New catalyst boosts gasoline yields

PROCESS TECHNOLOGY Engelhard Corp. (Iselin, NJ; www.engelhard.com) has commercialized a new catalyst for fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) called Flex-Tec that enables petroleum refiners to significantly boost the amount of gasoline produced from resid feedstocks, even those highly contaminated with

According to a well-known engineering firm based in Houston, TX, "Even for a large 100,000 bbl/d FCC unit, which will typically produce 55,000-60,000 bbl/d of gasoline (with a true boiling point of 430 deg F) 3,000 bbl/d represents a significant improvement in gasoline yield. Coupled with a 2,000 bbl/d reduction in less-valuable heavy fuel oil, the unit economics can be affected quite favorably."

Flex-Tec is comprised of 75 (mu)m-dia. spheroidal particles with a base-cracking component made of silica-alumina Y-- zeolite, and rare earth elements to modify activity. The catalyst's unique performance is due to a synergistic combination of its distributed matrix-structures (DMS) platform and metals passivation, or MaxiMet, characteristic. DMS is a proprietary way in which pore structure and zeolite accessibility are optimized to allow for heavy-feed-molecule diffusion, while metals passivation is achieved by using minerals and pigments to prevent the reduction of nickel to a more active form, as well as to reduce the mobility of vanadium, which can destroy the zeolite and reduce catalyst activity.

"Bottom-of-the-barrel crude oil can be contaminated with metals that make it hard to refine," says McLean. Purchasing lower-value feed is one way to gain a cost advantage. Another option is to get a higher-value yield slate (e.g. more gasoline, less bottoms) from a given feedstock. In that context, McLean adds, "Engelhard's NaphthaMax catalyst improves product quality by 50 cents/bbl over competing FCC catalyst technologies that treat lighter-oil gas feeds. We expect Flex-Tec to offer similar advantages with heavier resid stocks." As far as costs are concerned, McLean says that Flex-Tec is priced at the upper end of the range of competing FCC catalysts.