Worldwide Catalyst Report - OGJ Special Catalyst suppliers consolidate further, offer more catalysts

Anne K. Rhodes
Refining/Petrochemical Editor

The list of suppliers of catalysts to the petroleum refining industry has decreased by five since Oil & Gas Journal's survey of refining catalysts and catalytic additives was last published (OGJ, Oct. 11, 1993, p. 41). Responsible for the decrease were acquisitions and exits from the technology licensing business.

Despite the consolidation, the list of catalyst designations has grown to about 950 in this latest survey, compared to 820 listed in 1993. Of course, many of these catalysts are members of "families" and their different designations indicate in many cases important but not fundamental differences. Identifying and sorting out the reasons for the numerous designations has been and is a major objective of this survey which was launched in 1984. That year, 700 different catalysts were available to the refining industry.

The latest survey lists almost 70 additional hydroprocessing catalysts compared to the 1993 list (see Hydrotreating/Hydrogenation/Saturation and Hydrorefining sections). This increase indicates added emphasis on cleanup of streams. A gradual deterioration in the quality of the crude charged to refineries is also driving this trend.

The remainder of the increase in the number of catalysts since the 1993 survey is due to slight increases in many other categories. The number of FCC catalysts listed in the table, for example, has increased by only a few.

In both the hydrocracking and reforming sections, the number of catalysts has decreased slightly because the number of suppliers listed in these categories has declined.

Table 1 lists the suppliers included in this year's survey and their headquarters' locations. Table 2 shows abbreviations used in the catalyst survey, which begins on p. 37.

Consolidation

The biggest change of the past 2 years in the refining catalyst business was UOP's purchase of Unocal Corp.'s process technology licensing business (OGJ, Feb. 6, p. 42). The acquisition included all of Unocal's refining catalysts.

BP also is no longer engaged in the licensing of refinery processes and thus does not sell catalysts.

In July, Alcoa acquired Discovery Industries, a maker of sulfur recovery and Claus catalysts. And in late August, Tricat Industries Inc., McAlester, Okla., bought Leuna-Katalysatoren GmbH, originally an enterprise of the former East Germany, and renamed it KataLeuna GmbH.

In addition, Engelhard Corp. purchased Solvay Catalysts GmbH's refining catalyst business, and UOP sold its DeSOx catalyst to Grace Davison.

The Cover

Concern for environmental liability has focused new attention on the life cycles of catalysts.

Catalyst manufacturers increasingly offer refiners "cradle-to-grave" services to help ensure safe handling through the various steps.

In a typical life cycle, a catalyst passes from manufacturing to presulfiding and loading for use. Once used, it is unloaded for regeneration or recycling.

Cradle-to-grave unifies management of these otherwise discrete steps. It thus provides continuous monitoring and control of the catalyst as well as by-products of its handling and use.

The cover illustrates main steps of the concept as presented by affiliates of CRI International Inc., clockwise from upper left: manufacturing by Criterion Catalyst Co. LP., presulfiding (equation) by Catalyst Recovery Inc., loading and unloading by Catalyst Technology Inc., and (at center) regeneration by Catalyst Recovery.

The background consists of basic chemicals recycled from catalysts by CRI-MET Inc.