Catalysis petroleum industry reforming

The role of catalysis in the petroleum industry has been equally revolutionary. Meta I-supported systems (e.g. of Topsoe and Shell) for catalytic reforming, hydrodesulfurization and hydrodenitrification, alkylation catalysts and shape selective systems (e.g. zeolites and pillared clays) for catalytic cracking (FCC) and production of gasoline from methanol (Mobil MTG) all represent significant technical and commercial achievements. 

To satisfy the requirements of catalytic facilities in our refineries, catalyst production and sales have been thriving. Precise statistics for the catalyst industry are not available. But, in our evaluation, current sales of the main catalysts for cracking, reforming, and hydrogen pretreatment, are probably at an annual rate of 165 million dollars. Considering the future development of the apphcation of catalysis to the petroleum industry, sales may attain, by 1965, a level of 325 million dollars (see Table IV) (8). 

Fixed- or packed-bed reactors refer to two-phase systems in which the reacting fluid flows through a tube filled with stationary catalyst particles or pellets (Smith, 1981). As in the case of ion-exchange and adsorption processes, fixed bed is the most frequently used operation for catalysis (Froment and Bischoff, 1990 Schmidt, 2005). Some examples in the chemical industry are steam reforming, the synthesis of sulfuric acid, ammonia, and methanol, and petroleum refining processes such as catalytic reforming, isomerization, and hydrocracking (Froment and Bischoff, 1990). 

Edgar, M. Catalytic reforming of naphtha in petroleum refineries. In Applied Industrial Catalysis Leach, B., Ed. Academic Press New York, 1983 Vol. 1, 123. 

Bimetallic catalysts have had a major impact in industrial catalysis, notably in the catalytic reforming of petroleum fractions. As background for a discussion of the application of such catalysts in the reforming process, some of the major features of catalytic reforming are reviewed first. 

Heterogeneous catalysis is especially important in industry. Some of the major industrial processes that use solid catalysts include the synthesis of inorganic chemicals such as NH3, SO3 and NO, the various reactions used in the refining of crude petroleum such as cracking, isomerisation and reforming, and many of the major reactions of the petrochemical industry, such as the synthesis of methanol, the hydrogenation of aromatics and various controlled oxidations. Some of the major industrial processes to be catalysed by inorganic solids are shown in Table 1.3. 

Investigations which concern the mechanisms of skeletal rearrangements of saturated hydrocarbons induced by heterogeneous transition metal catalysis are of great interest for industrial applications, e.g. for petroleum reforming processes The developments in this field were reviewed recently by Hejtmanek, and by Maire and Garin , who focussed on the probable reaction mechanisms which include bond-shift and cyclic mechanisms for the skeletal isomerization of acyclic alkanes. Scheme 1 summarizes the... 

Edgar, M.D. Catalytic Reforming of Naphtha in Petroleum Refineries In Leach, B.E., Ed. Applied Industrial Catalysis, VoLl, 124, Academic Press New York (1983)... 

As the number of important catalyst families increased in the post World War II decades, researchers began to specialize in areas such as ammonia catalysts, reforming and cracking of petroleum fractions, Ziegler-Natta catalysts, zeolites, homogeneous catalysis, and use of enzymes as industrial catalysts. Creating a unified discipline of catalysis from all these fields continues to be challenge today as it was in the past. 

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