Recycled Hydrotreating Catalyst Shaping With Low Pressure Drop
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing hydrotreating catalyst preparation processes are energy-intensive, resource-intensive, and result in significant waste due to non-useable catalyst material and inefficient recycling of spent catalysts, leading to increased pressure drop in reactors and high demand for natural resources.
Innovation Solution
A process for preparing hydrotreating catalysts by milling used or unusable catalysts with a binding agent, shaping, and contacting with a rejuvenating agent to restore catalyst activity, allowing high metal content and efficient recycling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If spent catalysts are disposed to landfill sites, then waste management is simplified, but resource consumption increases and environmental harm occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent recovers valuable metals (Group VI and Group VIII metals) from spent hydrotreating catalysts through a multi-step process involving milling, magnetic separation, and selective dissolution. This transforms waste catalyst material into reusable metal products, directly addressing the resource consumption issue while maintaining environmental sustainability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent converts the harmful waste disposal problem into a beneficial resource recovery opportunity. By treating spent catalysts as valuable metal sources rather than waste, the process transforms an environmental burden into economic and environmental benefit through metal recovery and reuse.
2Reliability
If catalysts are regenerated through heat treatment, then catalyst activity is restored to some extent, but extrudate length decreases due to mechanical attrition
Solution Approach 1:
The patent separates the catalyst regeneration process into distinct functional steps: magnetic separation to remove fines, selective dissolution to restore metal sites, and controlled drying. This segmentation allows activity restoration without the mechanical attrition that occurs in conventional single-step regeneration, preserving extrudate integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces magnetic separation as an intermediary step between spent catalyst and regenerated catalyst. This intermediary process removes fine particles and aggregates that would otherwise contribute to mechanical attrition and extrudate breakage during subsequent handling, while preserving the bulk catalyst structure.
3Productivity
If conventional catalyst preparation processes are used, then catalysts are produced, but energy consumption is high and resource efficiency is low
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary classification of spent catalyst material by particle size and magnetic properties before the main recovery process. This preliminary action separates recoverable metals from non-recoverable materials early in the process, reducing the energy and resource requirements for subsequent processing steps compared to conventional preparation methods.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces energy-intensive thermal processing and chemical leaching methods with magnetic separation and selective dissolution techniques. This substitution significantly reduces energy consumption while maintaining high recovery efficiency for valuable metals from spent catalysts.
4Reliability
If repeated rejuvenation processes are applied to regenerated catalysts, then catalyst activity is further restored, but catalyst eventually becomes unusable and requires recycling
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables catalysts to serve themselves through automated magnetic separation and selective dissolution processes that restore activity without external intervention. This self-service capability extends catalyst service life by allowing multiple regeneration cycles while maintaining consistent performance, reducing the frequency at which catalysts must be replaced or recycled.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The process enhances catalyst activity and reduces waste by utilizing a high percentage of recycled materials, maintaining pressure drop within acceptable limits and minimizing resource consumption.
Implementation Method 1
separating the catalyst fines from the bulk catalyst with a magnetic separator
Implementation Method 2
mixing the separated catalyst fines with a binder
Implementation Method 3
shaping the mixture with a shaping device to form a shaped catalyst
Implementation Method 4
drying the shaped catalyst in a drying device
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a process for preparing a hydrotreating catalyst comprising providing a first hydrotreating catalyst, comprising a group VI metal and a group VIII metal, typically a spent regenerated catalyst wherein catalyst fines of a hydrotreating catalyst are mixed with at least a binding agent to form a mixture; shaping the mixture to form a shaped mixture, heat treating the shaped mixture and rejuvenating the shaped mixture wherein the mixture comprises at least 60 wt. % of catalyst fines based on the dry weight of the mixture. The invention further relates to the hydrotreating catalyst obtainable by the process and to a process for hydrotreating a hydrocarbon feed using the hydrotreating catalyst.