Feedstock contaminant metal material

Table II. Rare Earth Material Balance and Feedstock Contaminant Metals Material Balance on Equilibrium Catalyst...

When fuel contains heavier hydrocarbons than methane, or it is biofuel, or contains alcohols, the feedstock often contains additional compounds such as sulphur and phosphorus, that is, fertiliser impurities. In the petrochemical industry, gas-borne reactive spedes (i.e., sulphur, arsenic, chlorine, mercury, zinc, etc.) or unsaturated hydrocarbons (i.e., acetylene, ethylene, propylene and butylene) may act as contaminating agents (Deshmukh et al, 2007). These impurities cause catalyst deactivation by poisoning. The effect of a poison on an active surface is seen as site blockage or atomic surface structure transformation (Babita et a/., 2011). Therefore, it is important to choose poisoning-resistant catalyst materials. For example, nickel is not the most effective MSR catalyst although it is widely used in industry due to its low market price compared to ruthenium and rhodium. Both Ru and Rh are more effective in MSR and less carbon is formed in these systems, than in the case of Ni. However, due to the cost and availability of precious metals, these are not widely used in industrial applications. 

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