OPERATIONAL OPERATIONAL STABILITY STABILITY OPERATIONAL STABILITY THROUGH CATALYST PERFORMANCE

摘要

Catalyst technology has developed by leaps and bounds in the last two decades, driven by the switch to ultralow sulfur diesel (ULSD) in the mid- 2000s, increases in required ? uid catalytic cracker pretreat (FCCPT) performance due to Tier 2 and now Tier 3, and in hydrocracking with the increasing demand for distil- late yield. Criterion has released a new family of catalysts every four to five years, moving from CENTINEL to CENTINEL GOLD to ASCENT and currently to CEN- TERA. Each step resulted in significant improvement in hydrodesulfurization (HDS), hydrodenitrification (HDN) and hydrogenation activity over the previous generation. The company has also made progress in improving catalyst stability, which is impacted by metals and coking deacti- vation. Unplanned downtime is the most critical factor impacting refinery profitability, and increased stability minimizes the risk of an early outage.