How can Excel® rejuvenation support the

circular economy in the refining industry?

Case study with a European Refiner

September 13th, 2022 │ LARTC 2022 │Guillaume Vincent

1
Moving from a Linear Economy towards a future-oriented chemical industry

TAKE Over the past decades,

Linear Economy has
MAKE led to…

 Over-production
USE
 Reduced life cycles
 Accumulation of waste
 Depletion and over exploitation
of natural resources

Today…
DISPOSE Evonik’s HPC solutions allow taking a more
sustainable direction: Circular Economy!
2 | LARTC 2022 | How Excel rejuvenation is supporting the circular economy?
Circular Economy: Hydrotreating Catalyst Reuse

Circular Economy
allows:

 Optimizing raw material usage

 Preventing waste
 Maximizing re-use
 Making Cost savings
 Reducing Green House Gas
(GHG) emissions
Excel®
Rejuvenation

Today…
Evonik’s HPC solutions are an important
step towards Circular Economy

3 | LARTC 2022 | How Excel rejuvenation is supporting the circular economy?

Excel® Rejuvenation allows significant reduction of GHG’s emissions

CO2eq Emissions Involved in HPC Catalyst Production

Fresh vs Excel  Use of Excel® Rejuvenated catalyst
14000
results in a ~65% reduction in
11992
12000 CO2eq emission compared to
CO2eq Emitted (kg/mt catalyst)

Excel® Fresh
10000 fresh.
8000 7348

6000
5884  For each ton of Excel® Rejuvenated
4992

4000
4446
catalyst used, refiners avoid
generating ~6 tons of CO2eq as
2000
170 198
722
compared to purchasing fresh
0
Transport Raw Material
Processing
Finished Product
Manufacturing
Total catalyst for one-time use.

4 | LARTC 2022 | How Excel rejuvenation is supporting the circular economy?

Excel® Rejuvenation adds up to 35% extra activity compared to Regeneration
Complexation Active
Active Agglomerates sites
Agglomerates Metal redispersion

Excel® Rejuvenation
sites
Coke, Sulfur
Regeneration

Support

Fresh catalyst Spent catalyst Regenerated catalyst Impregnation Drying Excel Rejuvenated
1 Catalyst activity 2
Hydrotreating Proprietary organic Active sites Catalyst activity
Mild regeneration 65 – 85%
reactions molecules restored ~ fresh level

1st step: Regeneration 2nd step: Excel® Rejuvenation

 Maximize sulfur and carbon removal  Evonik patented technology.

while carefully controlling local
temperatures.  Applicable to any catalyst grades.

 Unique moving belt process to minimize  Activity restored to near fresh levels.
catalyst breakage (attrition) and
maximize yield.
5 | LARTC 2022 | How Excel rejuvenation is supporting the circular economy?
Excel® Rejuvenation: High Throughput Experimentation
Operating conditions
WABT Required to achieve 10 ppmw product sulfur
Rx pressure barg 50
382
380 LHSV h-1 1.45
379
378 H2/Oil Nm3/m3 160
377 SRGO/LCO (95%/5%) blend properties
Sulfur wt% 0.51
Temperature (°C)

372 372 Nitrogen ppmwt 365

372 371
Density kg/m³ 0.8637
369 369
Mono-Ar. wt% 18.2
367
367 Di-Ar. wt% 12.4
Tri-Ar. wt% 4.2
T5%vol (D-2887) °C 207.5
362
T95%vol (D-2887) °C 390.5

357
Cat A Cat B Cat C
Fresh Excel Regenerated

6 | LARTC 2022 | How Excel rejuvenation is supporting the circular economy?

Why use Evonik’s Excel® Rejuvenation Technology?
RVA ~ fresh level
 Excel® rejuvenation allows efficient re-dispersion of
the active metals.

 Excel® rejuvenation is applied on a wide range of

catalysts with one single recipe. RVA = 65 – 85%
Dispersed
Agglomerated
metals
 Applicable to the latest high activity type 2 catalyst metals
generations.

 Excel® rejuvenation offers alternatives to fresh

catalysts and other rejuvenation technologies.

