Faisal Almulla

As Aramco expands its refining business, there is a need to customize catalysts to tackle the specific challenges these refineries are facing and improve their efficiencies. With that mission in mind, R&D team has co-developed a series of hydrocracking catalysts over the last decade, through innovation and collaboration. The innovation starts with a novel Ti/Zr-USY with unique acidity and mesoporosity. By combining the novel zeolite with advanced supports and metal preparation techniques, the hydrocracking catalysts exhibit strong performance in commercial applications, which was demonstrated by six deployments in Aramco refineries within the last decade. In one example, Riyadh Refinery adopted one such catalyst, CAN-HC15, in its hydrocracker to deal with elevated levels of demetallized oil (DMO) in the feed. DMO has significantly higher levels of organic nitrogen and heavy components compared with mainstream vacuum gas oil (VGO) feed; therefore, the feed properties impart huge challenges to the catalyst with respect to activity and stability. The new catalyst system was able to improve middle distillates yield and reduce light gas formation whilst processing almost 4 vol.% more DMO in the feed.  In this presentation, we will share the journey of such innovation, the field performance of these catalysts and the future plan.