ATMOSPHERIC RESIDUE HYDRODEMETALIZATION CATALYST DEVELOPMENT

• Main Author: Shelly, Felicia
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/48325
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Petroleum processing is generally preceded by a crude distillation unit (CDU) which produces light to heavy fractions. The heavy fraction produced by the CDU is an atmospheric residue that can be cracked to obtain a higher economic value. However, atmospheric residue cracking faces a problem, namely the high impurity content which has the potential to poison the cracking catalyst. Therefore, the impurity content needs to be removed through a hydrotreating process consisting of hydrodemetalization (HDM), hydrodesulfurization (HDS), and hydrodenitrogenation (HDN). In the hydrodemetalization (HDM) process, the HDM catalyst is required with a pore diameter of 150-200 Å and a specific surface area of 110-200 m2/g (US Patent No. US6207611 B1, 2011). This aims to obtain the optimum percentage of impurity removal and prevent the HDM catalyst from being deactivated quickly. However, increasing pore diameter causes the specific surface area to decrease so a modification to HDM catalyst is needed such as variations in B2O3 concentration, boehmite type, and calcination temperature. HDM catalyst support with the characteristics closest to the objective of the research was obtained on ?-Al2O3 support with the content of 1%-m B2O3 (K-B-1) which produced a pore diameter of 133.29 Å, the specific surface area of 153.93 m2/g, and volume pore of 0.51 ml/g. Catalyst support characterization was carried out by nitrogen adsorption with BET and BJH modeling. The presence of B2O3 in the support shifted the pore distribution to the mesopore by covering the micropore so that the pore diameter increased. The K-B-1 support was synthesized with Catapal B boehmite because of its low impurity content and larger crystal size so the pore diameter of the support is larger. The calcination temperature of the K-B-1 support was 800oC because it increases the pore diameter and reduce the specific surface area so that it lies within the research's objective interval. Then, K-B-1 was impregnated with a 2% NiO promoter and an 8% MoO3 active phase to become NiMo/K-B-1 HDM catalyst. Through a batch activity test on a pressurized PARR reactor of 180 bar and a temperature of 380oC, the NiMo/K-B-1 catalyst was able to remove vanadium of 46.69% from the residue. However, the percentage of nickel removal from the residue cannot be investigated due to suspected leaching phenomena.