Hydroprocessing with electrolytically produced hydrogen in the presence of oxygen impurities

In order to minimize greenhouse gas emissions, electrolysis may be used to produce Hydrogen. Some Oxygen will be entrained in the Hydrogen stream from electrolysis.

• 50 ppb is a common requirement for hydroprocessing but impossible to obtain

• 1 ppm oxygen is the technical limit with excessive CAPEX, and may not be economically possible

• 10 ppm oxygen requires significant extra CAPEX from purification, and will increase the hydrogen price and thus the cost of operation

• 100 ppm oxygen is a common impurity level, at no or little extra cost for hydrogen.

We have discovered that NiMo hydrotreatment catalysts, including TK-351, under hydrodeoxygenation conditions, such as 50 barg and temperatures above 150°C, can convert the O2 to H2O in the presence of Hydrogen, so no O2 removal is required.

Thereby it is not necessary to remove trace O2 from H2, which is expensive. By allowing up to 100 ppm O2 to enter a HydroFlex® unit, we are reducing the cost of hydroprocessing with electrolytic hydrogen.