well as lower slurry make. Gasoline octane (RONC) was unchanged compared to the base catalyst, despite the higher rare earth in the Impact e-cat. Using Gulf Coast economics, these conversion and yield benefits improve profitability by about $0.35/ bbl.

Air blower and regeneratorconstraintsIn another application, Refiner A wanted to improve conversion to gasoline, increase bottoms upgrad-ing and propylene yield while preserving or improving gasoline octane. The unit is a resid FCC

unit, which is constrained by air blower capacity and regenerator temperature. The feed typically processed in this unit consists of 70% hydrot-reated ATB resid and 30% hydrotreated VGO. Although the amount of vanadium on e-cat in the unit is high, its mobility and activity are rela-tively low. Thus, there is little need for vanadium passivation technology. Instead, since the unit has a relatively high level of Ni contamination, Pinnacle technology was recommended to allevi-ate the air blower and regenerator temperature constraints, improve conversion and increase bottoms cracking.

Analysis of the data after the unit changed catalyst to Pinnacle (Figure 4) shows that Refiner A was able to achieve the objectives set out. Conversion increased by 2 liq. vol%, and bottoms decreased by 1.5 liq. vol%, resulting in both gaso-line and LPG increasing by a combined 2.1 liq. vol%. Equally important for the profitability of this unit, both propylene yield and gasoline octane increased. Using Gulf Coast economics, the estimated yield benefits of Pinnacle improved Refiner As profitability by $0.47/bbl.

Processing gas oil feeds While the amount of resid and hydrotreated feeds being processed continues to increase at the expense of gas oil feeds, these feeds still represent a significant portion of the global FCC feedstocks. Unlike resid applications, gas oil feeds have moderate-to-low Conradson carbon content and the e-cat has a moderate contami-nant metals level (about 10003000ppm of Ni


Figure 4 Conversion and yield changes affected by Pinnacle in Refiner As RFCC unit

and V). As a result, a significant portion of the coke made is catalytic (ie, made via the catalytic reactions of feed and product molecules) rather than feed related (made from laying on the cata-lyst of refractory multicore, naphtheno-aromatic molecules present in the feed) or contaminant coke (made by dehydrogenation reactions cata-lysed by contaminant metals). As a result, the chemical composition of the feed and its interac-tion with the FCC catalyst need to be carefully considered. The FCC catalyst should be formu-lated to minimise the chain reactions of the hydrocarbon molecules present in the riser (feed and products), which lead to coke formation, and maximise reactions, which crack heavier mole-cules into the LCO and gasoline fractions.

FCC units processing gas oil feeds have a wide variety of design configurations, and as a result they often have different constraints and limita-tions (for example, feed throughput, air blower capacity, catalyst circulation, gas plant capacity, wet gas compressor, regenerator temperature and slurry handling capacity).

For a given feed, the catalyst can be designed to alleviate these constraints, provided the cata-lyst technology is flexible enough to allow incorporation of the functional properties needed. For example, for a unit with an air blower limitation, a coke selective catalyst would be a good fit, assuming the unit is not circulation limited as well. If the unit is also circulation limited, activity needs to be adjusted without affecting coke selectivity and delta coke. If the unit is feed throughput limited, providing a cata-lyst that facilitates feed throughput will not help improve profitability. Rather, the unit requires a catalyst to improve conver-sion and yields obtained from the feed.

The alumina-sol technology plat-form has a wide range of formulation flexibility because it was originally developed for gas oil applications, where the catalyst had to be designed to match the requirements of units within a broad configuration range combined with feeds of even greater variation of chemical composition. For units with severe regenerators (mainly full burn with a high regener-ator temperature) and/or units with significant amounts of contaminant

metals, Impact with its previously demonstrated coke selectivity is well suited to improve the unit operation, increase conversion and/or feed throughput, improve yields and reduce slurry production. In cases of units with significant amount of Ni, a properly formulated Pinnacle catalyst will have the same results.

Two alumina-sol-based catalysts, Aurora and Advanta, are well suited to maximising the gaso-line yield in the presence of moderate to high levels of contaminant metals. Aurora can be formulated with two types of zeolite (Z-14 or Z-17), depending on the level of hydrogen transfer required. Aurora catalysts can incorporate Ni tolerance technology. The catalysts can also be formulated to produce the lowest coke yield if needed (for example, XLC grades), and can be designed for units with catalyst retention and attrition problems.