 Excel® rejuvenation can be applied from Naphtha

through VGO pretreat applications.
Regenerated Rejuvenated
7 | LARTC 2022 | How Excel rejuvenation is supporting the circular economy?
Excel® Rejuvenation offers significant cost savings vs. fresh catalyst

Cost savings vs Fresh

 Significantly reduced refill cost.
50 – 70%
 Minimize environmental impact (e.g., carbon
footprint reduction).
30 – 50%
 Contribute to Circular Economy.

 Reduce catalyst lead time vs fresh.

0%
 Maximize catalyst reuse and savings with
Purchase Have own
pool management. Purchase Excel® catalyst
fresh rejuvenated rejuvenated
 Global inventory to meet refinery demands. catalyst catalyst with Excel®

8 | LARTC 2022 | How Excel rejuvenation is supporting the circular economy?

Excel® Rejuvenation: Case Studies

Similar activity as fresh Customized Loading

catalyst Profile

50 – 70% the Cost of

Technical Projections
Fresh Catalyst
Excel® Catalyst

Guaranteed Technical Support

Performance During Start-Up

Troubleshooting Unit Monitoring

9 | LARTC 2022 | How Excel rejuvenation is supporting the circular economy?

Excel® Rejuvenation: Case Studies

Top Bed Grading

CatGuard® products: Fresh & Manufactured by

20 – Hydrogenation control Evonik
Si21 – Silicon trap
As40 – Arsenic trap

Main Catalytic Bed From Refinery Pool or

Regenerated
Evonik Inventory
Excel® rejuvenated

Ceramic Bed Support

Fresh & Manufactured by
Durocel-222 Evonik

10 | LARTC 2022 | How Excel rejuvenation is supporting the circular economy?

Excel® Rejuvenation: Case Study with a European Refiner

 European Refiner used high activity type 2 NiMo Excel® catalyst for hydrotreating different
feedstocks:
Modes LGO (wt%) HGO (wt%) VGO (wt%) CGO (wt%)
ULSD 75.0 3.0 2.0 20.0
ECO 20.0 45.0 15.0 20.0

 Outlet sulphur: ULSD mode: ≤ 11 ppmw, ECO mode: ≤ 55 ppmw.

 The unit operated at pretty high LHSV, between 2.8 – 3.2 h-1 for both modes.

 The unit had two beds of NiMo Excel® and was loaded along with our metal traps (CatGuard®)
and ceramic support (Durocel-222).

 The NiMo Excel catalyst achieved desired cycle length.

11 | LARTC 2022 | How Excel rejuvenation is supporting the circular economy?

 Excel® Rejuvenation:
Case Study

 Customized Loading Diagram

12 | LARTC 2022 | How Excel rejuvenation is supporting the circular economy?

Excel® Rejuvenation: Case Study
Exotherm H2 Makeup and Consumption
Total Top bed Bottom bed
36 Make-up flow Consumption Diesel Consumption Eco
70
32

28 60

24
50

Nm3/m3
20
deg C

40
16

12 30
8
20
4

0 10
0 15 30 45 60 75 90 105 120 135 0 15 30 45 60 75 90 105 120 135

Days on Oil
Days on Oil

H2 Availability Product Sulfur

20 Diesel product Eco product
70
18
H2 In / H2 consumed

16 60

14 50

12 40

ppmw
10
30
8
20
6
10
4

2 0
0 15 30 45 60 75 90 105 120 135 0 15 30 45 60 75 90 105 120 135

Days on Oil Days on Oil

13 | LARTC 2022 | How Excel rejuvenation is supporting the circular economy?

Excel® Rejuvenation: Case Study
WABT Comparison

425

 Previous cycle was loaded with

400 an alternative fresh catalyst.

375  Previous cycle was operating

WABT (°C)

with the same conditions as the

350 current cycle.

325  After about 5 months on stream,

NiMo Excel Alternative fresh catalyst
NiMo Excel® exhibited similar
300
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140
activity/stability to fresh.
DOS

14 | LARTC 2022 | How Excel rejuvenation is supporting the circular economy?

In a nutshell: Four convincing reasons to use Excel® Rejuvenation

01 02
Performance Stability

＄ 03
Cost Savings
04
Sustainability

Take advantage of Evonik’s Excel® Rejuvenation Technology

combined with our global technical service team to optimize your
hydrotreating capabilities.

15 | LARTC 2022 | How Excel rejuvenation is supporting the circular economy?

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