M.W. Kellogg Will Be Marketing Exxon Hydroprocessing Technologies

M.W. Kellogg Co. (Houston, TX), the engineering and construction arm of Dresser Industries, Inc., has entered into an agreement with Exxon Research and Engineering Company (ER&E; Florham Park, NJ) to assist in the marketing of hydroprocessing technology and in preparing process design packages for ER&E licensed units.

"We've got a huge database of pilot plant work and commercial experience in using these technologies on a wide variety of crudes and processed feedstocks," said Dave McCaffrey, a licensing manager at ER&E. "This will give us a chance to extend our involvement in design projects and proposals."

This agreement covers the following hydroprocessing technologies developed by ER&E:

• Hydrofining process - for treating naphtha and distillate boiling range streams,
• DODD (Diesel Oil Deep Desulfurization) process - for removing sulfur to very low levels
• GO-fining and RESIDfining Processes - for upgrading gas oils and residua for cat cracking and low-sulfur fuel oil.

Exxon uses hydrogenation and a proprietary catalyst management system in Hydrofining to reduce sulfur in diesel fuels, improve color, gravity and pour points. A variation on the process, DODD, production of ultra-low sulfur (0.05 ppm or lower) distillate products, even when starting with feedstreams as high as 2.0 wt%. "Our experimental work has allowed us to be very smart about how to treat most types of sulfur species, including heterocyclics like thiophenes," noted McCaffrey. "In addition, our clients tell us that our Hydrofining and DODD processes usually operate at lower pressures than competing technologies, which offers cost savings in the materials of construction, and lower compressor operating costs." ER&E has also had experience in converting a Hydrofining unit into a DODD unit. Nominal direct investment for a 23,000-bbl/d, Gulf Coast DODD unit is around $10 million.

RESID-fining is intended for fixed-bed hydrotreating of atmospheric and vacuum residua, using proprietary catalysts and catalyst management systems. It can operate in three modes: desulfurization; conversion; or as cat feed hydrotreating. The latter mode includes demetallization, hydrodenitrogenation and CCR (Conradson carbon reduction) and aromatics reduction. RESID-fining's estimated direct investment cost is $44.3 million for a 20,000-bbl/d unit built in the Mediterranean. There have been three RESID-fining plants built, two for low-sulfur fuel oil production, and one as a prep unit for an FCC unit.

GO-fining (gas-oil refining) is used primarily as feed pretreatment to an FCCU unit, starting with virgin, thermal or cat cycle and deasphalted gas oils. It performs mild hydrocracking, and removes sulfur and nitrogen compounds. A number of special features are included for handling fouling feeds, including a proprietary internal bypass, a by-passable guard reactor, and an inter-bed quench box. The direct investment for a 45,000-bbl/d GO-fining unit on the U.S. Gulf Coast is around $27 million.

By Nick Basta

For more information, contact: Exxon Research & Engineering Co., Technology Licensing Division, P. O. Box 390, Florham Park, NJ 07932. Tel: 973-765-2615; Fax: 973-765-2367.

The M. W. Kellogg Technology Company, P.O. Box 4557, Houston, TX 77210-4557.Tel: 713-753-2000; Fax: 713-753-5353.