The Catalyst Review - March 2015 - 2

COMMERCIAL NEWS

Evonik Wants to
Acquire Monarch
Catalyst in India...
Evonik Industries AG, Essen
(Germany) intends to strengthen
its global catalysts business. Evonik
recently signed an agreement with
Monarch Catalyst Pvt. Ltd., Dombivli
(India) to acquire 100% of the company's
shares. The transaction is expected to
close during the first half year of 2015
after the required approvals have been
received. The parties have agreed to keep
the purchase price confidential. Source:
Evonik, 3/11/2015.

GFBiochemicals
Breakthrough
Levulinic Acid
Technology Ready for
Commercialization...
Biobased chemicals company
GFBiochemicals is starting
commercialization of its levulinic
acid thanks to its proprietary
breakthrough technology.
Commercial-scale production will
start in Summer 2015 in Caserta,
Italy plant. GFBiochemicals' process
technology has been developed and
tested at demo-scale since 2008.
The Caserta plant will scale-up to
8,000 MT/yr by 2017. Source:
GF Biochemicals, 3/1/2015.

Neste Oil and Preem
Enter into Patent
License Agreement...
Neste Oil Corporation and Preem AB
have entered into a Patent License
Agreement whereby Preem has
licensed Neste Oil intellectual property
rights for renewable fuels production
for use at Preem Gothenburg refinery.
Source: Neste Oil, 3/10/2015.

2

SPOTLIGHT: New Feeds and Growth Markets
Buoy Refinery Catalysts...
Although refiners are grappling with a dramatic decline in oil prices, catalyst
suppliers to the sector say global GDP and fuels growth in 2015 will keep the
category growing. Products that help refiners maximize the value of product
slates and handle challenging feedstocks will continue to provide opportunities
to grow the business. While $50 oil is dragging down refiners' profits and capital
expenditure forecasts, their catalyst suppliers have an upside. "Technology
development, innovation, addressing future market needs-doing [these]
proactively is generally what separates the leaders from the laggards," says John
Murphy, president of The Catalyst Group Resources (TCGR). Al Beninati, president/
catalyst technologies at W.R. Grace says that
when customers see shifts in their business,
they expect catalyst suppliers to find solutions.
"A prime example is the current expansion of
our portfolio of FCC catalysts within the Achieve
catalyst series. This new platform offers a slate
of tailor-made technical solutions at multiple
price points to help refiners maximize operating
flexibility. In commercial application, the
economic benefit of achieve catalysts has been
averaging... $0.40-0.95/bbl, which will drive
significant improvement to the refiner's bottom
line. For refiners processing resid in their FCC, we
have launched Midas Gold FCC catalyst, which
has demonstrated an economic uplift on the
R&D: New catalyst lab at
order of $1.00/bbl in commercial application."
Heidelberg brings BASF's FCC
According to Detlef Ruff, senior v.p./process
testing facilities closer to EMEA
catalysts and technologies at BASF, a number of
customers
feedstock trends are impacting demand. These
include the continued need for next-generation,
high-conversion catalysts; tight oil, particularly in North America, where light, sweet
crudes that require high-activity catalysts tailored for processing highly reactive
feeds continue to rise; heavier crudes to refineries globally, including feeds that
require metals passivation in order to mitigate the impact of contaminant metals,
such as vanadium and nickel; growing demand for petrochemical feedstocks, such
as propylene, in the product slate and its impact on new refinery construction in
Mideast and China; and incremental demand for diesel over gasoline, particularly
in Western Europe and, increasingly, the North American market. Ruff says refiners
worldwide are looking for ways to maximize the value from their operations, and
catalyst innovation is a key enabler. One recent product innovation from BASF-
dubbed boron-based technology (BBT)-allows refiners to maximize value from
resid operations as an improved nickel-tolerant catalyst. Products from the BBT
platform are being tested with customers to overcome FCC unit constraints, such as
gas compressor limits or the capability to add crude feedstocks with higher metals.
Feedback has been encouraging, and BASF is fine-tuning the first products for a
broader market entry in the third quarter, Ruff says. Source: Chemical Week online,
3/13/2015.

The Catalyst Review									

March 2015
The Catalyst Review - March 2015

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