- Email: [email protected]
Spanish Congress on Chemistry
428 Recent Developments in Residue in China
Cracking
An article by Li Zaiting in the new Chinese journal, Acta Petrolei Sinica (Petroleum Processing Section, 1 (1985) 7) describes recent research at the Research Institute of Petroleum Processing, Beijin3, on reducing coke deposition during residue cracking. By using a new series of zeolite catalysts, ra~sing the riser temperature (from 482 to 0C), 505 lowering the 2eaction pressure from 2.3 to 1.0 kg/cm (gauge), increasing the steam injection, improving the feed atomisation, applying rapid separation and shortening the feed residence time to 2-3 sec., the yield of coke has been reduced significantly both in a 0.24 ton/day pilot plant and in commercial units. Passivation by metals, especially nickel, has also been studied. The article lists the operation parameters and the product yields of residue cracking for three refineries. Gasoline plus light cycle oil yields for two atmospheric residues and vacuum bottoms mixed feeds are 70-76wt% and over 80wt% respectively. The Y-7 series of zeolite cracking catalyst was used in the work. This contains Re and is 20 3 characterised by a lower specific surface area, a smaller pore volume, a larger pore diameter, a small unit cell size, a higher Si0 to A1 ratio and 20, 2 higher bulk density than the zeolites normally used. This -ca t a I yst has been available for residue cracking in several units.
to be planning to use it. The catalyst has been used successfully in factories. A pilot plant, which can produce up to 20 cubic metres of the catalyst per year has been set up at the Shanghai institute. A New Catalyst for Methanol to Ether
Dimethyl
A short news item in the Chinese journal, Petrochemical Technology (No.5 (1985) 306) has announced that a new catalyst with the nomenclature NKC-02 has been developed for the condensation of methanol to dimethyl ether. This catalyst, which consists of a ZSM-5-type zeolite synthesised by a direct method, is said to have an excellent performance. The results obtained from the laboratory showed that the technology indexes for this catalyst have reached or are far superior to those of methyl sulphuric acid. The reaction proceeds at atmospheric pressure, a temperature of 1700~land a space velocity of 1 to 12 h . The conversion of the methanol and the selectivity to dimethyl ether were higher than 80% and 99% respectively. The time between regenerations for the catalyst was longer than 500 hours. It is said that the new catalyst will be used for industrial production this year. Wang Din-Zhu
Spanish Congress on Chemistry A New Combustion Catalyst A recent report in the Chinese newspaper Guangming Daily (4th October 1985) gives details of a new combustion catalyst developed by Professor Wang Ren and his coworkers of the East China Institute of Chemical Technology, Shanghai. The catalyst contains rare earth compounds rather than a noble metal and is said to exhibit excellent performance in uses such as the elimination of pollution from stationary sources of emission and also from vehicles, the polluting compounds being catalytically combusted with air. Because rare earth resources abound in China, this catalyst is less expensive than those including noble metals. The high performance and low cost have attracted the attention of potential users abroad and some are said
applied catalysis, - Volume 19, No, 2 -
December 1985
The Sixth National Congress on Chemistry, which was held at La Manga del Mar Menor in the province of Murcia from 17th - 19th October, was focussed on "Basic and Complementary Energies". A total of 212 communications were presented but only a few were related to catalysis. One presentation was in the field of petro]eum refining and was entitled "Refining processes for the production of lead-free gasoline"; this was presented by Rene Aga and Luis Caballero from Petronor. It discussed the catalytic processes used to improve the Research and Motor octane numbers of gas01ines and announced the imminent start-up (in February to March, 1986) of the first MTBE (methyl-tertiary butyl ether) unit in Spain, in the refinery of Petroleos del Norte (Petronor) near
429
entitled Another presentaion Bilbao. "Photocatalysis and production of hydrogen" by S, Carver-a-March and his collof Barcelona, eagues of the University described engineering studies made with catalysis by suspended particles of Ru /Pt/TiO . Several presentaions were algo made ?n the field of bio-catalysed reactions. R. Aga
American
Vacuum
Society
Meeting
It has been announced that the 10th the 6th International Vacuum Congress, International Conference on Solid Surfaces and the 33rd National Symposium of the American Vacuum Society will be held simultaneously from October 27th to 31st 1986 in Baltimore, U.S.A.. Of greatest interest to our readers will be a sertwhich includes science ion on surface sessions, inter alia, on the dynamics of cataland surface processes (kinetics and applications ysis); and on methods of surface analysis. Invited speakers on (U.S.A.) catalysis will be D.W. Goodman those on and M. Kiskinova (Bulgaria); wi il be S. Holloway surface kinetics (U.K.), R. Cavenagh (U.S.A.) and M. Grunze (U.S.A.): and those on applied Briggs will be D. analysis surface (U.K.), J. Ferrante (U.S.A.), E. Taglauer (F.R.G.), C.H. Becker (U.S.A.) and C. Evans (U.S.A.). Further details can be obtained from the American' Vacuum Society at the address which is given in the Calendar.
