W. R. Grace & Co. (Grace), a global leader in fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) catalysts and additives for refining petrochemicals, today announced its latest innovation in a long line of breakthroughs in catalyst technology for helping refiners produce transportation fuels and lower their carbon footprint.

Paragon FCC catalyst incorporates a novel, rare earth-based, Vanadium (V) trap into high matrix surface area catalyst solutions for the FCC unit. With PARAGON technology, refiners can widen their FCC operating window and increase flexibility to process a range of feedstocks for greater profitability. Importantly, this technology leads to maximum bottoms upgrading of feedstocks along with improved conversion at constant coke yield, allowing refiners to produce fuels in a more sustainable manner.

Paragon catalyst is the result of a multi-year R&D program to develop an advanced Vanadium trap and builds on the metals tolerance of Grace’s popular MIDAS catalyst platform.

“With the adoption of carbon taxation and emissions trading systems on the rise, refiners are under pressure to produce fuels in a more sustainable manner,” said Luis Cirihal, President, Grace Refining Technologies. “Paragon catalyst will help FCC operators produce higher yields of fuels per unit of CO2 emission from the FCC. This technology not only helps refiners meet their sustainability goals, but provides strong economic incentive,” he said.

“One of the trends we see is that the economics of upgrading resid in the FCC are very strong. Our customers are taking advantage of this trend, processing heavier, higher metal laden feeds. Using generic economics, in one trial we estimated use of PARAGON catalyst resulted in $0.65/bbl of value delivery which translates into $14MM per year for an average size FCC,” explained Dr. Bani Cipriano, FCC Segment Marketing Manager, Grace.