Sixth Meeting of the
Catalysis Club of Chicago 2011-2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
 

Viceroy of India
233 East Roosevelt Road
Lombard, IL
(630) 627-4411

Cost $45 Professionals
$20 Students/Post Docs

From Black Oil to Silver Fuel:  Nano-Catalysts for Slurry Hydrocracking of Heavy Oil

Dr. Alak Bhattacharyya
UOP/Honeywell
25 East Algonquin Road
Des Plaines, IL 60017-5017

Abstract

An increasing portion of the world’s oil reserves consist of heavy oil that produces low yields of useful products when processed with existing coking technologies.  In the UOP UniflexTM process, the coke yield is lower and the product yield is higher.  Here the catalyst, a non-stoichiometric, crystalline ferrous sulfide, is formed in-situ from ferrous sulfate.  Although molybdenum catalysts have a stronger hydrogenation function than iron, molybdenum is expensive and cannot be used as a disposable catalyst.  UOP Research has evaluated numerous alternative catalysts and identified a superior Fe/Al/O catalyst, which forms nano-crystallites of the active sulfide form, as the preferred one.  The activity, selectivity, and the stability of a catalyst depend on the various physical and chemical properties of the intermediate ferrous sulfide. This talk will focus on the factors that show the superiority of the Fe/Al/O nano-catalysts for slurry hydrocracking of heavy oil.