Higher feed rates without losing conversion A North American refiner (Refiner B) with an air-limited UOP side-by-side unit, using a blend

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000133 PTQ Q3 2006 5 4 PTQ Q3 2006 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000133

Base catalyst ImpactMAT Base +1RE2O3, wt% Base +0.66Zeolite SA m2/g Base +10 Matrix SA, m2/g Base -3Coke factor Base -0.11 Gas factor Base -0.41

Equilibrium catalyst properties for Refiner B

Table 2

Figure 5 Yield trends at Refiner B after changing catalyst to Impact

of fresh catalyst and purchased e-cat, wanted to increase conversion or alternatively run higher feed rates without losing conversion. Given the air blower limitation and contaminant metals approaching 3000ppm (Ni+V) at the time of the catalyst change, it was recommended that the fresh catalyst be replaced with Impact formu-lated to provide premium coke selectivity. As the unit inventory turned over to Impact, e-cat prop-erties showed the expected trends of increased activity stability and improved coke and gas selectivity (Table 2).

The unit data also showed yield improvements soon after the start of the trial. As shown in Figure 5, after the change of catalyst to Impact, yields started to improve, including a 1.3 liq. vol% improvement in the LPG plus gasoline combined product. LPG plus gasoline yield is valuable to this refiner because of the use of a ZSM-5 additive to increase LPG.

As the unit changeover to Impact progressed, the e-cat was tested before and during the trial with the same standard Davison Refining Services (DRS) feed in the Grace ACE unit to confirm the observed trends in catalyst activity and selectivity. The protocol has been previously described elsewhere, including the properties of the feed used for e-cat in the DRS ACE unit.7 The feed used in this work is a typical VGO feed containing 5% resid, which does a good job of discriminating the performance of e-cats. The results in Figure 6 confirmed the trends observed earlier in the unit yields.

With the unit completely turned over to Impact

catalyst, the refiner has been able to achieve their second goal; that is, to run more feed without suffering the significant conversion loss typi-cally experienced with the previous base catalyst. Indeed, feed through-put has been increased by about 7.5% without any conversion loss. Typically, such an increase in feed rate would result in the loss of about three points of conversion. Assuming typical US Gulf Coast values for the economic benefit of having three additional conversion points at the same feed rate, or 5000bpd more feed throughput at the same conversion, Impact has improved the profitability of the

FCC unit for this refiner by $0.310.37/bbl.

Processing hydrotreated feeds Increasingly, stringent regulations around the world have mandated the use of clean fuels having low sulphur and, for gasoline, low aromatics, benzene and olefins content. While several processes have been commercialised to help the refiner produce fuels that comply with applicable regulations, hydrotreating the FCC feed and products has become the most popular. As a result, the processing of hydrotreated FCC feeds is increasing at the expense of gas oil feeds. The severity of feed hydrotreating can vary, but these feeds have higher hydrogen content and higher paraffinic and naphthenic content than non-hydrotreated ones.

Units processing hydrotreated gas oil feeds do not always require that the FCC catalyst has superior coke selectivity. These units generally require high activity and maximum bottoms cracking to maximise conversion and make enough coke to heat the regenerator, and gener-ate enough heat to run the cracking reactions in the riser.

To address the needs of the growing number of units processing hydrotreated gas oil feeds, alumina-sol catalysts have been specifically designed to balance the zeolite activity for units processing hydrotreated feeds with optimum coke selectivity and excellent bottoms cracking. These alumina-sol catalysts are typically used in units with relatively low levels of contaminant metals. The Libra family of catalysts is one such


Figure 6 Results of DRS ACE testing of Refiner Bs e-cat with constant feed


type of catalyst, containing a high-activity zeolite Z-30 with optimised hydrogen transfer activity and employing TRM-200, an alumina-based matrix specifically tuned to achieve bottoms upgrading with minimal coke penalty. Libra is being used in nine commercial applica-tions, and Grace Davison catalysts are serving more than 50% of the hydrotreated feed market.

Increasing conversion ofhydrotreated feed A North American refiner (Refiner C) operates a UOP stack design FCC unit running at maximum feed rate. This refiner evaluated catalysts with the primary objective of increasing conversion. The feed processed is hydrotreated with an API of about 24.5 and a UOP K factor of 11.9. The refiner elected to conduct trials of a reformulated catalyst provided by the incumbent supplier, as well as a trial of the alumina-sol catalyst proposed by Grace Davison. The trial of the new catalyst from the incumbent supplier was conducted first, with the Grace Davison cata-lyst trial following. The e-cat properties are shown in Table 3 for both the competitor catalyst reformulation and the Grace Davison catalyst.

Unit data analysis by the refiner provided in Figure 7 showed that the catalyst reformulation from the incumbent supplier improved unit operation and profitability. Both conversion and gasoline yield increased by 1 and 2.2 liq. vol% respectively and slurry decreased by 0.4 liq. vol%. This resulted in a financial benefit to the refiner of $0.21/bbl. However, when the unit switched to the Grace catalyst, the refiner real-ised additional improvements in conversion and yields. Conversion increased by an additional 1.1 liq vol%, gasoline went up by a further 1.6 liq vol%, and slurry decreased by an extra 1.0 liq vol%. The Grace Davison catalyst improved unit profitability by $0.44/bbl over the base catalyst, and $0.23/bbl over the competitors reformu-lated catalyst.

