Catalytic Process

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Process catalyst is playing a very important role in economy. From statistics, there are more than 90% of the chemical manufacturing process and also more than 20% of the industrial product are produced by undergo catalytic steps. In oil industry, also known as petrol refinery industry contain almost entirely of catalytic process. The diagram below shows the world consumption of process catalysis:-

The largest petrol refining catalyst is used in catalytic cracking while the largest-volume products are alkylation and follow by FCC catalyst. Other catalysts also used in hydrotreating, hydrocracking, alkylation and reforming process.
There are many catalysts can be used in the oil industry for each process of petroleum refinery. The very first process that included the using of catalyst is the catalytic cracking process. Briefly, a catalytic process is used to break up the large hydrocarbon bonds from naphtha fraction into smaller chain and more useful material. For modern refinery process, fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit is widely used. It is the most important conversion process in petroleum refineries which use to convert high-boiling hydrocarbons molecules of crude oil into more valuable products and useful gasoline. This process will be taken place under high temperature and high pressure without catalyst. Therefore, catalyst is used in this process to lower the temperature and pressure used.
The most recent catalyst used in the modern petroleum refinery is zeolites which is a complex compound of aluminosilicates with large lattices of aluminium, oxygen atoms and silicon which carrying negative charge. It is desired for FCC catalyst because it has good stability to high temperature, high activity, low coke production...

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...tion and also hydrogenation process. It is an active carrier to do the complementary reaction. High-purity alumina as a carrier with acid functionality can be moderate by controlling amount of chloride added to the support. By combining acid with metal components, it form a dual-function catalytic system that potentially convert low-octane naphtha and paraffins into high-octane gasoline. Promoter has been added to increase the stability of the catalyst by moderating the rate of coke formation. Platinum-Rhenium ( Pt-Re)is one of the catalyst.
Lastly, there are few more catalysts can be found in oil industry and played important role in specific process. Refer to the table below:
Unit Operation Catalyst Catalyst support
Hydrodesulphurization Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) Alumina Support
Ruthenium disulphide

Catalytic Reforming Platinum
Rhenium
Paladium

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