More New Meetings In addition to the meeting of the American Vacuum Society, three other month's announced in this events are Calendar. The first of these, concerning hydrogenation processes, is one of a number of commercial courses run in the Netherlands by the Centre for Professional Advancement. The course in question, which is undoubtedly very expensive in comparison with even the most outlandish conference registration fee, may be of some interest to anyone getting involved with this field for the first time. The aim is to provide the participants with a "practical" understanding of hydrogenation. The role of catalvsts will be covered, including specific industrial catalysts and the reactions and The design of processes where used. batch and continuous reactors, hydrogen *mm-
Volume 19, No. 2 - December 1985
generation and handling, as well as overall operation safety will also be discussed. The Course Director will be Jack M. Solomon and additional speakers will be Iv’illiam R. Alcorn, Tom S. Greenwood, Josef Kilger, A.K.S. &r-thy, Paul Rylander, and Steve Tunkel. No details are available of the British Zeolite Association other than the fact that it will be held in the Royal Holloway and Bedford New College of the University of London. The Materials Research Society Meetof a ing will consist, as is usual, number of parallel symposia. Of most interest to our readers will be one on Materials Characterisation, covering new or relatively new techniques of use in characterising solids, another on Better Ceramics through Chemistry, covering, among other things, chemical routes to gels and powders, and a third on Materials for Chemical Sensors, including papers on oxide materials for gas sensors. A fourth symposium, held at lunchtimes, is concerned with Frontiers of Materials Research.
Signal
Automotive
Unit Appointments
Signal Automotive Products Division, claimed to be one of world's largest producers of automotive cataiysts, have announced two changes in their management with the appointment of Jorge Campo position of Director of in the new Strategic Planning and Peter Sabol, a veteran executive from Volkswagen of America assuming Campo's post with the new title of Director of Sales and Marketing. The company has indicated that these changes are aimed to put the company in a position to capture a larger share of the domestic market and to move into an emerging European market. It believes that Europe presents the Division with significant business opportunities as members of the European Economic Community implement new autoemission standards and require that catalytic converters are installed in European autos. (See following item.) The Division, tormallv called the Automotive Products Division of l;OP, is said the developto have been a pioneer in automotive production of and ment to have emission control catalysts and major autosupplied catalysts to most U.S.A., manufacturers in the mobile Europe and Japan.
Cracking
An article by Li Zaiting in the new Chinese journal, Acta Petrolei Sinica (Petroleum Processing Section, 1 (1985) 7) describes recent research at the Research Institute of Petroleum Processing, Beijin3, on reducing coke deposition during residue cracking. By using a new series of zeolite catalysts, ra~sing the riser temperature (from 482 to 0C), 505 lowering the 2eaction pressure from 2.3 to 1.0 kg/cm (gauge), increasing the steam injection, improving the feed atomisation, applying rapid separation and shortening the feed residence time to 2-3 sec., the yield of coke has been reduced significantly both in a 0.24 ton/day pilot plant and in commercial units. Passivation by metals, especially nickel, has also been studied. The article lists the operation parameters and the product yields of residue cracking for three refineries. Gasoline plus light cycle oil yields for two atmospheric residues and vacuum bottoms mixed feeds are 70-76wt% and over 80wt% respectively. The Y-7 series of zeolite cracking catalyst was used in the work. This contains Re and is 20 3 characterised by a lower specific surface area, a smaller pore volume, a larger pore diameter, a small unit cell size, a higher Si0 to A1 ratio and 20, 2 higher bulk density than the zeolites normally used. This -ca t a I yst has been available for residue cracking in several units.
