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Energy Transition
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Feed Purification
Advanced catalysts
for any impurity in any feed

Feed gas used to produce more sustainable fuels and chemicals typically comes from sources which contain many metal and inorganic impurities. Unless removed, contaminants can severely impact downstream processes. Even low concentrations of impurities can affect the performance and lifetimes of downstream catalysts, undermining overall process outcomes. The source of hydrogen or carbon feed defines the impurities present, and the purification steps required.

Clariant Graphic Feed Purification 20220511

Our Complete Solutions and Support

The challenge in feed gas purification is to ensure the most effective yet economical solution. The guard bed must capture a wide range of impurities, which can vary in concentration over time. However, the process must be as simple as possible to minimize costs, as renewable pathways strive to compete with established fossil-based sources.

With our extensive experience in novel gas compositions, Clariant provides expert advice and optimized catalysts and adsorbents for cost-effective purification of all feed streams, impurities, and plant designs. Our comprehensive and innovative portfolio for upgrading green syngas covers even the most challenging gas requirements, as well as special cases such CO₂ and H₂ purification.

Production and purification of hydrogen for industrial and catalytic use

A spectacular growth in renewable hydrogen applications in the coming years is expected and is a necessary evolution in mankind’s energy management to help achieve carbon neutrality. Hydrogen underpins the vast majority of important chemical and fuel processes and Clariant is committed to supporting the delivery of clean hydrogen technologies with our ever-evolving syngas portfolio but also in new purification applications such as de-oxygenation of green hydrogen produced by electrolyzers. Clariant’s EnviCat emission control catalysts have been applied in de-oxygenation application for many decades and we are happy to recommend suitable cost-effective solutions for generating high purity hydrogen.

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Clariant Image sulfur 20220523

Desulfurisation and demetallation
of gas streams

Both traditional fossil feedstocks as well sustainable feedstocks such as biomass or municipal solid waste contain significant inorganic impurities which lead to the generation of e.g. sulfur, halide and metal species downstream of the gasification/pyrolysis/ thermal process.

Traditionally these impurities are managed by a combination of wet and dry scrubbing as well as electrostatic precipitation. Here, in many cases for new plants it is possible to adapt known gas cleaning processes and materials. However, due to issues of process scaling there is frequently a greater requirement for the catalytic and dry scrubbing technologies to manage challenging chemical species such as organic sulfur and HCN.

Clariant’s extensive experience in this area combined with a comprehensive portfolio of Actisorb materials make us the perfect partner for realizing high purity feedstocks for downstream production of sustainable fuels and chemicals.

Clariant Image three stars 20220523

Upgrading syngas using the
water-gas-shift reaction

Clariant has a comprehensive portfolio of water gas-shift catalysts including Fe-based high temperature shift catalysts as well as sour-gas shift catalysts. These catalysts in particular are frequently employed in syngas upgrading as their robust nature can reduce the need for other gas cleaning technologies.

The downstream applications including hydrogen production, methanation to synthetic natural gas, Fischer Tropsch synthesis and methanol production.

Clariant Image CO2 20220523

Carbon dioxide purification for
CCUS applications

With a growing demand for more sustainable fuels the need for sequestering carbon or utilizing CO₂ as a raw material grows exponentially each year. In each case however there are certain requirements for the purity of the carbon dioxide source in order to reliably and safely operate the downstream processes.

The potential sources for carbon dioxide are extremely diverse including biogas upgrading, chemical and industrial off-gases, fermentation processes, direct air capture and more.

Clariant’s wide range of adsorbents and catalysts allow us to deliver high performance solutions which enable optimized system costs for passive adsorbent systems to remove inorganic contaminants, as well as more sophisticated catalytic purification systems where e.g. VOC or oxygen removal are required.

General gas purification
Biogas and CO₂ cleaning
Deoxygenation of hydrogen
Sulfur removal
Syngas conditioning
Steam methane reforming
Recuperative reforming

General gas purification

  •
    ActiSorb® Cl 2
    Thanks to its high adsorption capacity, ActiSorb® Cl 2 prevents in steam reforming units the poisoning of downstream catalysts, such as steam reforming and methanol synthesis catalysts. It also protects downstream units and equipment from fouling, deposits and corrosion. The hydrogen plant thus avoids unexpected shutdowns, and costly replacements. Moreover, through efficient, long-term removal of HCl, the chloride guard also helps to reduce harmful emissions.Downstream CCR units ActiSorb CI 2 is used to remove HCl from the hydrogen rich gas streams.
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  • ActiSorb® Hg 1
    ActiSorb® Hg 1 is highly effective for purifying hydrocarbon feedstocks and off-gases. It is also ideal for mercury removal in chlorine plants, and purification of hydrogen by-product in sodium amalgam decomposition and cell room ventilation air. In all cases, mercury is reduced to non-detectable levels.
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  • ActiSorb® 400
    ActiSorb® 400 is a guard catalyst which selectively decomposes all traces of metal carbonyls on a guard reactor. The adsorbent is essential in COS hydrolysis for removing nickel and iron carbonyls. Otherwise, the contaminants decompose on the ActiSorb 410 syngas catalyst, leading to its deactivation.
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  • ActiSorb® 410
    ActiSorb® 410 simultaneously promotes COS hydrolysis and CS2 hydrogenation, while also hydrolyzing HCN. The catalyst’s high selectivity allows purification of syngas with very high CO content. The feed to the COS hydrolysis reactor may contain metal carbonyls, which must be removed using ActiSorb 400.
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  • ActiSorb® S 2
    ActiSorb® S 2 is a highly effective zinc oxide-based adsorbent designed for the removal of sulfur components, such as hydrogen sulfide, mercaptans and COS, from hydrocarbon feed streams. The adsorbent is specially recommended when operating at high space velocities and elevated temperatures.
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  • ActiSorb® S 6
    ActiSorb® S6 is a copper-promoted zinc oxide adsorbent for deep desulfurization of hydrocarbon feed streams, especially upstream of a pre-reformer. It is typically placed in the bottom of the standard zinc-oxide reactor and removes the remaining hydrogen sulfide (H2S) to a value of less than 10 ppb.
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Biogas and CO₂ cleaning

