Aggreko Catalyst Cooling Process Awarded U.S. Patent
Power rental leader Aggreko announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has awarded the company a patent for its “Catalyst Cooling” process. The unique solution is designed to reduce catalyst cooling time during the initial stage of a planned or unplanned maintenance turnaround for hydro processing and reformer units within the petrochemical and refining industry.
This is the first U.S. patent for Aggreko within this sector and its second U.S. patent overall. The U.S. Patent No. is 9,134,064. The patent solution, developed by the Aggreko Process Services team, focuses on last phase catalyst cooling and uses a combination of heat exchangers, chillers and pumps.
Based on a correlation model specific to an oil refiner’s turnaround operations and timeline for cooling, APS demonstrated the process can cool reactor catalysts between 12 and 24 hours faster than liquid nitrogen. By utilizing this new process, Aggreko said, refiners can move catalyst cooling off the critical path and permit more work to be done while the unit is down.
Also, refiners can avoid the cost of nitrogen and potential safety issues associated with the extra logistical and human activity required to transport, handle and dispose of it. Aggreko’s process can produce savings from $250,000 to more than $5 million depending on if catalyst is on the critical path and the number of refinery units affected, the company said.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.