Stefano Riva - BASF
Contaminant metals continue to fluctuate in the global crude markets, from opportunistic resid feeds to tight oil exports into Europe. All introduce new complications into the refinery via the FCC unit. At the same time, refining targets continue to drive toward strong demand for propylene or butylene in different regions. To this end, advances in FCC catalysts will be discussed that address these demands and changes. The process of innovation starts with the fundamental understanding of metals contaminants, including nickel, vanadium, iron, and sodium, including mobility profiles and avenues for passivation. With the fundamental understanding in place, researchers can design technologies that are complementary to the metal mobility pathways and their unique chemical reaction influences to achieve the most effective passivation technology. The newest mitigation technologies will be discussed and demonstrated through in-depth refinery examples. For the demand in strong propylene and butylene, driven by both petrochemicals and high-quality transportation fuels demand, catalyst technologies have also been forced to adapt to the change in economic drivers. For FCC units integrated into a petrochemical complex, the demand for propylene is high. For FCC units whose target is to produce high octane gasoline blending components, the demand for butylene is high. These scenarios must be handled with different approaches and different underlying catalyst technologies. Pathways to meeting the demands of these different scenarios will be discussed and demonstrated with in-depth refinery examples.
Stefano is the Technical Services Manager and the Refining Catalysts Southern Europe and Middle East Team Leader. Stefano has more than 25 years of experience in FCC and various refining optimization projects. In 2002, he joined BASF’s Technical Sales team. Prior to BASF, Stefano worked with ExxonMobil at the Trecate refinery. Stefano earned a degree in Chemical Engineering from the Politecnico of Milan.