Global Markets for Catalyst Regeneration

Report Highlights

The global market for catalyst regeneration reached $3.3 billion in 2010 and nearly $3.5 billion in 2011. It is expected to grow to $4.1 billion by 2016, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.8%.

Report Scope

Meeting rising energy requirements and protecting the environment are among the most important applications of catalyst technology.  Broadly speaking, a catalyst is a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction by reducing the required activation energy, but is left unchanged by the reaction.

As was the case in the previous review the petroleum industry remains the largest single user of regenerated catalysts, especially in hydroprocessing to produce refined products such as gasoline and low sulfur diesel fuel.

Both fresh and regenerated catalysts contribute to enlarging the petroleum supply by making it commercially possible to produce oil from sources that were once regarded as uneconomical such as tar sands and heavy oil deposits.  With the easier, sweeter, cleaner oil less available, these more abundant dirtier crudes are being refined, and the challenges facing the refiner and its catalyst partners are increased.

Regenerated catalysts are indispensable to many types of environmental remediation, from power plant emissions control systems to industrial effluent and municipal waste treatment.  As will be shown, regenerated catalysts contribute indirectly to reducing costs since they can be significantly cheaper than fresh catalysts and yet be almost as active.  In addition, regenerated catalysts can be less prone to production of unwanted by-products, such as sulfur trioxide (SO₃), in flue gas streams because the regenerated process reduces the sulfur dioxide (SO₂) to sulfur trioxide conversion (i.e., lowers the sulfur dioxide oxidation activity).

This report provides an understanding of how the regenerated catalyst business contributes to meeting the energy needs of the world economies, while at the same time, helping reduce the costs associated with preventing environmental degradation and remediation of adverse environmental impacts as they occur.

The study is divided into a number of sections and covers regenerated catalyst use in the following:

• Processing of crude oil (including nonconventional sources such as tar sands and heavy oil reservoirs).
• Chemical and petrochemical synthesis.
• Flue gas and waste treatment.

The catalyst regeneration business is important for the following reasons:

• Increases profitability for spent catalyst producers.
• Avoids or reduces environmental damage.
• Prolongs the lifetime and activity of a number of important catalyst families.
• Promotes the development of green processes and green chemistry that are environmentally friendly.
• Mitigates or remediates adverse environmental impacts after they occur.

Analyst Credentials

John Joe Harkin is a Ph.D. chemist who graduated from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom, and is an independent business intelligence consultant.  He has 20 years of experience providing business insight to a range of companies in the chemical and related industries.  The majority of his industrial career was spent supporting business development activities on a global basis within a specialty firm that was active in many.  He is also the co-author of BCC Report CHM039B Oilfield Process Chemicals: Global Markets.

Ronald van Rossum has more than 24 years of experience providing information management services to the chemical industry.  For 10 years, he was a global information manager, delivering a wide range of services to a global specialty company.  He is an expert information searcher and speaks several languages.  He is also the co-author of BCC Report CHM039B Oilfield Process Chemicals: Global Markets.