Development of hydrotreating catalysts for the removal of S and N from heavy crude oils

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The utilization of unconventional petroleum sources (bitumen, oil sands, shale oil, etc.) has increased steadily as conventional crudes deplete and the global energy demand and consumption increase. Canada has invested significant effort to exploit unconventional petroleum sources as the energy future of the nation. It is estimated that >174 billion barrels of oil in Canada are recoverable, and 95 % of these oils are contained in the oil sands, which upon mining and extraction produce heavy crudes. The heavy crudes, unlike conventional crudes, contain high concentrations of impurities (e.g. sulfur, nitrogen, heavy metals) and require refining processes that are energetically intensive. Conventional hydrotreament processes are inefficient and unable to remove the impurities in order to meet the fuel grade requirements. Imperial Oil Research and Development Centre, based in Sarnia, Ontario, partners with University of Toronto to develop advanced catalytic hydrotreatment technology for tandem deep hydrodesulfurization (HDS) and hydrodenitrogenation (HDN) reactions. The project will combine advanced kinetic, theoretical, and catalyst characterization methods, some of which have recently become available in Canada in the newly established Ontario Centre for Characterization of Advanced Materials (OCCAM), a leading edge microscopic and spectroscopic facility at the home department of the applicants, and through collaboration with Canadian Light Source, to unravel the correlation between catalyst structures and properties. This work will provide the foundation for reaction pathway tuning and reactor operation strategies for hydrotreating processes and will advance the efforts of Imperial Oil in developing next generation deep hydrotreating catalysts, specifically formulated for processing the heavy crudes from Canada, thus making the deep hydrotreating processes economically feasible. Students trained in the research projects will acquire first hand trainings on reaction engineering, catalytic operation strategies, essential fundamental knowledge in heterogeneous catalysis, and industrial petrochemical reactor processes. They will transfer the knowledge back to Imperial Oil Research and Development Centre in Sarnia.