Advanced catalysts for refining processes

Prioritize VGO pretreat catalysts for heavier crudes with elevated contaminants. These catalysts can handle high sulfur, nitrogen and metals concentrations that would poison downstream units.

Operators can reduce risk by using graded loading strategies to help minimize disruption, and by validating performance before full implementation. Place guard beds or lower-activity layers at the reactor inlet to protect high-activity zones downstream, allowing you to test new formulations while maintaining unit stability.

Risk reduction steps include:

• Validate hydraulic compatibility and pressure drop profiles before change-out to help prevent operational issues.
• Start with partial replacements to test performance under actual operating conditions.
• Follow our startup procedures and activation protocols for effective catalyst conditioning.
• Get on-site commissioning support, if needed, to help accelerate stable operations.

Our catalyst portfolio is engineered for compatibility with existing reactor systems across a wide range of equipment vendors and designs, which can reduce implementation risk and help minimize the need for costly modifications.

A catalyst evaluation requires unit design specs and feed characterization data to enable accurate catalyst selection and performance modeling. This baseline helps establish your operating envelope and identify optimization opportunities.

Unit design specs include:

• Reactor dimensions, pressure/temperature ranges
• Hydrogen partial pressure, space velocity
• Current catalyst loading and grading schemes

Feed data include:

• Sulfur, nitrogen, aromatics, metals (typical and worst-case)
• Density, distillation profiles, crude slate variations

Performance data include:

• Throughput, hydrogen consumption, pressure drop
• Deactivation rates, operating constraints
• Business objectives (capacity, flexibility, cycle length)

This information helps Honeywell technical teams model expected catalyst performance under your specific conditions and develop solutions aligned with your economic goals and operational constraints.