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500 Catalysis, Industrial

fluid catalytic cracking catalysts are items of commerce. ment on site, but a growing industry is commercial off-
License agreements can be quite complicated legal docu- site catalyst regeneration. Spent catalyst is removed and
ments. Some affect ownership of catalyst developments in transferred to the regeneration firm’s plant, where the cat-
the future, and process guarantees stipulate the catalysts alyst is regenerated, screened, and sent back for a toll fee.
to be used. This provides a number of advantages to the catalyst user,
Licensing is a source of income and also controls the including the following. The investment in regeneration
extent of technology transfer. The purchaser of technology equipment is reduced, there is less technology to mas-
isrestrictedfrompassinginformationtothirdpartiesabout ter, and the custom regenerator meets the environmental
the catalyst or process in most license agreements. standards.
Controlled burning of carbon does not regenerate all
catalysts. Catalysts can be deactivated by particle growth,
D. Service to Customers
compound formation, tramp metal deposition, crystal-
Catalyst manufacturers are continually seeking new cata- phase changes, and adsorption of catalyst poisons that
lyst markets. Small catalyst samples for testing are gen- cannot be reversed by thermal oxidative treatment.
erally available at no or moderate cost. Sometimes these
require confidentiality agreements as discussed earlier or SEE ALSO THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES
a nonanalysis agreement. This pledges the recipient of the
catalyst not to try to determine the catalyst composition or
ADSORPTION (CHEMICAL ENGINEERING) • CATALYST
method of preparation. If catalyst performance in a pro-
CHARACTERIZATION • CATALYSIS,HOMOGENEOUS • IN-
cess is the objective, these restrictions are no problem.
CLUSION (CLATHRATE)COMPOUNDS • KINETICS (CHEM-
Larger pilot-scale catalyst samples are often contracted
ISTRY) • PETROLEUM REFINING • PHARMACEUTICALS
on a per day charge to the potential customer, or a bid is
made on the preparation of a fixed quantity of final product
BIBLIOGRAPHY
that meets agreed-on specifications.
Catalyst companies may provide catalyst testing sup-
port. This support is to maintain and develop new markets Armor, J. N., ed. (1994). “Environmental Catalysis (ACS Symposium,
No. 552),” Am. Chem. Soc., Washington DC.
for their products.
Davis, B., and Hettinger, W., Jr., eds. (1983). “Heterogeneous Catalysis:
When a catalyst is sold, the catalyst vendor often pro- Selected American Histories.” Am. Chem. Soc., Washington DC.
vides technical support to ensure that the catalyst is prop- Gates, B. C. (1991). “Catalytic Chemistry (The Wiley Series in Chemical
erly loaded and any pretreatment steps are correctly com- Engineering),” Wiley, New York.
pleted. This service minimizes the chances of problems Hegedus, L. L. (1987). “Catalyst Design: Progress and Perspectives,”
Wiley, New York.
developing later with the commercial unit. If problems
Herkes, F. E., ed. (1998). “Catalysis of Organic Reactions (Chemical
develop with the catalyst during its expected lifetime, the Industries Series, vol. 75),” Marcel Dekker, New York.
catalyst marketing group again provides technical support Imelik, B., and Vedrine, J. C., eds. (1994). “Catalyst Characterization:
in the form of catalyst testing. This is expected within the Physical Techniques for Solid Materials,” Plenum Press, New York.
industry and is further evidence of the intense competition Jansen, J. C., et al. (1994). “Advanced Zeolite Science and Applica-
tions (Studies in Surface Science and Catalysis, Vol. 85),” Elsevier,
in catalyst marketing. An excellent sales and technical ser-
Amsterdam; New York.
vice organization is essential for the continuing success of Meyers, R. A., ed. (1996). “Handbook of Petroleum Refining Processes,”
any commercial catalyst manufacturer. 2nd Ed., McGraw-Hill, New York.
Moser, W. R., ed. (1996). “Advanced Catalysts and Nanostructured Ma-
terials: Modern Scientific Methods,” Academic Press, San Diego.
E. Reclamation and Regeneration Pines, H. (1981). “The Chemistry of Catalytic Hydrocarbon Conver-
sions,” Academic Press, New York.
Catalysts deactivate during use. The most common rea- Rase, H. F. (1999). “Handbook of Commercial Catalysts,” CRC Press,
son for deactivation is coke or carbon formation on and in Boca Raton.
the catalyst particles. The carbon can be burned off under Sadeghleigi (1995). “Fluid Catalytic Cracking Handbook,” Gulf Pub-
carefully controlled conditions to regenerate the catalyst lishing Company, Houston.
Spitz, P. H. (1988). “Petrochemicals: The Rise of an Industry,” Wiley
with activity and selectivity very nearly like that of a new
Interscience, New York.
catalyst. In the removal of carbon by oxidation, the quan- Starks, C. M., Liotta, C. L., and Halpern, M. (1994). “Phase-Transfer
tity of oxygen and the temperature to which the catalyst Catalysis: Fundamentals, Applications, and Industrial Prospectives,”
particles are exposed must be limited. Chapman and Hall, New York.
Some refinery catalysts are regenerated repeatedly as Thomas, J. M. et al. (1997). “Principles and Practice of Heterogeneous
Catalysis,” VCH, New York.
part of the commercial process (e.g., FCC catalysts). In
Van Santen, R. A., and Niemanstsverdriet, J. W. (1995). “Chemical Ki-
this case the regeneration facility is part of the on-site netics and Catalysis (Fundamental and Applied Catalysis),” Plenum
process. Regeneration can be performed with rental equip- Press, New York.