Chiyoda CT‐HBT

Novel Hybrid Titania Catalyst for Hydrodesulfurization in ULSD Production

On September 26, 2018, Anne Wong and Robert Schneider, both of Chiyoda’s Houston office, co-presented a paper on new technology developments at the Houston IRPC America’s Conference.

Chiyoda has developed and commercialized a highly activated hydrodesulfurization (HDS) catalyst, CT‐HBT, which can convert feedstocks containing highly concentrated hard‐to‐desulfurize middle distillate into high‐value‐added diesel oil with a sulfur content of 10‐15 ppm or less.  The key to this new development is the adoption of titania‐coated alumina as a support.

CT‐HBT has demonstrated itself to be a superior catalyst with an HDS activity 1.5 times that of a conventional alumina catalyst. Adopting a catalyst with high HDS activity allows refineries to improve profitability by converting light cycle oil (LCO), a hard‐to‐desulfurize middle distillate produced by fluid catalytic cracking (FCC), into more valuable diesel oil. For easy‐to‐desulfurize feedstocks, the catalyst life is extended which halves the frequency of catalyst replacement in certain conditions, boosting potential profits even further.

In 2014, Chiyoda demonstrated the catalyst’s high performance when processing a feedstock with high LCO content in the first commercial application of CT‐HBT in an HDS unit for kerosene and diesel oil at the Seibu Oil Company Limited in Japan. The unit was operated successfully for three consecutive years on an annual cycle of eight months for the production of diesel oil and four months for kerosene. During the diesel oil production period, a feedstock containing LCO up to a content of 30% was stably processed for two years. Based on these results, CT‐HBTwasadoptedin2016and2017atthreerefineriesinJapan. Seibu Oil has decided to replace their existing HDS catalyst for ULSD production with a second charge of CT-HBT.

 

Robert V. Schneider is a Senior Technical Advisor with Chiyoda International Corporation.   He has over 40 years of chemical process industry experience and has a background in various technologies including Methanol, Ammonia and Ethylene Oxide, industrial catalysis, sales & marketing, technology licensing and senior company management.   He has a Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from the University of Louisville and a MBA from the University of South Florida.  Mr. Schneider is a registered Professional Engineer in the states of Texas, Florida and Kentucky.

Anne O. Wong is a Principal Process Engineer with Chiyoda International Corporation in Houston, Texas.  Ms. Wong has 30 years of downstream process design experience.  She was lead process engineer on many hydrotreating projects and was co-author of a clean diesel hydrotreating paper.  Ms. Wong has a Bachelors of Chemical Engineering from the University of Houston and is a registered Professional Engineer in the states of Texas and Minnesota.