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Specialty hydroprocessing (Celestia™ catalyst)  

Through unprecedented hydrodesulferization (HDS), hydrodenitrogenation (HDN) and aromatic saturation activity, Celestia™ ultra-high activity, bulk-metal hydroprocessing catalyst can provide you with step-out performance and operational flexibility.

Key benefits

  • exceptional performance monitor icon

    • Ultra-high HDS, HDN and aromatic saturation activity
    • Enables other catalysts and refinery-wide de-bottlenecking
    • Improves refinery net utilization

  • improved margins oil tank

    • Crude flexibility
    • Product slate improvement
    • Short payback period

  • value beyond unit factory unit

    • Processes challenged/opportunity crudes
    • Enables feed scale-up
    • Maximizes high-value products in the refinery

    Celestia catalyst application  

    Celestia catalyst is jointly developed by industry leaders ExxonMobil and Albemarle. Often deployed with its predecessor, Nebula®, the new Celestia catalyst provides operational flexibility, exceptional earnings and refinery optimization to add value beyond the hydrotreating battery limits. Commercial applications of these technologies are available in distillate hydrotreaters, as well as in light cycle oil (LCO) and vacuum gas oil (VGO) hydrocracker pretreaters.

    celestia catalyst application chart

    Hydroprocessing value  

    The Celestia™ catalyst activity, when used well, can help improve margins by delivering value beyond the hydrotreating unit battery limits in many ways, including:

    Processing challenged/opportunity crudes

    Enabling feed scale-up

    high-value products in the refinery

    Proven performance  

    Based on the expertise gained through more than a decade of commercial experience with Nebula, Celestia was developed by ExxonMobil and Albemarle as the next step in advancing catalyst technology. Since 2015, Celestia has demonstrated step-out performance and created new opportunities for growth at ExxonMobil facilities. Now it is available to refiners in fuels application.

    value captured in the refinery graph

    Case study  

    A stacked load of Celestia and Nebula catalysts was loaded into the pretreat section of a once-through heavy feed hydrocracker, processing a challenging blend of high endpoint virgin and coker vacuum gas oils (VGOs) to produce fuels and steam cracker feed. The unit pretreat reactor was loaded with approximately 30% Celestia/Nebula. The Celestia deployment was a first application; Nebula had been part of prior reactor loads.

    The addition of the Celestia catalyst produced significant value to the VGO hydrocracker operation:

    • The feed rate of a highly challenging coker VGO was maximized
    • Significantly reduced Nitrogen slip
    • Increased aromatic saturation and unit conversion with higher diesel and jet yields
    • Improved product quality, including diesel cetane and jet smoke point
    • Hydrocrackate export quality improved, leading to higher profitability in an affiliate steam cracker Higher heat recovery leading to a reduction in furnace firing and significant energy savings

    pretreating with celestia in single stage hydrocrackling

    Embrace step-out growth. Boost profit and production with the Galexia specialty hydroprocessing suite

    Featured resources

    View highlighted news, events, technical papers and case studies below. To see our full collection of resources, browse our Library.
    • ExxonMobil Chemical play button icon

      Specialty hydroprocessing Celestia™ catalyst

      Learn how Celestia ultra-high activity, bulk metal hydroprocessing catalyst can help increase your operation’s performance and flexibility.

      Watch the video
    • ExxonMobil Chemical Library icon

      Celestia: Increased flexibility and profitability from new hydroprocessing catalyst

      A new bulk metal catalyst enables upgrading more difficult feeds and delivering products to meet environmental standards and higher quality levels.

      Read more
    • ExxonMobil Chemical play button icon

      A Particle of Difference

      How ExxonMobil Catalysts and Technology Licensing solves shared challenges through expertise, specialty catalysts, technology licensing and collaboration.

      Watch the video
    • ExxonMobil Chemical Library icon

      ExxonMobil Catalysts and Technology Licensing – summary of technologies offered

      Learn about the cutting-edge, proprietary catalysts and advantaged process technologies that ExxonMobil provides for refining, gas and chemical needs.

      Read more
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