Engelhard Corp., Iselin, N.J., and Procatalyse, Rueil Malmaison, France, have combined forces and created a joint venture under the name Acreon Catalysts. Acreon will market, sell, and service a new line of catalysts in North America (Table 1).
Acreon-a 50/50 joint venture of the two parent companies-began operating in January of this year. From its Houston headquarters, Acreon (Greek for "ultimate") will serve the $300 million hydroprocessing catalyst market in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
Procatalyse is a joint venture of Institute Francais du Petrole and Rhone-Poulenc. Procatalyse retains the exclusive right to market and sell the full Acreon product line outside of North America--also a $300 million market, according to Engelhard.
PRODUCT LINE
Acreon markets the Enpro product line. Enpro catalysts include a wide range of hydroprocessing applications:
- Catalytic reforming--Full-service, semiregnerative, cyclic, and continuous regeneration.
- Hydrotreating-A full range, from naphtha through resid, including lubricating oils.
- Hydrocracking-Distillate and gasoline maximization.
- Paraffin and aromatic isomerization-C4 through C8, utilizing chlorided alumina and zeolite catalysts.
- Selective hydrogenation-C2 through C5 and pyrolysis gasoline.
- Guard beds - sulfur, trace metal, and other contaminant removal.
HYDROPROCESSING
Acreon Catalysts president Robert A. Dallhoff says hydroprocessing catalysts are in greater demand than ever, primarily as a result of legislated requirements for diesel and gas oil desulfurization and gasoline reformulation. In the U.S., Acreon is seeing a tremendous increase in refiners' interest in catalyst change-outs and new catalysts as a result of these regulations.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's fuels regulations are coming up pretty quickly and refiners are having to make important decisions now.
Catalysts are the first area refiners look to for solutions to such problems as changing fuel specifications, says Dallhoff.
He is concerned that adequate resources are not being applied to finding the technology required to reach some of these environmentally legislated product changes.
Diesel is the most likely stream to be hydroprocessed in the new era, Dallhoff says, but he predicts that hydrotreating gasoline is right around the corner: "That will be the next shoe to drop."
Olefin reduction in reformulated fuels also will require hydroprocessing, he says.
New catalysts may be able to help mitigate many of the changes refiners are facing. Refineries require additional hydrogen at the same time that catalytic reformer severity is being reduced. Catalyst modifications may be able to address the hydrogen imbalance, to a certain extent, says Dallhoff.
"Reforming has kind of fallen out of favor right now because of gasoline reformulation ... but the industry is creative enough to find different uses for that equipment."
BACKGROUND
After receiving a chemical engineering degree from New York University, Dallhoff worked for M.W. Kellogg for several years. He joined Exxon Research & Engineering Co. in Florham Park, N.J., in 1970, when Kellogg moved to Houston. He was heavily involved in process design, licensing, and start-up in the area of catalytic cracking until he left Exxon in 1977 to join Engelhard.
He spent about 8 years in Engelhard Corp.'s FCC group, holding several positions, including manager of technical services, international sales manager, and product manager of FCC. He then moved to the hydroprocessing group, where has was marketing manager. About half of his 15 years with Engelhard were spent in the technical area and about half in marketing and sales.
MANUFACTURING
Three plant sites in the U.S. are currently producing Acreon catalysts-Seneca, S.C., Elyria, Ohio, and Salt Lake City. Several plants in Europe-including the Rhone-Poulenc plant in Salindres, France, where Procatalyse produces catalyst, and an Engelhard plant in Demem, The Netherlands--are producing Acreon catalysts.
The company's intent is to produce products in the region of their end use.
Acreon also plans to arrange a manufacturing technology transfer between the two parent companies.
Copyright 1993 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
