Role of the Zeolite Catalysts in the New Refining Strategies

This chapter describes how the use of new zeolitic catalyst can help to design an integrated solution to deal with reformulated gasoline. The demands for new investment in refining come from—compliance of tougher operating standards for health, safety and the environment, changes in the product structure and product qualities required by the market, and changes in the quality of crude slate. The citizens of many countries are conscious of the necessity that economical growth should not be achieved at any price, and have forced the governments to do this with a higher respect to the environment. The 1970 Clean Air Act (CAA) and 1977 amendments failed to control two major pollutants: CO and ozone. For this reason, the 1990 amendments to the CAA have required new pollution control measures in order to reduce emissions from stationary sources such as refineries, service station, chemical plants and power plants, as well as from mobile sources as for instance motor vehicles, trains, and airplanes. Such requirements affect the petroleum refining operations with respect to air toxic emissions and water discharge limitations, land disposal of hazardous waste, oil spill prevention, underground storage tanks, etc. In addition to implications for production costs, the new environmental requirements will have a significant impact on fuels, and especially on the demand for cleaner motor vehicle fuels.