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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Advances in FCC vanadium tolerance

Conference ·
OSTI ID:7078285
 [1]; ;  [2];  [3]
  1. GRACE Davison, Baltimore, MD (United States)
  2. GRACE Davison, Worms (Germany)
  3. GRACE Davison, Columbia, MD (United States)

Vanadium, while not the only contributor to fluid cracking catalyst (FCC) deactivation, frequently dictates the amount of fresh catalyst added to the FCC unit to maintain activity. Improvements have been made to both zeolites and matrices to minimize the effect of vanadium. Another method of protecting the catalyst from vanadium deactivation is to use traps that prevent the vanadium from contacting the catalyst in the first place. Sulfur, present in commercial operations, has been known to interfere with previous traps' ability to capture vanadium. This paper focuses on seven commercial trials of a new, rare earth based, dual particle trapping technology known as RV4+. The importance of vanadium mobility to traps is discussed and both laboratory and commercial data is presented. Vanadium reductions on equilibrium catalyst as high as 23.4% were observed with as little as 4.3% material in inventory. RV4+'s affinity for vanadium was as high as six times that of fluid cracking catalyst. Improvements in equilibrium catalyst microactivity were observed that were directly related to higher zeolite surface area, a sure sign that the effects of vanadium were being mitigated. One refiner was able to reduce fresh catalyst additions by 20% and still maintain activity. No sulfur interference was observed during the commercial trials. Refiners can elect to take advantage of this technology in several ways. The most obvious is to process lower cost, higher metals feed or increase the amount of resid fed to the unit. Another option is to reduce fresh catalyst additions as the refiner above did. Spent catalyst disposal costs would be decreased as well. Laboratory results of future RV technology showing even greater promise than that tested commercially are also presented.

OSTI ID:
7078285
Report Number(s):
CONF-9403125--
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English