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2004/9th Annual Meeting

ERTC
SHOW DAILY

DAY 1

INSIDE TODAY . . .
Welcome to Prague and the ERTC 9th Annual Meeting . . . . . 3
Partners Programme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Technical Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Opportunity for EOM in downstream petroleum . . . . . . . . . . . 4
ENI refinery uses state-of-the-art SO2 scrubbing on FCCU . . . 6
REACH and refineries: what are the options? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Technologies in brief. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 19
Hospitality Suites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

ALSO INCLUDING . . .
Articles featuring the latest technologies, case histories,
environmental issues, and much more . . .

15 /16 November 2004

Strategic business anchors in the refining industry


Jean Sentenac, President and CEO, Axens, Rueil-Malmaison, France
Cleaner fuels. Axens engaged in a TABLE 1. Hydro-conversion processes for normal
sustained clean fuels program both and difficult VGOs and residues

in process and catalyst manufacHydroconversion


turing technology. This long-term process type Process* Feed, conversion level (%) and description
investment produced the right prod- Feed
Hyvahl-PRS ARDS/VRDS (< 45%) FCC feed improvement with HDM
ucts at the right time. These clean preparation
fuels products are highly visible in
H-Oil-HCC Heavy crude conversion for syncrude production via viscosity reduction
the market:
Mild
HyC-LC
VGO (<40%), converted product not Euro IV diesel quality
Prime-G+1
HyC-10
VGO (<40%), converted product is Euro IV grade diesel
HR 500 series with ACE technol- Moderate
HyK-MC
VGO (40 60%), converted product superior to Euro IV
ogy
H-Oil-DC
VGO conversion (>50%), for difficult feeds
Prime-D & EquiFlow internals.
High
HyK-HC
VGO (>60%), superior product, high cetane
The HR 500 series catalysts
Hytail
Heavy diesel / light VGO (>60%), end point improvement (FBP, S, cetane) for
launched at the ERTC in London just
hard-to-treat diesel tail fractions
last year have surpassed our planH-Oil-RC
Heavy oil, residue conversion process (>60%) for difficult feeds (with IS2/C2U)
ning expectations. These long-term *The following are service marks of Axens: PRS, permutable reactor system; IS2, inter-stage separator, C2U, cascade catalyst utilization.
efforts have paid off in the distillate
hydrotreating area and are now
becoming apparent in the conversion n o l o g i e s f o r V G O ,

area due to the high price of crude.


residue and heavy oil

conversion as shown

Improved oil conversion. Oil prices in Table 1 for hydro

have shown significant periods of conversion processes.

instability since the 1970s. The Among the techno

increased dependence of economic logical improvements

development on crude oil, and the recently commercial

somewhat unstable geographical ized or developed, here

region that is its major provider, are two examples.

have had both real and psychologiRS2 FCC riser sepacal effects on oil prices. The latter ration system. Fluidized

have been exacerbated by specula- catalytic crackers are the


tion that peak oil is near. (This is heart of most refinery
FIG. 1. Evolution of crude oil prices, on an averaged annual basis, in
defined as the time at which one-half conversion schemes.
current and constant (2003) dollars, from the BP Statistical
Review.
of the worlds oil supply has been These gasoline producexhausted.) In any case, recent ing units have evolved
trends imply that the age of inex- over the years to treat
pensive, less than $20 per barrel oil increasingly heavy feeds and to pro- gain in gasoline yield, a 23% reducis over (Fig. 1).
duce larger quantities of propylene for tion in dry gas make and a gain of
Light, sweet crudes are the first petrochemical usage. The FCC unit is 4.7% propylene make. RS2 is well
to be used because upgrading is packed with technology that makes adapted to revamping projects in
less costly. When oil supply is tight, the catalyst flow correctly, mix the feed any FCC that is looking for these
the price differential between light perfectly and quickly, and disengage particular advantages (Fig. 2).
and heavy, sweet and sour, crudes the catalyst rapidly and cleanly from
Heavy-oil (H-Oil) upgrading. New
increases. This makes it economi- the product stream.
heavy oil complexes are infrequent
cally attractive to use these heavy,
This year, the new RS 2 riser and represent significant investments.
sour feedstocks. To do this, VGO and separation system was commer- Heavy oil feedstocks have some charresidue conversion processes are cialized and is destined to success. acteristics that make processing difrequired, such as: FCC, coking and It ensures a near instantaneous ficult, such as: high metals, sulfur,
hydrocracking.
separation of the hot effluent from
Axens continued on page 16
We invest a major portion of our the catalyst at the top of the reacR&D spending toward the develop- tor riser, thereby limiting overment of robust, cost-effective tech- cracking which causes excessive
coking and dry gas make. In maxi1 ACE, EquiFlow, Esterfip, Gasel, H-Oil,
gasoline operation in its debut in a
European refinery, the RS2 enabled
Hyvahl, Prime-D and Prime-G+ are
www.HydrocarbonProcessing.com
trademarks of Axens.
a gain of 1.3% in capacity, a 2.6%