to be planning to use it. The catalyst has been used successfully in factories. A pilot plant, which can produce up to 20 cubic metres of the catalyst per year has been set up at the Shanghai institute. A New Catalyst for Methanol to Ether
Dimethyl
A short news item in the Chinese journal, Petrochemical Technology (No.5 (1985) 306) has announced that a new catalyst with the nomenclature NKC-02 has been developed for the condensation of methanol to dimethyl ether. This catalyst, which consists of a ZSM-5-type zeolite synthesised by a direct method, is said to have an excellent performance. The results obtained from the laboratory showed that the technology indexes for this catalyst have reached or are far superior to those of methyl sulphuric acid. The reaction proceeds at atmospheric pressure, a temperature of 1700~land a space velocity of 1 to 12 h . The conversion of the methanol and the selectivity to dimethyl ether were higher than 80% and 99% respectively. The time between regenerations for the catalyst was longer than 500 hours. It is said that the new catalyst will be used for industrial production this year. Wang Din-Zhu
Spanish Congress on Chemistry A New Combustion Catalyst A recent report in the Chinese newspaper Guangming Daily (4th October 1985) gives details of a new combustion catalyst developed by Professor Wang Ren and his coworkers of the East China Institute of Chemical Technology, Shanghai. The catalyst contains rare earth compounds rather than a noble metal and is said to exhibit excellent performance in uses such as the elimination of pollution from stationary sources of emission and also from vehicles, the polluting compounds being catalytically combusted with air. Because rare earth resources abound in China, this catalyst is less expensive than those including noble metals. The high performance and low cost have attracted the attention of potential users abroad and some are said
applied catalysis, - Volume 19, No, 2 -
December 1985
The Sixth National Congress on Chemistry, which was held at La Manga del Mar Menor in the province of Murcia from 17th - 19th October, was focussed on "Basic and Complementary Energies". A total of 212 communications were presented but only a few were related to catalysis. One presentation was in the field of petro]eum refining and was entitled "Refining processes for the production of lead-free gasoline"; this was presented by Rene Aga and Luis Caballero from Petronor. It discussed the catalytic processes used to improve the Research and Motor octane numbers of gas01ines and announced the imminent start-up (in February to March, 1986) of the first MTBE (methyl-tertiary butyl ether) unit in Spain, in the refinery of Petroleos del Norte (Petronor) near
429
entitled Another presentaion Bilbao. "Photocatalysis and production of hydrogen" by S, Carver-a-March and his collof Barcelona, eagues of the University described engineering studies made with catalysis by suspended particles of Ru /Pt/TiO . Several presentaions were algo made ?n the field of bio-catalysed reactions. R. Aga
American
Vacuum
Society
Meeting
It has been announced that the 10th the 6th International Vacuum Congress, International Conference on Solid Surfaces and the 33rd National Symposium of the American Vacuum Society will be held simultaneously from October 27th to 31st 1986 in Baltimore, U.S.A.. Of greatest interest to our readers will be a sertwhich includes science ion on surface sessions, inter alia, on the dynamics of cataland surface processes (kinetics and applications ysis); and on methods of surface analysis. Invited speakers on (U.S.A.) catalysis will be D.W. Goodman those on and M. Kiskinova (Bulgaria); wi il be S. Holloway surface kinetics (U.K.), R. Cavenagh (U.S.A.) and M. Grunze (U.S.A.): and those on applied Briggs will be D. analysis surface (U.K.), J. Ferrante (U.S.A.), E. Taglauer (F.R.G.), C.H. Becker (U.S.A.) and C. Evans (U.S.A.). Further details can be obtained from the American' Vacuum Society at the address which is given in the Calendar.
More New Meetings In addition to the meeting of the American Vacuum Society, three other month's announced in this events are Calendar. The first of these, concerning hydrogenation processes, is one of a number of commercial courses run in the Netherlands by the Centre for Professional Advancement. The course in question, which is undoubtedly very expensive in comparison with even the most outlandish conference registration fee, may be of some interest to anyone getting involved with this field for the first time. The aim is to provide the participants with a "practical" understanding of hydrogenation. The role of catalvsts will be covered, including specific industrial catalysts and the reactions and The design of processes where used. batch and continuous reactors, hydrogen *mm-
Volume 19, No. 2 - December 1985
generation and handling, as well as overall operation safety will also be discussed. The Course Director will be Jack M. Solomon and additional speakers will be Iv’illiam R. Alcorn, Tom S. Greenwood, Josef Kilger, A.K.S. &r-thy, Paul Rylander, and Steve Tunkel. No details are available of the British Zeolite Association other than the fact that it will be held in the Royal Holloway and Bedford New College of the University of London. The Materials Research Society Meetof a ing will consist, as is usual, number of parallel symposia. Of most interest to our readers will be one on Materials Characterisation, covering new or relatively new techniques of use in characterising solids, another on Better Ceramics through Chemistry, covering, among other things, chemical routes to gels and powders, and a third on Materials for Chemical Sensors, including papers on oxide materials for gas sensors. A fourth symposium, held at lunchtimes, is concerned with Frontiers of Materials Research.
Signal
Automotive
Unit Appointments
Signal Automotive Products Division, claimed to be one of world's largest producers of automotive cataiysts, have announced two changes in their management with the appointment of Jorge Campo position of Director of in the new Strategic Planning and Peter Sabol, a veteran executive from Volkswagen of America assuming Campo's post with the new title of Director of Sales and Marketing. The company has indicated that these changes are aimed to put the company in a position to capture a larger share of the domestic market and to move into an emerging European market. It believes that Europe presents the Division with significant business opportunities as members of the European Economic Community implement new autoemission standards and require that catalytic converters are installed in European autos. (See following item.) The Division, tormallv called the Automotive Products Division of l;OP, is said the developto have been a pioneer in automotive production of and ment to have emission control catalysts and major autosupplied catalysts to most U.S.A., manufacturers in the mobile Europe and Japan.