Petro/Chemicals - HDS

Oxford Catalysts has two main carbide-based catalysts for the petroleum and petrochemicals markets:

Hydro-desulphurisation (HDS) and Fischer-Tropsch (FT).

Hydro-desulphurisation ("HDS")

The Process

HDS is a the predominant process used for the removal of sulphur from hydrocarbon fuels, which involves treating a fuel with hydrogen gas in the presence of a catalyst.

The Market

Why is this so important? World governments have progressively lowered the level of sulphur permitted in petroleum fuels and will continue to do so over the next 10 years. At the same time, oil producers are increasingly using oil reserves that contain higher sulphur content than those previously exploited. Not surprisingly, the worldwide market for HDS catalysts is estimated at over $1bn and growing fast.

Many existing HDS catalysts, however, are not only unable to remove sulphur to expected future target levels in a single pass, but they can also have a detrimental effect on the octane number of gasoline, thereby degrading the value of the final product and increasing its overall cost of production.

Cleaner Fuel

The Benefits

Testing of our carbide-based HDS catalyst by an oil production company and at the University of Oxford showed that our catalyst outperformed two other commercially available catalysts, producing higher quality fuel with:

• half the final sulphur content remaining
• less destruction of the octane number
• lower processing costs