Pragmatic Approach toward Catalytic CO Emission Mitigation in Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) Units

Abstract

The need to mitigate the environmental footprints of refineries in a sustainable and economical way is widely accepted, yet there appears to be a lack of a unilateral pragmatic approach towards CO oxidation to CO₂ among the refining community. In this work we share CO promoter design strategies that can afford a tangible and immediate CO conversion efficiency increase without a need for additional precious metal loading. The key focus is on the support material architecture that is essential to boost the CO conversion and reduce the NO_x generation in the FCC unit. It was demonstrated that the suppression of Pt sintering as well as the enhancement of the oxygen mobility on the catalyst surface can afford an ~40% lower cost of Pt and ~20% lower usage rate compared to current industry-standard designs.