Chinese refiner lets contract for hydrocracker project

Shandong Shangneng Industrial Co. Ltd.—a subsidiary of Shandong Shangneng Investment Holding Group Co. Ltd. (Shangneng)—has let a contract to Royal Dutch Shell Ltd.’s Shell Catalysts & Technologies (SC&T) to provide a new heavy-feed hydrocracking catalyst system to help maximize diesel production capacity at the operator’s 3.5-million tonnes/year (tpy) refinery in the Economic Development Zone of Guangrao County, Dongying City, Shandong Province, China.

As part of the contract, SC&T delivered Shangneng a plan for improving its operating strategy and catalyst system during an upcoming catalyst refill of the refinery’s two-stage deasphalted oil (DAO) hydrocracker based on the service provider’s new, proprietary molecular access catalysts for hydrocracking (MACH) system, SC&T said.

Alongside including a more robust pretreat catalyst system to accommodate additional DAO feedstock, the customized MACH cracking-catalyst system is designed to improve the DAO hydrocracker’s distillate yields at high conversion while simultaneously minimizing accumulation of polycyclic aromatics in the recycle loop.

Following scheduled completion of project implementation in April 2021, Shangneng expects the DAO hydrocracker’s improved performance will support expansion of the unit’s diesel production capacity at 98% conversion to generate an estimated $15-million margin improvement, SC&T said.

Shangneng’s refinery will be the first to use SC&T’s new MACH system, which is based on catalysts powered by a proprietary zeolite technology designed to optimize pore structure and enable increased heavy-feed cracking efficiency to desired product range, according to SC&T’s website.

Refinery background

Equipped with unidentified advanced joint-refining and chemical technology and equipment from China University of Petroleum and Honeywell UOP LLC, Shangneng’s Dongying City refinery also appears to house a residuum oil supercritical extraction (ROSE) unit, according to information on the operator’s website.

Licensed by KBR Inc., ROSE solvent deasphalting (SDA) technology produces DAO refineries use as feedstock for further processing at units such as hydrocrackers to produce lighter, cleaner products (OGJ Online, Apr. 1, 2019; Jan. 26, 2016; July 15, 2013).

The refinery also includes additional units for wax oil hydrocracking, SDA, and sulfur recovery, as well as unidentified production capacities for lubes and needle coke.