Services

The Albemarle FCC technical service group consists of more than 25 professionals worldwide, having a variety of relevant experience such as FCC unit design, FCC unit operation, catalyst research and catalyst manufacturing.

This provides the Albemarle FCC group with a sound basis to support the customer not only with catalyst topics but also with complicated design and operations related challenges and opportunities.

We have numerous publications on subjects such as FCC additive addition, catalyst regeneration, catalysts analysis, unit monitoring, the role of catalyst in troubleshooting, catalyst loss and power expander reliability. You can contact your local FCC technical service manager for more information to meet your needs. We are confident of having a solution for your problem.

Sophisticated models are used to predict the performance of FCC catalysts and to monitor and optimize FCC operations. An example is the very powerful CATOP model for Fluid Cracking Catalysts, which simulates the performance of commercial units. These models, together with our extensive know-how of the processes and catalysts, enable us to assist our customers in optimizing the FCC unit and, if necessary, in troubleshooting problems.

We provide our customers with a variety of services including:

• Routine weekly analysis of equilibrium catalyst
• Electronic reporting of fresh and equilibrium catalyst analysis
• Unit monitoring with FCC model
• Establish optimal catalyst addition policy
• Yield forecast for new feeds
• Projection for non-catalyst related changes using our model or other commercial experiences
• Training of FCC engineers and operators
• Special services for special needs, such as case studies, troubleshooting, special analysis, etc.

Equilibrium catalyst analysis

One of the routine services we provide our customers is the analysis and testing of samples of equilibrium catalyst. We provide a full report to the customer within two working days after receipt of the equilibrium catalyst sample. The standard analysis package includes the following:

• Activity as measured in a modern fluidized bed micro-reactor (FST)
• Hydrogen factor, HF
• Coke factor, CF
• Total Surface Area, SA
• Yield forecast for new feeds
• Meso-Surface Area, MSA
• Micro Pore Volume, miPV
• Apparent Bulk Density, ABD
• Alumina, Al2O3
• Rare Earth, RE2O3
• Nickel, Ni
• Vanadium, V
• Sodium, Na
• Iron, Fe
• Antimony, Sb
• Copper, Cu
• Carbon, C
• Particle Size Distribution
• Average Particle Size, APS

Other analyses are performed on request. The novel Albemarle Accessibility Index test, which is a measurement of the mass transfer rate to the catalyst particle, is also available on special request for our customers.