Profitability with gasoline sulphur-reductioncatalysts Catalytic technologies for sulphur reduction have been developed that can be built into the FCC

catalyst, resulting in one catalyst system, while other technologies can be used as additives. For example, the SuRCA gasoline sulphur-reduction catalyst technology can be built into any Grace Davison alumina-sol catalyst, resulting in a system that, in addition to reducing sulphur, has the activity, coke selectivity, bottoms cracking and yields required by the unit design and feed processed to maximise profitability. SuRCA is a solution for full-range gasoline sulphur reduction and is intended to replace the existing catalyst in the unit. It provides up to 35% gasoline sulphur reduction, with the potential for an additional 1020% reduction of LCO sulphur. This technol-ogy has been used in over 40 applications worldwide.

DPriSM and GSR-5 are additives that can be used with any of the catalysts on the market

Figure 7 Unit C yields and economics comparison for catalysts evaluated

Competitor Grace Delta (Grace to reformulation reformulation)MAT 75 78 3Rare earth, wt% 2.4 3.2 0.8Zeolite SA, m2/g 125 135 10Matrix SA, m2/g 39 38 -1Total SA, m2/g 164 173 9E-cat coke factor 1.1 1.15 0.05E-cat gas factor 2.3 1.5 -0.8E-cat nickel factor, ppm 300 430 130E-cat vanadium factor, ppm 550 700 150

Unit C equilibrium catalyst properties

Table 3


today to achieve similar sulphur-reduction performance as SuRCA without changing the existing base catalyst. DPriSM is most effective for reducing sulphur in light and intermediate gasoline streams, while GSR-5 is most effective for full-range gasoline.

The next-generation alumina-sol-based tech-nology, currently named GSR-7, is an improvement over earlier technologies, provid-ing 4550% full-range gasoline sulphur reduction commercially. Since GSR-7 is a catalyst based on the alumina-sol platform, it has the formulation flexibility needed to allow for adjusting the cata-lytic properties as necessary to match the needs of any unit processing feeds from severely hydrotreated gas oil to heavy resid.

While for many refiners the gasoline sulphur reduction provided by these FCC catalysts and additives may not be sufficient by themselves to achieve the low FCC gasoline sulphur levels needed to ensure compliance without additional feed or gasoline treatment, these technologies

can still be used to improve profita-bility in virtually every refinery needing to comply with a gasoline sulphur limit. Examples of such uses of gasoline sulphur-reduction tech-nologies to improve refinery profitability include: Lengthening the run-time of a feed hydrotreater and improving overall economics of hydrotreater operation Avoiding gasoline sulphur non-compliance when the feed hydrotreater is down for mainte-nance or to replace the catalyst Processing higher-sulphur opportunity feeds that cannot be

normally handled by the refinery hardware configuration Reducing undercutting employed to make FCC gasoline with sulphur content suitable for blend-ing with other gasoline streams, thus increasing refinery gasoline production Achieving compliance of gasoline sulphur content with specifications set by pipeline operators Preserving octane typically lost when hydrot-reating FCC naphtha due to olefin hydrogenation, as well as reducing hydrogen consumption by being able to reduce the severity of operation of the FCC naphtha hydrotreater.

Gasoline sulphur normalised to feed sulphurAfter the successful application of the alumina-sol catalyst to improve unit profitability, Refiner C needed to reduce FCC gasoline sulphur in order to meet gasoline pool sulphur specifica-tions. The refiner needed more than the 2535% gasoline sulphur reduction. The newly commer-cialsed GSR-7 catalyst was thus recommended. Before and during the trial, FCC feed and gaso-line samples were collected and analysed for sulphur content so that gasoline sulphur data could be corrected for feed sulphur changes. The unit data, provided in Figure 8, showed similar trends as the samples analysed both before and during the trial. GSR-7 was able to reduce gaso-line sulphur by an average of 45%, depending on gasoline D-86s final boiling point. With under-cutting, GSR-7 could reduce gasoline sulphur by 58%.

GSR-7 was able to achieve this reduction in

Figure 8 Gasoline sulphur reduction normalised for feed sulphur con-tent achieved at refinery C with GSR-7

GSR-7True conversion, lv.% +1.25LPG yield, lv.% +0.46Gasoline yield, lv.% +0.46LCO yield, lv.% -0.98Slurry yield, lv.% -0.27Hydrogen (99 vol%) 2.2 0.002 0.05

Conversion and yield shifts for GSR-7 over base Grace alumina-sol at Refinery C

Table 4


gasoline sulphur without negative effects on conversion or key unit yields. In fact, as shown in Table 4, conversion, gasoline and bottoms crack-ing improved over the base Grace alumina-sol catalyst.

