Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. APD announced that its new Hydrogen Reactions Lab at Allentown, PA has commenced operations and is receiving material for trials. The new lab features three continuous, trickle bed reactors and is capable of handling hydrotreatment and hydrogenation reactions at pressures up to 2000 psig.
The lab further helps customers in optimizing existing hydrogenation and hydrotreatment reactions or switching from batch to continuous operation. Also, the lab has been constructed to test the hydrogenation of various feedstocks with a maximum of three fixed-bed catalytic reactors. Moreover, Air Products can assess the impact of feed quality, catalysts, and additional operating parameters on product quality, throughput, and process economics for its customers at the lab.
According to Tim Lebrecht, applications engineer at Air Products, hydrotreatment is an emerging trend in the used oil re-refining and transmix processing markets. Also, hydrogenation units facilitate cost reduction in the chemicals processing industry. The new lab will enable Air Products’ customers to derive better yield and product quality, and achieve scale reduction which is common while switching to continuous processes. The company looks forward to working with hydrotreatment as well as assisting customers who want to shift to hydrogenation.
Hydrotreatment and hydrogenation are applicable for several products, including low-sulfur, low-impurity fuel, high-quality lubricating base oils, hydrogenated vegetable oil, as well as specialty chemicals used in industrial, personal care, and pharmaceutical applications. This process involves the use of high-pressure hydrogen gas in the presence of a custom catalyst to complete the reaction. Moreover, the change from batch to continuous processing is an important step in most specialty chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing processes, to help produce increased yield, better selectivity, and a smaller footprint.
Air Products currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Better-ranked companies in the diversified chemical space include Celanese Corporation CE, Innospec Inc. IOSP and Akzo Nobel N.V. AKZOY. While Celanese and Innospec sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Akzo Nobel carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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