Providing solutions for tomorrows


needstodayis the key to building
a growing, sustainable business. This
requires a mixture of foresight and
strategic risk taking and the investment in research well before needs
become reality. A major objective in
Axens strategy for enabling growth
is to ensure that we have the technologies and associated products and
services that will provide the right
motor fuel components for the market. Furthermore, it is our objective to
provide those
technological
answers in a
timely manner.
Time-to-market
is as important
a concept as
what and where
to market.
The world
recently expeJean Sentenac
rienced a series
of geopolitical
perturbations that began with the
Asian financial crisis in 1997, followed by a series of events whose
impacts have yet to be attenuated.
However, during this time, three elements of our business strategy did
not change and continue to serve as
strategic anchors:
Ever cleaner-burning fuels will
be required
Crude oil demand will increase
at least 1.5% per year over an
extended period
Well-to-wheels greenhouse gas
emissions will be legislated.
The oil refining business has not
always been exemplary in showing steady growth and profits, but
the competition among providers
is tough. The objective is to ensure
positive growth over the mid to long
terms, and to accept the uneven progress on an annual basis. Thus, sustained growth requires an ambitious,
long-term vision that remains constant
and a product strategy that aligns
with the strategic business anchors.
In response, we have directed our
attention to: cleaner fuels, improved
oil conversion and alternative fuels.

15/16 November 2004 ERTC Annual Meeting 1

Axens, continued from page 1


nitrogen and asphaltene contents,
solid matter (sand, for example) in the
feedstock. Ebullated-bed technology is
ideal for the treatment of these residual crudes because it enables constant
performance and it is immune to reactor plugging.
Axens and IFP have invested in
reducing both the capital and operating costs per barrel of feed processed
and in widening the application of the
H-Oil technology. In 2004, three specific
advanced generation H-Oil processes
are marketed:
H-Oil-HCC. This heavy crude conversion process produces syncrude.
The objective of the unit is to enable
just enough conversion to reduce viscosity and increase stability so that the
product can be readily transported to
an upgrading center.
H-Oil-DC. Difficult to treat VGOs
and VGO mixtures are processed in this
unit with the objective of moderate conversion. Previously known as the T-Star
process, this unit is a lighter version of
the residue conversion process.
H-Oil-RC. The classical H-Oil process has been significantly upgraded
to increase conversion levels, increase
product stability and reduce costs.
Among the improvements made to
the traditional technology are the
integration of IS2 (inter-stage separator) between reactors in series and the
application of C2U (cascade catalyst
utilization).

Alternative Fuels. A small but grow-

ing portion of nonconventional fuels


are entering the transportation fuels
pool as blending components or as
pure products. There are several reasons for this trend, such as: decrease
well-to-wheels CO2 emissions, decrease
importation of crude oil, diversify sup-

FIG. 2. RS2 device prior to installation in a


European refinery.

