Advanced Catalyst Development For Oil Refinery

Advanced Energy Materials, LLC (ADEM) proposes this SBIR Phase II A project to further advance the hydro-desulfurization catalysts for reducing the severity of hydrogen use in ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) production and activity with sulfur tolerant hydrogen and other process intensification applications.The need is identified in close collaboration with strategic partners and potential customers.ADEM successfully accomplished the Phase II technical goals: Developed the AdESCatTM HDS catalyst formulations; demonstrated its HDS activity in removing sulfur compounds from 900 ppm to 13 ppm and saturate/hydrogenate aromatics in diesel simultaneously at much more milder conditions compared to the current state of the art in the industry; verified the Cetane number improvement activity of the hydrotreating catalyst, ADE-CCatTM by performing the standard engine test (ASTM D613); Optimized the production procedure for the AdE-CCatTM and AdE-SCatTM catalyst products at 150 kg/day pilot scale using commercially available equipment.In addition, ADEM demonstrated a dry manufacturing technique for the production of titanium oxide nanowires at 300 kg/day.The extrudates for proposed catalysts (ADE-Scat™ and ADE-Ccat™) were produced in various sizes (1.25 - 3 mm dia) that exhibited good crush strength and attrition resistance.Specifically, the Phase IIA objectives include: 1.Optimize and scaleup of high performance HDS catalyst 2.Optimize sulfur tolerant hydrogen catalyst activity and durability 3.Establish catalyst manufacturing scalability and optimize crush and attrition strength extrudates 4.Perform technical validation at customer sites at pilot scale for activity and the life time With successful Phase IIA, the proposed catalyst products will find commercial applications in small refineries, refineries with no hydrogen infrastructure, reformers for hydrogen in fertilizer plants, refineries and fuel cell power plants.The proposed catalyst solutions will find applications in the production of ULSD, high cetane number diesel, removing sulfur from natural gas and Naphtha for reformer applications and sulfur tolerant hydrogenation in aromatics/solvent production.Further advancements in HDS catalysts and solutions will reduce the hydrogen requirement in desulfurization and enable process intensification in chemical processing industry.Dry manufacturing innovation for catalysts and process intensification will result in reduced transportation fuel costs, energy and improved US competitiveness in the manufacturing of catalysts & chemicals.