Advances in Catalysts for Refining Processes

Catalytic processes play the most significant role in petroleum refineries for changing the molecular architecture of the hydrocarbons to make high-performance fuels in high yields and removing the heteroatoms such as sulfur, nitrogen, and metals to produce environmentally acceptable fuels. Catalysts take part in carbon rejection (e.g., fluid catalytic cracking [FCC]) and hydrogen addition (e.g., hydrocracking) to convert the hydrocarbons in crude oils to desirable light and middle distillates and other chemicals. Catalysts constitute the heart of the catalytic processes, and there have been very significant developments from the days of using natural clays as catalysts for catalytic cracking to designing and producing catalysts with precise control of their structure, composition, and properties for FCC. This chapter introduces new advances in catalysts for selected processes such as FCC, hydrotreatment of FCC gasoline (catalytic cracked gasoline), hydroprocessing of vacuum gas oil, alkylation, processing of heavy bottoms of crude oils, hydrogen production, and the roles of catalyst supports. The chapter follows an outline parallel to the advanced processes discussed in Chapter 7 to focus on the catalysts used in these processes.