ply to include natural gas derived fuels,


subsidize farmers through a de-taxation
of fuel-grade products, and decrease
unemployment in rural communities.
Among the fuels cited, there are generally three classes:
Gaseous fuels (at atmospheric
pressure): hydrogen, CNG, LPG, DME
Liquid biofuels: ethanol, fatty acid
methyl esters (FAME)
Liquids from natural gas: FischerTropsch derived diesel.
We strongly believe that liquid hydrocarbons will remain the overwhelming
contributors to transportation fuels in
the future, for distribution and supply
reasons, and that pressurized fuels
will find their outlet in the non-mobile
energy sector. Thus, this limited our
selection. In addition, Axens specializes in mineral-based catalytic technologies; this reduced the attractiveness of
ethanol routes based on fermentation.
Finally, more than a decade ago, this
reasoning led to the selection of two
long-term targets: high cetane blending
components through Fischer-Tropsch
catalysis and fatty acid esters from catalytic esterification.
Gasel gas-to-diesel. The conversion of natural gas to synthesis gas then
liquids is well known to produce a diesel
fuel of superior quality: sulfur, nitrogen
and aromatics-free, cetane above 70.
A product of this quality is well suited
as a diesel additive. Several years ago,
IFP and ENI combined their efforts on
the transformation of synthesis gas to

FIG. 3. The ideal raw material for biodiesel


rapeseed.

diesel fuels. The joint development led


to the construction of a pilot in Sannazzaro, Italy, that has been operated on a
semi-continuous basis for two years.
At this stage, we have verified that all
the technology in each of the steps has
attained full commercial-level development. Current efforts are concentrated
in scaling up production of commercial
catalysts that will be used in the Gasel
technology. Axens is the exclusive licensor of this gas-to-liquids technology.
Esterfip-Hsecond-generation
biodiesel technology. Biodiesel is composed of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME)
resulting from the esterification of various plant oils such as rapeseed, soybean or sunflower oil. When integrating
the full life cycle of CO2 emissions of
biofuels, it is clear that FAME could be a
key component in reducing emissions
from transportation fuels.
Axens recently licensed Esterfip-H,
a first-of-a-kind technology based on
heterogeneous catalysis. This unit is
expected to be commissioned in the
fourth quarter of 2005. In view of the
European demand for diesel and the
target of 5.75% biofuels in the 2010
timeframe, this process is expected to
show significant short-term success.
Esterfip-H represents a major
advancement in the area of biofuels, as
it ensures the production of biodiesel
meeting European specifications, and
at the same time directly produces
glycerin of unequalled purity. The glycerin byproduct is a determining factor

www.HydrocarbonProcessing.com

2 ERTC Annual Meeting 15/16 November 2004

in the overall production economics.


In addition, this solid catalyst process
enables a significant reduction in waste
streams compared to other processes.
Already in 1992, Axens original process
licensing branch within IFP, licensed the
Esterfip process based on homogeneous catalysis. The key feedstock for
this process is shown in Fig. 3.
VISION
Sustainable growth in the competitive refining service sector is a challenge. Research is technologically
intensive and the market is conservative. Thus, progressing from research
to commercial success requires
time sometimes years, sometimes
more than a decade to bear fruit.
Ideas need to be investigated and
developed; preliminary findings require
pre-commercial testing; technology
scaling-up must be carefully designed;
and, finally, a first field operation is
required before a return on the initial
investment can begin.
Although it may be cloudy, it is
important to project the vision by a
decade. Todays sales and marketing
are based on foresight and strategic risk
taking from a decade ago, on a research
project started based on an imperfect
vision.
Jean Sentenac is President and Chief Executive

Officer of Axens. He began his career at Air Liquide


as business manager for Spain and Italy before
joining the Rhne-Poulenc Group. There, he directed business units in organic chemicals, and was
named CEO of Rhodia Diphenols & Aromas in
1995, and then Rhodia Life Science Chemicals in
1998. He joined IFP in 2000 as Deputy Executive
Officer responsible for IFPs Industrial Division,
and was named Axens Deputy CEO in June
2001 with responsibility over the Tech Service,
Marketing and Technology Departments as well as
the Performance Programs Business Unit, before
being selected to his current position in 2002.Mr.
Sentenac, is an engineering graduate of Frances
Ecole Polytechnique, and holds a post-graduate
engineering degree from the IFP School.

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