Selecting the right catalyst in a refinery is crucial for optimizing economic profit and efficiency. When selecting a new diesel hydrotreatment catalyst it is important to consider the start of run activity and selectivity, but also to predict the lifetime, which can be several years. Evaluating long-term stability can be costly and time-consuming. Hence, hte has been commissioned by MOL to develop an accelerated catalyst aging protocol. This protocol simulates catalyst deactivation under realistic process conditions but with a much reduced test duration. Aging catalysts under actual process conditions provides more reliable information about long-term stability than empirical laboratory aging protocols. The project was completed in the third quarter of 2018. With the results, MOL is able to predict the long-term activity of its pre-selected catalysts.

“Diesel hydrotreatment is an important refinery process. Being able to predict catalyst activity during the entire life span gives us more confidence in selecting the right catalyst for our refineries,” says Thomas Raetzsch, Head of Downstream Research and Development at MOL Group.

“We are pleased that MOL has chosen to work with hte again. We look forward to further strengthening our partnership with MOL and our role in the European refining market,” says Wolfram Stichert, CEO at hte. He adds that this type of protocol is adaptable to other processes and will be included in hte’s R&D Solutions offering.