Abstract
Petroleum refinery uses many catalysts such as hydroprocessing catalyst HPC, fluid catalytic cracking catalyst FCCC, reforming catalyst RC, etc. During the refining processes, the catalysts are deactivated; the spent catalysts are regarded as hazardous toxic materials due to heavy metals, coke, other poisonous compounds, and hydrocarbons. Huge amount of spent catalysts SC is generated which is expected to increase with expansion capacities of available refineries processes. This paper is reviewing the mechanisms of refining catalyst and the deactivation processes and focusing on spent catalysts management. Management of spent catalyst includes four main options; select the catalysts which reduce the generation of SC by switching to more environment friendly, longer lifetime and less toxic catalyst during the refining process; regenerate the SC; and precious metal recovery should be explored and reuse for other applications. The selection can be based on many factors such as safety, environment, mobility, etc.
Highlights
Catalysts play an important role in petroleum refining processes and especially during heavy crude processing
The results showed that the spent catalysts contained high deposition of C, Al, V, Ni, P and Mo
Spent FCC catalysts can be utilized to use in catalytic degradation at high temperatures to covert waste plastics into basic petrochemicals, which can be used as chemical feedstock or fuels
Summary
Catalysts play an important role in petroleum refining processes and especially during heavy crude processing. A. HPC Refinery HP includes hydrocracking HC and hydrotreating processes HTP to convert conventional petroleum to commercial fuels through adding hydrogen while reducing sulfur, nitrogen and aromatics. Spent HPCs are hazardous solid wastes due to the presence of hazardous materials including, heavy metals, metal oxides, and metal sulphides [3] These catalysts have very high porosity and surface areas. Hydrogenation function is served by metals, which are noble metals (e.g. palladium, platinum) or non-noble metal sulphides (e.g. Co, Ni, Mo, W) These metals make feedstock more reactive for removing heteroatom and cracking and decreasing coking rate. Hydrotreating is pretreatment process of removing harmful impurities such as sulfur, nitrogen and metals by reacting with hydrogen before hydrocracking process. The maximum sulfur content in on-road diesel fuel is 10-15 ppm [7,8]
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