Chemical Engineering April 2012 - 20

Newsfront
of heavy oil from Canadian oil sands
from Hardisty, Alta., to the Texas coast.
The pipeline, called the Keystone XL
project, is of particular concern to Gulf
Coast refiners because of the decline
in imports of heavy oil.
The pipeline dispute came to a head
in January, when President Barack
Obama denied a Presidential Permit
(cross-border permit) application for
the project from TransCanada Corp.
(Calgary, Alta.; www.transcanada.
com), saying there had been insufficient
time for a proper review. A major
point at issue was that the pipeline
route would cross the environmentally
sensitive Sandhills in Nebraska.
Then, on February 27, TransCanada
informed the U.S. Dept. of State
that it plans to file a new application
for a Presidential Permit, using a new
route through Nebraska. A statement
from the White House said the application
would receive " the important
assessment it deserves " and that the
President's decision in January " in no
way prejudged future applications. "
At the same time, the President welTotal
Project Delivery
comed a TransCanada plan to build
what would have been the final stretch
of Keystone XL, from Cushing, Okla., to
Nederland, Tex., although this project
does not require a Presidential Permit.
Oil production has been growing rapidly
in the Midwest, as noted earlier,
and the pipeline will relieve a transportation
bottleneck at Cushing that has
restricted the movement of " trapped "
Midwestern oil to Gulf Coast refineries.
Pending regulatory approvals, TransCanada
expects to have the pipeline
in operation by mid-to-late 2013.
However, these developments offer
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small comfort to Gulf Coast refiners.
A spokesman for Valero Energy Corp.
(San Antonio, Tex.; www.valero.com)
says that while the proposed pipeline
from Cushing is a positive sign, " we
are looking to replace heavy oil from
Mexico and South America with Canadian
oil and any delay in the construction
of the Keystone XL pipeline
is expensive for us. "
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20 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM APRIL 2012
Catalysts and rare earths
Another concern to refiners has been a
stratospheric increase in the prices of
rare earth metals, used in fluid catalytic
cracking (FCC) catalysts and in
FCC additives. The increase resulted
from a restriction on exports by China,
which has a virtual monopoly on rare
earths production. " Prices for lanthanum
oxide (used in catalysts) went
from $5-8/kg to as high as $140/kg last
fall, and cerium oxide prices (for sulfurcontrol
additives) got to around $175/
kg, " says Joe McLean, global technology
manager for refining catalysts with
BASF Corp.'s Catalyst Division (Iselin,
N.J.; www.basf.com). More recently, he
says, the prices for both materials have
been " in the low thirties. "
Initially, catalyst manufacturers responded
by imposing a surcharge on
their products to cover the cost of rare
earth elements, which has fluctuated
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Chemical Engineering April 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering April 2012
