High vanadium tolerant FCC catalyst by barium titanate as metal trap and passivator

In the FCC process, vanadium is the main deleterious feedstock poison that destroys the catalyst structure by hydrolysis of the zeolite framework. Specifically, vanadium compounds, including vanadium pentoxide and sodium vanadate with low melting points, as well as vanadic acid formation, are responsible for the main destructive mechanisms. This study introduces a well-tolerant barium titanate with high efficiency for vanadium passivation of the FCC catalyst. Namely, the barium titanate properties and performance of the FCC catalyst as a metal passivator were investigated. The vanadium passivation ability was scrutinized by various techniques such as XRD, N2-adsorption, NH3-TPD, SEM, and EDS mapping. The crystalline structure and surface retention of the zeolite component in the catalyst over contamination with 6000 ppm vanadium showed 18.7 % and 12 % more preservation, respectively, following the barium titanate addition. According to the EDS mapping, vanadium was evenly distributed over the catalyst for the passivator-free sample. In contrast, the catalyst containing barium titanate exhibited a higher concentration of vanadium in the zones with a higher barium titanate content. This phenomenon was linked to the irreversible deactivation of vanadium, precisely the spots where barium titanate is present. Furthermore, the catalytic evaluation results revealed that, upon increasing the vanadium level from 3000 to 6000 ppm, the conversion value and gasoline yield decreased by 18.1 % and 7.6 %, respectively, for the passivator-free sample. In contrast, a negligible change was observed for the catalyst containing 10 % passivator, with only a 3.1 % decrease in conversion and a 0.4 % decrease in gasoline yield due to the efficient performance of barium titanate in vanadium passivation.