BATON ROUGE, US: Chemical company Albemarle Corporation said it will unveil a new catalyst as part of its high-activity STARS® catalysts portfolio and that along with its hydroprocessing alliance partner UOP, it is in the pilot plant testing final stages, and global rollout is expected in the second half of 2015.
This will further strengthen Albemarle’s position in the hydrocracking pre-treat (HC-PT) market. “Because of the competition in hydrocracking reloads, this is an area where have to be continually innovative in terms of new product velocity and focusing our R&D efforts on the price and performance characteristics demanded by our refining customers. We expect this new STARS® catalyst to address a niche in medium- to high-pressure HC-PT operations,” said Carl van der Grift, vice president, Clean Fuels Technology.
“Extensive pilot plant testing has shown that this catalyst is setting new benchmarks in reducing nitrogen content in the HC-PT feed to boost overall hydrocracking conversion and performance,” said Edwin Berends, vice president, refining solutions research and technology group, Albemarle.
The new STARS® technology was developed by Albemarle and Nippon Ketjen and will be available through Albemarle, Nippon Ketjen and the UOP-Albemarle hydroprocessing Alliance.
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