Modern refineries and petrochemical complexes without catalytic processes are hard to imagine. In some cases efficient catalysts and their proper use are the determining factors for the competitiveness of facilities.
On 5-6 December 2018, Euro Petroleum Consultants held the Middle East Catalyst Technology Conference – ME-CAT 2018 in Bahrain, to discuss the latest developments in the field of catalysis for the refining and petrochemical industries. The event was held under the patronage of His Excellency Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa al Khalifa, Minister of Oil, Kingdom of Bahrain and supported by National Oil & Gas Authority (NOGA), Bapco, Wood, ExxonMobil and Axens. The event was attended by representatives of the leading refining and petrochemical companies of the region - ADNOC, Bapco, ENOC, KNPC, Oman Oil, SABIC, SATORP, Saudi Aramco, YASREF, etc.
In addition to presentations by leading international technology companies and producers in the region, a roundtable was held during the conference and delegates were invited to vote on issues relevant to the catalysts market.
Speaking of catalysts for refining, most experts agreed that the growth in demand for these products will continue, but there are several main driving forces for this growth. The first voting question was: What do you see as the most important factor for the increase in refining catalyst demand? According to 45% of the audience, the main driving force is the implementation of stronger fuel regulations in term of sulphur content and octane. At the same time, two other factors – decrease of fuel oil consumption and the increase of conversion and increase of refining-petrochemical integration – gained 23% of the votes. It is interesting that less than 10% of the audience voted for increase of motor fuel consumption as the main factor of demand growth for catalysts in refining.
From 2010 till 2016, the Middle East was the region with the fastest growing refining capacities, and it is obvious that this growth will continue, increasing the demand for catalysts for refining in the region. In this regard, an interesting question is – In which processes are the most interesting catalyst developments to be found, for refineries in the Middle East? Hydrocracking catalysts became the leaders of the voting (2/3 of the audience). The logic of such popularity is obvious – in some cases, the hydrocracking unit is a money making machine at the refinery due to the high yield of middle distillates with ultra-low sulfur content. In addition, hydrocracked light distillates are excellent feed for petrochemical products, providing refining-petrochemical integration. The second most popular response was fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) with 20% of the votes – refining process, which also successfully integrates with petrochemical production.
In general, catalysts for FCC are the largest group, accounting about 50% of the total refining catalysts market in value. The next question was – What do you see as the most important factor for FCC catalyst selection? 60% of the audience pay the most attention to maximum activities processing heavier feedstock with high content of impurities. Modern development trends in refining are such that refineries try to involve more and more heavy fractions in the FCC processing (deasphalted oil, heavy coker gas oil, etc.) and process catalysts must cope with such feed. The second most popular answer was excellent physical properties allowing to avoid high catalyst losses, for which voted about 30%.
A similar question was asked about hydroprocessing catalysts – What do you see as the most important factor for hydroprocessing catalyst selection? For this group of catalysts, the majority of the audience identified high catalyst cycle length (62%) as the critical factor, but, same as for FCC catalysts, ability to process tough feedstock (sulphur-rich, cracked) is important (19%). During the discussion, the importance of minimum hydrogen consumption (14%) was noted, since in some cases the hydrogen cost is the main cost item of a hydrocracking unit, reaching 80%.
It is interesting that according to the voting, when choosing the FCC and hydroprocessing catalysts no one pays any attention to price factors. This of course should please the suppliers of catalysts, but most likely such indifference is the result of the similarity of prices for catalysts from different manufacturers and of the low sensitivity of unit efficiency to catalyst price differences.
The final question was the attitude of the audience to grading materials - How important are the grading materials, above your catalyst, to the overall operations in your hydroprocessing units? In this question the audience was unanimous – 100% named the importance as very high. Effective grading material systems ensure successful use of catalysts, significantly reduce the effect of deposits on the pressure drop in the reactor and improve the distribution of the gas feed stream in the reactor, ensure the removal of mechanical impurities contained in the feed and catalytic poisons before the gas feed mixture reaches the catalyst, which contributes to an increase in the duration of the cycle length and the overall service life of the catalytic system.
To find out more about modern refining technologies and catalysts, don't miss out on EPC’s events: ME-TECH taking place from 26-28 February 2019 in Abu-Dhabi and IDW – International Downstream Week taking place May 27-29, 2019 in Sardinia as well as a specialized event RU-CAT - Russia & CIS Catalyst Technology Conference that is scheduled to be held in November 2019 in Sochi, Russia.
Euro Petroleum Consultants is a technical oil and gas consultancy with offices in Dubai, London, Moscow, Sofia and Kuala Lumpur. Euro Petroleum Consultants also organises leading conferences and training courses worldwide. For further details please visit www.europetro.com.