Wide range of challenges Changes in the type of crude available; efforts to improve profitability by processing cheaper but heavier and more sour crudes; and complying with clean fuels regulations while increasing profitability are creating new challenges for FCC catalyst suppliers in their effort to develop cata-lysts that serve the evolving FCC units needs. The wide range of refiner needs requires catalyst technologies that are flexible and adaptable, capable of being formulated to each units specific needs, as defined by the unit configura-tion, operation, feed processed and profitability objectives.

When processing resid feeds, alumina-sol cata-lysts provide the acidity, porosity and metals passivation needed to effectively process the heaviest of the feed components; resist the effects of contaminant metals; minimise coke; and maximise bottoms upgrading. For the refiners processing gas oil feeds, the alumina-sol platform allows for the formulation of catalysts suitable to their diverse performance needs. In the case of hydroteated feeds, catalysts with high activity, maximum bottoms upgrading and optimum coke selectivity can be made by effectively using the flexibility of the alumina-sol technology to incor-porate high-activity zeolite and matrix components.

Finally, despite the installation in many refin-eries of hardware for treating FCC feedstocks and products to comply with clean fuel regulations, gasoline sulphur-reduction catalysts and addi-tives continue to find applications in FCC units by providing additional options and flexibility for meeting fuel specifications while maximising refinery profitability. Up to 35% gasoline sulphur reduction is achievable through the use of the commercially proven Grace Davison sulphur-reduction technologies available to date. However, with the introduction of a new, flexible-formula-tion alumina-sol base catalyst, GSR-7, gasoline sulphur reduction in the range of 4550% can be

achieved without sacrificing catalyst performance, yields or operating flexibility.

Impact (IMPACT), Pinnacle (PINNACLE), Midas (MIDAS), Aurora (AURORA), Advanta (ADVANTA), Libra (LIBRA), SuRCA, DPriSM and GSR-5 are marks of Grace Davison. This article is based on a paper (#AM-06-68) presented at the March 2006 NPRA Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.

References1 Cheng W C, Nee J R D, Neuberger D, Maximizing refinery profitability with next-generation alumina-sol FCC catalyst technologies IMPACT, LIBRA, POLARIS, and PINNACLE, NPRA Annual Meeting, AM05068, San Francisco, 2005.2 Yaluris G, Cheng W C, Peters M, Boock L T, Hunt L J, The effects of Fe poisoning on FCC catalysts, NPRA Annual Meeting, AM0159, New Orleans, 2001.3 Yaluris G, Update on the effect of Fe poisoning on FCC catalysts, Davison Catalysts Refining Technology Conference, Singapore, September 1820, 2002.4 Yaluris G, Cheng W C, Peters M, McDowell L T, Hunt L, Mechanism of fluid cracking catalysts deactivation by Fe, Fluid Catalytic Cracking VI, Occelli M, ed., Stud. Surf. Sci. Catal 149, Elsevier, 2004, 139.5 Zhao X, Cheng W C, Rudesill J A, FCC bottoms cracking mechanisms and implications for catalyst design for resid applications, NPRA National Meeting, AM0253, San Antonio, 2002.6 Hunt L, Maximize bottoms upgrading: give resid the MIDAS touch, Catalagram 98, Fall 2005, 2. 7 Guglietta G W, Krishnaiah G, Kramer A C, Habib E T, Catalyst selectivity benchmarking: a new tool for improving FCC profitability, NPRA Annual Meeting, AM0249, San Antonio, 2002.

Natalie Petti is marketing manager, refining technologies, for Grace Davison in Columbia, Maryland, USA. Email: [email protected] Hunt is marketing specialist, FCC catalyst, refining technologies, for Grace Davison in Columbia, Maryland, USA.Email: [email protected] Yaluris is marketing manager, refining technologies, Grace Davison in Columbia, Maryland, USA. Email: [email protected]

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000133 PTQ Q3 2006 9 8 PTQ Q3 2006 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000133

Links

More articles from: Grace Davison

More articles from the following categories: Catalysts & Additives FCCHeavy Crudes
www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000133www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000133http://www.digitalrefining.com/sponsors.html?sponsorId=78&action=articleshttp://www.digitalrefining.com/articles.html?categoryId=5http://www.digitalrefining.com/articles.html?categoryId=16http://www.digitalrefining.com/articles.html?categoryId=19

Documents

Profiting With FCC Feedstock Diversity