AM-98- 13 ENHANCEMENT OFNICKEL PASSIkTION EFFECTIVENESS BY THE.USE OF SMALL PARTICLE SIZE ANTIMONY PRODUCTS

Description:

The processing of low cost “opportunity” crudes has been a key driving force to increasing refinery profitability. These crudes, however, produce more residuum (resid), which is then being fed in increasing concentrations to the Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) unit to convert them to more valuable products. While processing resid can increase refinery profitability, contaminant metals, such as nickel and vanadium, can contribute to increased by-product make of coke and hydrogen, reducing yield and impacting unit performance. Metals passivators are fed to the FCC unit to reduce the negative impact of these metals. Antimony passivators have been proven to be quite effective at reducing the impact of nickel. This paper will highlight the continued benefit of antimony passivators and introduce a BetzDearborn small particle size antimony product for passivating nickel on FCC catalyst. The increased effectiveness of the small particle size antimony product and effective process monitoring to identify the benefits of a metals passivation program are reviewed.