Proceeding of Annual/Fall Meetings of the Japan Petroleum Institute

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While hydrocrackers have an excellent track record processing VGOs and lighter feedstocks, feedstocks heavier than VGO pose significant challenges resulting in diminished unit performance and processing efficiency. Therefore,it has long been the objective of Saudi Aramco to enable its Riyadh Refinery hydrocracker to handle more Demetallized Oil (DMO) and much work has been carried out over the last few years to enhance this capability through process and catalyst modifications. Saudi Aramco’s R&DC and JGC C&C have collaborated to develop a catalyst system to enable the Riyadh Refinery hydrocracking unit to process a blend of VGO and demetalized oil, targeting the extended cycle while increasing or maintaining distillate yields and quality. The developed catalysts are based on Y-zeolite, which is post-treated to improve its performance. The post-treatment methods include dealumination to create meso porosity, and transition metal, i.e., Ti, Zr, insertion into the zeolite lattice to modify the zeolite acidity to enhance distillate selectivity. After extensive R&D work, some formulations were identified as candidates for scale- up and commercialization and the best placement of the selected catalyst prototype in the unit was determined. The catalyst was loaded into the Riyadh Refinery hydrocracking unit in May 2014 and has been performing exceptionally well.

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In the petroleum refining and petrochemical industries, a novel, low-cost separation of para-xylene from C8 fraction is important. Here, size-selective separation of para-xylene was attained using metal-organic framework material having proper pore size.

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Unsaturated alcohols can be synthesized by selective hydrogenation of unsaturated carbonyl compounds, and they are used as important intermediates for perfumes and medicines. However, since selective hydrogenation of the carbonyl group in unsaturated carbonyl compounds is thermodynamically and kinetically unfavorable, development of effective heterogeneous catalysts for the reaction is desirable. In this study, hydrogenation of unsaturated carbonyl compounds (unsaturated aldehydes and unsaturated ketones) to the corresponding unsaturated alcohols was investigated using metal oxide modified noble metal catalysts, showing that Ir-FeO_x/MgO catalyst is effective for the reaction.

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Solid supported iridium catalysts, which show excellent activity for the dehydrogenative synthesis of nitrogen-containing organic compounds such as indoles and benzimidazoles under mild reaction conditions, were developed. For example, rutile-supported iridium catalysts (1 mol% as Ir) gave indole in high yields (86%) by the reaction of 2-(2-aminophenyl)ethanol at 120 ^oC for 18 h).

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