In a refinery, crude oil is first distilled, which separates it into light, medium and heavy fractions. After that, refiners start performing chemical reactions to change the oil’s molecules from their natural form into those needed in modern fuels. But the catalysts used in that process aren’t only expensive, they essentially end up as hazardous waste at the end of their productive life. That helps to explain why there’s been a lot of interest in catalyst recycling, which advocates see as a way for refiners to improve both their profitability and their environmental performance. In today’s RBN blog, we continue our look into catalyst recycling — the technology, economics and trade-offs — and detail some of the pushback against it.
As we noted in Part 1, catalysts are materials that accelerate chemical reactions during the refining process. This includes catalytic cracking, which “cracks” heavier molecules into lighter gasoline molecules, thereby increasing the volume of gasoline produced from a barrel of crude, and catalytic hydrogenation, which removes sulfur atoms embedded in the molecules, reducing air pollution from vehicle exhaust.
These reactions do not occur at measurable rates except in the presence of a catalyst. Catalysts consist of highly porous solid-base materials like alumina and silica, onto which expensive metals like cerium, cobalt, lanthanum, molybdenum, nickel, palladium, platinum, rhenium and tungsten have been carefully dispersed. Hydrogenation catalysts (see Figure 1 below) come as small particles in cylindrical, penne-pasta-like shapes while cracking catalysts are much finer solids. Their porosity, physical properties and the distribution of metals on them are carefully engineered for the specific reactions necessary to convert oil molecules from their natural state into the specific forms needed for 21st century fuels.
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About the song
“Save It For Later” was originally written by Dave Wakeling as a teenager before he formed his group, which was called The English Beat in the U.S. and The Beat in the UK. The song appears as the first song on side two of The English Beat’s third studio album, Special Beat Service. It was released as a single in April 1982 and went to #58 on the Billboard Dance/Disco chart. The Who's Pete Townshend claims the song is one of his favorites and has covered it on several occasions. The song has also appeared in a few movies and television shows. Personnel on the record were: Dave Wakeling (vocals, guitar), Ranking Roger (toasting, vocals, percussion), David Steele (bass), Andy Cox (guitar), Everett Morton (drums) and Saxa (saxophone).
Special Beat Service was the third and final studio album of the original version of The English Beat. Produced by Bob Sargeant in England in spring of 1982, the album went to #39 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart.
The English Beat were formed in Birmingham, England, in 1978. The original band recorded three studio albums and released 13 singles. Ranking Roger would later front a version of the English Beat in the UK, while Dave Wakeling would do the same in the U.S., where he now lives in the Los Angeles area. The English Beat featuring Ranking Roger released two studio albums and three live albums, and The English Beat featuring Dave Wakeling released one studio album. Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger left the band in 1983 and formed the group General Public. Beat members Andy Cox and David Steele formed the band Fine Young Cannibals. Ranking Roger died in March 2019 at the age of 56.