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    ActiSorb® GP 102
    ActiSorb® GP 102 is a non-regenerable product for sulfur removal in hydrocarbon gas streams. The iron oxide material is engineered for specific pore size distribution to incorporate micro, meso, and macropores in an open structure that chemically bonds with sulfur and can have a pick-up capacity near theoretical limits that allow for longer cycle lengths and favorable cost of ownership. This results in a high removal capacity, which significantly improves processing cost efficiency. ActiSorb® GP 102 delivers this high performance at ambient temperatures, which helps keep energy costs low.
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Deoxygenation of hydrogen

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    EnviCat® N2O
    The EnviCat N2O catalyst removes nitrous oxide (N2O) from the tail gas of nitric acid plants. Nitrous oxide – commonly known as happy gas or laughing gas – is extremely harmful for our climate because of its about 25 times greater longevity in the earth's atmosphere than CO2. The catalyst removes nearly all of the nitrous oxide from the tail gas of nitric acid plants. It also renders innocuous other nitrogen oxides (often called NOx) that represent a considerable pollution threat. The nitrous oxide is converted in two stages: in the first stage, the nitrous oxide is decomposed to oxygen and nitrogen with the aid of the catalyst EnviCat N2O. In the second stage, the nitrogen oxides are mixed with ammonia to produce harmless nitrogen and water. N2O and NOx are reduced in this process by ammonia and/or short-chain alkanes like methane or propane yielding nitrogen as harmless product.
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Sulfur removal

  •
    HDMax® 200
    HDMax® 200 is a cobalt-molybdenum-based catalyst for hydrodesulfurization of all types of hydrocarbon feedstock, such as naphtha, LPG, natural gas and off-gases. The catalyst is suitable for both liquid- and gas-phase applications.
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  • HDMax® 300
    HDMax® 300 is a nickel-molybdenum-based catalyst for hydrodesulfurization of all types of hydrocarbon feedstock, such as naphtha, LPG, natural gas and off-gases, in the liquid or gas phase. The catalyst is also effective in hydrogenation of organic nitrogen compounds as well as olefin saturation.
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Syngas conditioning

  •
    ShiftMax® 120 HCF
    ShiftMax® 120 HCF is a high temperature shift (HTS) catalyst that combines high activity and thermal stability with extreme robustness, enabling it to withstand potential boiler leakages. With virtually no hexavalent chromium (Cr6+), it eliminates health or safety risks in handling or commissioning.ShiftMax 120 HCF offers the same outstanding benefits as ShiftMax® 120, and performs identically after initial reduction. Both HTS syngas catalysts effectively prevent Fischer-Tropsch by-product formation at low steam-to-gas conditions.
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  • June 02, 2020
    Clariant’s ShiftMax® 300 MTS catalyst delivers excellent performance at BHCC hydrogen unit in Zhejiang, China
    The partnership between Clariant and Shanghai Huaxi is off to a successful start. Since the establishment of their strategic alliance in late January of 2018, the two companies took on a major joint project to enhance the hydrogen production unit of Zhejiang Baling Hengyi Caprolactam Co Ltd (BHCC), located in the Xiaoshan district of Hangzhou in Zhejiang, China.
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  • ShiftMax® 217
    ShiftMax® 217 is a promoted version of our high-performance ShiftMax®207 low temperature shift (LTS) catalyst. The special promoter minimizes methanol by-product formation without decreasing the catalyst’s outstanding activity and stability for water gas shift reactions. Both ShiftMax syngas catalysts also feature high CO conversion over their long lifetimes, excellent poison resistance and superior physical strength. Their unparalleled performance and stability have been proven in numerous commercial LTS reactors worldwide.
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Steam methane reforming

Clariant Image Graphic EARTH Technology Reactor 20220511

EARTH® Technology

Innovative drop-in assembly for reformer tubes that greatly increases catalyst activity and heat recovery, thus minimizing energy consumption and CO₂ emissions

CONTACT US

Key results achieved:

  • >30% fuel savings
  • >10% decreased CO2 footprint
  • ~20% decreased pressure drop
  • >20% increased furnace firebox efficiency, i.e. the energy absorbed by the conversion process versus the total energy liberated in the furnace
  • ~50% decreased steam export

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