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1Role of R&D in Developing Oil Industry CatalystsMehdi Rashidzadeh

IN THE NAME OF GODFirst International Catalyst Conference Tehran-IRAN 9 June 20142

Outline:

Drivers of Catalysis for Social development

Market and uses of catalyst

The long journey of an idea

Catalyst Importance for Iran

Examples of success Driven by R&D

Concluding Remarks

HistoryResearch Institute of Petroleum Industry:Founded in 1959Affiliated to National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC)Over 700 permanent employees (about 2000 including service contract staff)Nation's Largest research instituteRIPI Overview

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4Catalyst Preparation Catalytic Reaction Engineering Characterization and Evaluation of Catalysts

Development of carbon and Nanotechnology

Why R&D Important on catalyst?More than 20% of GDP from products made using catalysts> 90% of petro refining and petrochemicals processes use catalysts > 95% of pollution control technologies Catalysts has a strategic importance for the country economy and 5

Drivers of Catalysis for Social developmentCatalysis has a tremendous impact on the human activities as concerns economic development, environment preservation and, more broadly, societal progress.>90% of all molecules of transportation fuels>80% of all chemical products

The development and scale-up of processes are, by definition, application oriented.Industrial catalysis targeted to make in better processes resulting in :Development of Chemical ProcessesEnergy efficiencyEconomic efficiencyFeedstock efficiencyEnvironmental efficiencyAre manufactured with catalysis

6Market and uses of catalystCatalytic processes require of a very particular industry for catalyst manufacture.About 100 companies worldwide, $ 21000 million in 2011 catalysts sales> $ 7,500 billion yearly induced market of manufactured goods.Development of Chemical ProcessesOil Refining (29 %)Catalyst sales per market sectorChemical Processing (32%)Including polymers & fine chemicalsEnvironmental Impact Control (39 %)

7Role of Catalysis in Oil RefiningOver 80 million barrel of crude Oil are processed daily worldwide in >700 refineries.The fundamental drivers determining the refinery mission are :Ensure the energetic security,Reduce the environmental impact:Ensure Operation economics creating value for shareholders.A refinery is an integrated sequence of technologies able to Separate various hydrocarbon fractions, transform them in molecules suitable for the final use, and remove unwanted impurities. Any Part of crude oil must be utilized with environmentally friendly technologies.Reaction technologies for petroleum refining consist almost entirely of catalytic processes designed to modify the components of the fractions in four ways : Breaking big molecules in smaller ones (cracking) Combining small molecules in larger ones (condensations) Rearranging Part of molecules for getting appropriate structures (isomerization) Breaking carbon-heteroatom bonds (S, N, O, Me)

89Refining Catalyst Market (2011) ($ 6.3 B)

Global Catalyst Market (2011) ($ 21 B)

10Global Consumption of synthetic zeolites (volume basis)(~2 MT/year)

Idea to Commercialization needs:Qualified staff, experienced in different fields of sciences, Engineering and Technology. High tech equipments for physico- chemical characterization and testing the catalytic performance.Pilot facilities for catalysts production and testing (Scaling-up)Innovative activity (Patent and legal services) and good commercial partners.11

Creativity and InnovativenessAn innovative process begins with an idea that is generated in the somebodys mind.Individual Creativity is the engine of ideas generation.Creativity:

Seeing What everyone else has seen AndThinking what no one else has thought(Albert Szent-Gyorgi)Innovativeness implies an application of discoveries.It is always true that necessity is mother of invention

12The long journey of an ideaHuman progress has been always based on creativity and innovativeness that reflects the dualsim Science-Technology, two different but strongly connected cultural Worlds.Scale-Up is the conjunction between creativity and innovativeness.Scale up transform the initial idea into innovation, through a long (and dangerous) journey.And there are only few ideas that will cover the entire way !

