Vanadium poisoning effect on catalyst isolated

Extensive testing of commercial FCCU catalysts has shown that when all metals are removed by demetallizing the catalyst, the catalyst is effectively reactivated. But because vanadium is the primary metal associated with catalyst activity, it is important to understand the effect on catalyst activity when only the vanadium is removed. To isolate the vanadium effect on catalysts, ChemCat Corp. has performed tests on various nonzeolitic amorphous catalysts, zeolitic rare earth (REY) catalysts, and zeolitic ultra-stable (USY) catalysts where the vanadium was the only metal removed. Results were compared to reactivation by the Demet process, which effectively removes the vanadium as well as the nickel, iron, and sodium. Vanadium was removed from samples of FCCU catalyst obtained from two different refineries, and in each case, their catalyst activity and selectivity improved.