63 P P P e e e t t t r r r o o o l l l e e e u u u m m m & & & C C C o o o a a a l l l ISSN 1337-7027 Available online at www.vurup.sk/pc Petroleum & Coal 46 (3), 63-68, 2004 SOLVING PROBLEMS IN REAL ZEOFORMING PLANT USING LABORATORY TESTS OF COMMERCIAL CATALYSTS Ludwik Kornblit*, Antoni Marchut*, Łukasz Jęczmionek*, Stefan Bożek* Leszek Lenartowicz**, Grażyna Mikrut** * Instytut Technologii Nafty, 31-429 Kraków ul. Łukasiewicza 1, POLAND ** Rafineria Nafty „Glimar” S.A., 38-320 Gorlice, ul. Michalusa 1, POLAND Abstract The zeoforming, a new process, is rarely used in petroleum industry. The zeoforming plant in ,,Glimar” S.A. refinery has been working during last few years. The differences of activity of two ZSM-5 catalysts (A and B) used in zeoforming process, have been found due to proposed laboratory tests carried out with use of in- dustrial feed. Catalyst B appeared to be much more active than catalyst A. The conception of using catalyst B in one rector, in one line (A-B-A), and only one catalyst A in three reactors of second line (A-A-A) has been successfully applied in zeoforming plant in “Glimar” S.A. refinery. Key words: catalysts, zeolite, zeoforming Introduction The zeoforming plant in „Glimar” S.A. refinery, located in the south of Poland, has been pro- ducing unleaded petrol component during the last few years. The zeoforming process, is based on trans- formation of low octane feed to high octane product in the presence of the hydrogen form of ZSM-5 zeolite as catalyst, with the binder (γ-alumina) [1] . In this process mainly n-paraffin hydrocarbons are transformed to aromatic ones. Similar transformation of isoparaffines and naphthenic compounds is not so effective. The hydrogen practically is not produced in this process, but only light hydrocarbons can be found. In the case of zeoforming plant in „Glimar” S.A. refinery two lines of reactors work alternatively. Both lines consist of three reactors. Each line of reactors works during 7-10 days and then the catalyst is regenerated. The total time of the catalyst work is about one and a half year. There are not many test methods used for evaluating the catalysts in the refinery indus- try [2,3] . The methods used for evaluating cata- lysts activity usually are owned by companies producing these catalysts. Besides, zeoform- ing is a new process, rarely applied in the refinery industry. Our aim was to find a labora- tory test selecting a proper catalyst for zeo- forming plants. Methods and results Physicochemical investigation Two catalysts (A and B) have been used in the investigation. The diffractometer PW 1060 with a copper lamp has been used for evaluating their crystal structure. The results are shown in Figure 1. Additionally the contents of aluminum and silicon have been investigated with the use of X-ray fluorescence method.