Chemical Engineering November 2013 - 16

Rive Technology
Newsfront
Integrating and iterating its new
tools with 'traditional' chemical
engineering tools. This facilitated
overall process design, unit operation
analysis and scaleup. In addition, a
comprehensive engineering process
model was developed to guide not
only process design and optimization,
but also to provide front-end input to
strain engineers on targeting genetic
improvements with global process
economic benefits and enhanced process
robustness.
Successful commercial scaleup.
Genomatica went from demonstration
scale to initial commercial test run in
one year; 50 consecutive runs in five
weeks happened just a few months
later. This scaleup success - rare in
this industry and unique in its speed
- came from good chemical engineering
discipline and the application of
proven scaleup principles. The company
piloted what it would run commercially,
and it ran commercially
what it piloted, notably improving
predictability and lessening risk.
Cost reduction. Genomatica's platform
technology let it go from laboratory
production of BDO to commercial
scale in five years - substantially
faster than comparable efforts, and resulting
in substantially reduced costs.
In addition, its BDO process is simpler
and designed to operate under " friendlier "
conditions than conventional processes,
allowing for reduced capital
expenditures in production facilities.
Genomatica has been working to
apply its same platform technology to
the development and commercialization
of processes for additional highvolume
chemicals, with butadiene as
its second announced target.
HoNor AwArd:
rive TecHNology, iNc.
Molecular Highway zeolite
technology
For more than three decades, major petroleum
companies and catalyst manufacturers
have been trying to develop
zeolite-based catalysts with wider pores
(mesopores). Zeolites, crystalline silicaalumina
structures that are used in
90% of all petroleum refining processes
have small (less than 1 nm) pores that
allow some but not all of the feedstock
to be converted into shorter, more valuFigure
2. Rive Technology's Molecular Highway technology improves yields in
fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) applications
able hydrocarbon (HC) molecules, such
as those that make up gasoline and
other transportation fuels.
During his postdoctoral time at MIT,
Javier Garcia Martinez, a founder of
Rive Technology, developed a radically
new approach to solve this problem.
Instead of synthesizing a new, more
expensive catalyst, additional mesoporosity
is introduced into the catalyst
already being used in industry (based
on zeolite Y) by using innovative, inexpensive
nanotechnology. When zeolite
Y is treated in the presence of a
surfactant in alkaline media, the zeolite
nanostructure reorganizes to accommodate
the surfactant (used as a
nanotemplate). Subsequent removal
of the surfactant opens new, wider
pores that dramatically increase the
accessibility of the zeolite catalyst to
the HC molecules (Figure 2).
The nanostructured version of zeolite
Y shows an impressive boost in
conversion and transportation fuel
yields when applied to the FCC (fluid
catalytic cracking) process in petroleum
refining, says the company. The
zeolite's enhanced accessibility allows
refiners to dramatically increase the
amount of gasoline and diesel fuel obtained
from a barrel of crude oil, while
decreasing the production of undesirable
products, such as gases, heavy
cycle oil and coke. In economic terms,
the technology increases refinery profitability
by $50 million/yr for an average
U.S. Gulf Coast refinery, says Rive
Technology. Molecular Highway technology
also enables refiners to process
cheaper crudes.
After a successful commercial trial
in 2011 at CountryMark Cooperative
LLP, Rive began licensing its technology
to petroleum refiners. At the same
time, the company partnered with existing
FCC catalyst manufacturers to
16 ChemiCal engineering www.Che.Com november 2013
manufacture Molecular Highway catalysts
and supply refiners who have
been licensed by Rive. In July 2010,
Rive and W.R. Grace & Co. entered
into an agreement to jointly develop
and commercialize Rive's Molecular
Highway technology for use in catalysts
for FCC processes.
In July 2012, a subsequent trial at
Alon's refinery in Big Springs, Tex.
demonstrated even stronger results,
and led to Alon becoming Rive's first
commercial user. FCC catalyst combining
Rive's Molecular Highway and
Grace matrix technology delivered
significant economic value in mild
resid operation. Performance benefits
resulting from Rive's unique zeolites
were: substantially improved coke selectivity,
improved bottoms upgrading
and increased olenicity of the cracked
products. No capital investment was
needed to realize this value, and operational
changes were within the normal
range of practice, says the company.
Based on pilot data and commercial
data from the CountryMark and
Alon trials, Rive's Molecular Highway
technology delivers increased profits
of $35-45 million annually to a medium-sized
benchmark refinery, representing
a 10-17% increase in annual
profit, says Rive. The company says industry-wide
deployment of Molecular
Highway technology to the 240 target
refineries can create over $10 billion
of economic value per year.
In addition to FCC applications,
Rive's technology also has applications
in other catalytic processes in
the refinery (for instance, hydrocracking),
in petrochemicals and biofuels,
and in making gas separations more
efficient. Although the company has
initially focused on petroleum refining,
the technology platform can be
used with many other applications.
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Chemical Engineering November 2013

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