Even in a continuum, the R&D activities, can be grouped into two basic stages: the explorative and definition phase, already oriented, but still looking for a general definitionof the process, and the intensive and development phase, strictly finalized to achievement of The complete technology know-how.Explorative and definition phase

discoveryideaInvention

Intensive & development phase

Pre-development DevelopmentBasic designRisk analysis Commercialization Front end design Engineering Construction Start-upDefinition CheckOptimizationRealization

13Product tangibilityLowHighKnowledge and conceptsPhysical productsBasic researchApplied researchDevelopmentTechnical services

14The end of the journeyAs a consequence R&D projects undergo very considerable attrition, and the majority of explorative projects are ended.About 1 to 3% of ideas for a new process at the early research stage reaches commercialization.Project at the development stage have a probability of about 10 to 25%, and at the pilot plant stage of 40 to 60%.The success rate for marginal modifications of existing technologies will be higher than that of completely new processes.

Projectsinnovation

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Impact of high-throughput techniques in the development and launching of a new product16

16Combinatorial catalysis is understood as a methodology by which a large number of solid materials are prepared and tested in parallel using automated techniques.Fundamental and basic researchApplied researchProduct DevelopmentUniversityIndustryMore R than D in Developing Countries

17R&D and its link with businessesR&D for existing businesses.This will ensure the business is able to exploit all opportunities available to itDrive new businesses.Business opportunities will continually arise. R&D will ensure that these can be exploited3. Exploratory research.This helps to develop understanding of technology that the business is using or may use

18Science baseGeneric technologiesProprietary technologiesProduction scale-upMarket penetrationTimeCash flowR&D investmentCommercialization investmentSales

19Multidisciplinarity and integrationCatalysis and catalytic processes development involve skills coming from many complementary, independent disciplines.Industry-Academia collaborations enlarge the cultural basis of the projects, and educate industrial researchers to apply new scientific concepts in their real-world and academic researchers to introduce real problems in their world.Catalysis needs integration and bridging the gaps: between catalyst preparation and performances, between model catalyst and working catalyst, between laboratory and industrial conditions, between reactor engineering and catalyst formulation, between electronic structure calculations at molecular level and experimental results, and not be forgotten, between business and science

20Catalyst Importance for IranGeopolitical Context-Iran has huge oil and gas reserves -During the coming decades oil will still be main source of energy.- Some political issues (sanctions) Development in refining and petrochemicals - There are 9 oil refineries throughout the country -7 new refinery are under construction (they would be operational up to 2025) - increasing the capacity of old refineries - investment on new petrochemical complexes. high consumption (by considering the developing plants in refining and petrochemical industry it would be more than 5000 ton/ year). 21

Priorities for some catalysts22

Catalysis and Nanotechnology Research DivisionDeveloped Know-how

itemAvailable to be handed overHanded over to industries1Gamma alumina as a catalyst support for naphtha reforming catalystsNaphtha reforming catalyst2Catalyst for demercaptanization of distillate and condensateMolecular sieve zeolite 3A3One-stepped preparation of Isobutene dehydrogenation catalystLow temperature water gas shift catalyst4Steam reforming catalystZnO for sulphur adsorption5Gasoil hydrodesulphurization catalystNaphtha hydrodesulphurization catalyst6Shaped different types of molecular sieve zeolite A Gamma alumina as a catalyst support for naphtha HDS catalysts7Precious metal recovery of spent catalystsAromatization catalyst (Pt-Sn/Al2O3)

8Production technology of carbon nanotubes (single-walled, double-walled and multi-walled)

9Production of nanostructured metal oxides

10Hydro-cracking process Simulator

11Catalytic reforming process Simulator

23Examples of success Driven by R&DNaphtha Hydrotreating catalyst

Naphtha Reforming catalyst

Zeolites: 3A & 4A24

Naphtha HydrodesulfurizationBulk Density (g/mL)Mean Pore Diameter (nm)Pore Volume (mL/g)Surface Area (m2/g)CoO(wt%)MoO3(wt%)Min.0.68-11Min. 0.6Min. 1902-512-15Physical and chemical Specification of the Co-Mo/Al2O3 catalyst 25

Pilot Plant Unit for testing the catalyst.

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Result of the Catalyst Activity TestFeed: Naphtha with 1200 ppm S (Total Sulfur)H2/Oil175 Nlit/litPressure15 barLHSV4.2 hr-1.Total Sulfur in Product, ppm( (RIPI catalystTotal Sulfur in Product, ppm (Commercial catalyst)Temperature ,C4625011270