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Upgrading renewables, secondary, and waste streams through innovative hydroprocessing catalysts and reaction pathways

Problem statement

Hydroprocessing is a well-implemented and versatile refinery conversion strategy, comprising a wide array of reaction routes such as: (i) hydrotreating, aiming for the hydrogenation of unsaturated hydrocarbons and the removal (hydrogenolysis) of heteroatoms such as sulfur or nitrogen; (ii) hydrocracking, for promoting C–C bond scission and the partial saturation of aromatics; or (iii) hydrodeoxygenation, for the specific removal of oxygen moieties. In this project, we investigate the conversion of highly polyaromatic feedstock like heavy fuel oil (HFO), pyrolysis fuel oil (PFO), or bio-oils from different biomass sources (i.e., agricultural waste, algae) for quality improvement and obtaining products with higher added value.

We seek new (thermo-) catalytic strategies and improved heterogeneous catalysts with increased activity and stability. We put advanced analytical characterization techniques (i.e., nuclear magnetic resonance, high-res mass spectrometry) to work and combine their results with modeling and statistical tools.

Goals

  • Develop a quantitative analytical workflow to analyze and interpret these complex reacting environments
  • Explore novel renewable and waste resources to obtain chemicals and fuels
  • Deploy ad-hoc catalysts and process conditions to incorporate these wastes in the refinery (bio- and waste-refinery)
  • Analyze process dynamics and kinetics
HPC

Related People

Gontzal Lezcano
Idoia Hita

Related Publications

Hydrodesulfurization of Dibenzothiophene and a SRGO on Sulfide Ni(Co)Mo/Al2O3 Catalysts. Effect of Ru and Pd Promotion

by Navarro, Castaño, Alvarez-Galvan, Pawelec
Catal. Today Year: 2009

Abstract

Commercial Ni(Co)Mo/γ–Al2O3 catalysts were modified by the addition of Pd and Ru in order to enhance their hydrogenation function as required for the simultaneous elimination of sulfur, nitrogen and aromatics from a gasoil. The ternary catalysts were prepared by wet impregnation of the commercial samples with Ru and Pd salt solutions. The oxide precursors were characterized by SBET, TPR, XRD, XPS and IR of adsorbed pyridine. The catalysts were tested in their sulfided forms to evaluate their activity in the hydrodesulfurization (HDS) of dibenzothiophene (DBT) and in the hydrotreating (HDT) of a straight run gas oil (SRGO; 0.11, 0.55 and 1.16 wt% of S). Catalyst screening in the HDS of DBT showed that: (i) the presence of isolated RuS2 phases located on the catalyst surface contributed to overall catalytic activity and improved the catalyst hydrogenation function, (ii) catalyst doping with Ru was more effective than its doping with Pd, (iii) maximum activity was obtained at a Ru loading of 0.5 wt%, (iv) the NiMo catalyst formulation was more effective than its CoMo counterpart, and (v) a life test (87 h) performed on the 0.5%Ru/NiMo catalyst showed that this catalyst was less prone to deactivation than the NiMo reference sample. In the hydrotreatment of a SRGO (S = 0.55 wt%), the sulfide 0.5%Ru/NiMo/Al2O3 catalyst proved to be more active in the HDS and HDA reactions than a commercial NiMo/Al2O3 one.

Keywords

HCE HPC