Question
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How is contamination of FCC catalysts being resolved to increase yields and cycle length?
Mar-2025
Answers
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Jarred Drewry, Johnson Matthey, jarred.drewry@matthey.com
When dealing with FCC catalyst contamination, there are several possible approaches. The first, and most obvious, is to increase your fresh catalyst rate, but this can be an expensive task, particularly for persistent contamination issues. An alternative is to work with your fresh catalyst vendor for a catalyst reformulation. Ideally, a catalyst change would result in improved metals tolerance at similar yields.
A more immediate and flexible solution is the use of metals-trapping additives, which help mitigate the negative effects of contamination. A metal trap additive, such as CAT-AIDTM from Johnson Matthey, effectively traps both vanadium and iron from the FCC feed. This allows the base catalyst to continue to perform its desired reactions unencumbered by the poisons. The result is that the FCC unit is able to recapture/increase yields and reduce increased fresh catalyst usage. Because the undesirable coke/dry gas reactions are reduced with the metals-trapping, there will also be an improvement in operations due to the lower delta coke/regenerator temperature enabled by the additive. The additive-based approach is particularly advantageous because it can be implemented quickly, providing refineries with greater flexibility in managing feedstock variability and contamination challenges.
Mar-2025
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