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Customised catalyst solution produces cost savings

02/07/2007

A new generation of cracking catalysts developed by specialists from Shell Global Solutions and Criterion Catalysts & Technologies and its affiliated venture Zeolyst International has produced substantial cost savings and helped to improve margins for the hydrocracker at the Shell Pernis refinery in the Netherlands.

Shell Global Solutions was asked to develop a solution to make hydrocracker diesel with a sulphur content of 8-ppm or less for blending with higher sulphur diesel streams to produce 10-ppm automotive gas oil. A new catalyst and loading pattern were needed for the hydrocracker to increase sulphur removal from the diesel fraction and to meet tighter EU fuel specifications.

The catalyst R&D team in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, identified a new zeolite that would enable development of a cracking catalyst with higher desulphurisation activity. The catalyst developed had the same middle distillate selectivity as the former product, which had been used in the Pernis refinery since 1997.

The new catalyst technology enabled a higher ratio of hydrotreating to hydrocracking catalyst to be installed in the hydrocracker, which facilitated sulphur removal with little impact on product selectivity.

Two years of using the new catalyst in the hydrocracker have avoided investment in sulphur removal equipment or downgrading of the hydrocracker gas oil. Investment costs could have exceeded $8 million.

Luc Spitholt, Shell Pernis, says, “The hydrocracker is a key unit in the refinery and supplies an important blending component for our automotive gas oil pool. When we were faced with the new sulphur specifications for ultra-low-sulphur diesel some five years ago, there was no tailor-made solution for reducing the sulphur in hydrocracker gas oil to the required level. The close cooperation between the teams eventually led to this innovative catalyst solution. We are pleased with the robust performance of the new catalyst system.”