Review on catalysis related research at CanmetENERGY

Abstract

Canada's oil sands and heavy oil represent a major North American energy source. However, many technological, economic, and environmental challenges must be overcome in order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency required for converting these unconventional oils into clean and high‐quality transportation fuels that meet the ever‐increasing social licence associated with these energy resources. In oil sands bitumen and heavy oil upgrading, and petroleum refining, over 70 % of the processes involve catalysts and catalytic technologies. To advance new catalysts and catalytic technology development for bitumen upgrading and refining, fundamental and applied research has been conducted at CanmetENERGY on hydroprocessing (including catalyst development, reaction mechanism and kinetics, and process/reactor modelling and simulation), fluid catalytic cracking evaluation of bitumen‐derived feedstocks, and other related subjects. In addition, research collaborations have been established and maintained with a number of national and international universities, research organizations, and industrial companies to promote new upgrading and refining technology development. These research efforts have resulted in important impacts on academic R&D and industrial practice for catalytic conversion of Canadian oil sands bitumen and heavy oil. At the same time, reliable technical data and information have been generated to help government agencies in developing and implementing policies and regulations for oil sands development.

Effects of molybdenum addition to activated carbon supported Ni‐based catalysts for CO2 methanation

“…Therefore, the difference in activity between Ni–Mo/AC and Ni/AC catalysts was not primarily due to particle size at 250°C. The critical factor causing Ni–Mo/AC catalysts to be more active at low temperatures may be the electron transfer from MoO 3 to nickel metal 76–78 . Several studies have shown that the process of electron transfer from MoO 3 to metallic nickel (Ni) is the main cause of activity enhancement of Ni–Mo catalysts, especially when used with AC at low temperatures 79–81 .…”

“…The critical factor causing Ni-Mo/AC catalysts to be more active at low temperatures may be the electron transfer from MoO 3 to nickel metal. [76][77][78] Several studies have shown that the process of electron transfer from MoO 3 to metallic nickel (Ni) is the main cause of activity enhancement of Ni-Mo catalysts, especially when used with AC at low temperatures. [79][80][81] The catalyst is activated by this electron transfer mechanism, which increases its efficiency in facilitating a number of chemical reactions, especially hydrogenation and removal of sulfur compounds.…”

Recent Approaches, Catalysts and Formulations for Enhanced Recovery of Heavy Crude Oils

“…To avoid sulphur poisoning noble metals should be used in environments containing below 10 mgS/g [23]. Generally, Pd stands out among several noble metals for efficiency in hydrocracking (HC) and hydrodesulpharisation (HDS) [87].…”

Efficient Synthesis of Nickel-Molybdenum/USY-Zeolite Catalyst for Eliminating Impurities (N, S, and Cl) in the Waste Plastic Pyrolysis Oil: Dispersion Effect of Active Sites by Surfactant-Assisted Melt-Infiltration

“…In particular, catalysts, which are the high dispersion of active sites and the optimization of acid site loading on the surface of the support, should be properly characterized according to the reaction environment [17]. Thus, nickel [18] and molybdate [19] supported on ultra-stable Y zeolite (Ni-Mo/USY zeolite) catalysts have been widely used in HDT reactions [20][21][22][23]. Dien Li et al studied NiMo catalysts that were synthesized using various zeolite types such as NaY, USY, H-mordenite, and ZSM-5.…”