Dr. Andrea Battiston, Ketjen’s Strategic Marketing Subject Matter Expert and Product Line Manager Clean Fuel Technologies, addresses questions regarding the impact of geopolitical volatility on the refining industry:
Q. How does the current geopolitical situation affect hydrotreating catalyst selection right now? What is the difference regionally?
Refining margins are currently high globally, driven by geopolitical disruption from the Iran crisis, which has tightened oil and refined product supply, notably diesel and jet fuel. The US sees the strongest margins. Europe also has high but fragile margins due to higher energy, hydrogen, logistics, and CO₂ costs. In Asia, disruption around Hormuz has lifted margins through crude supply constraints but throughput is tumbling as crude imports are hitting a 10-year low. In the Middle East, volume-driven economics, and especially export exposure, dominate.
Overall, this is a crisis-driven, volatile margin environment. The unpredictability of the current situation makes catalyst choice more challenging for refiners. In Europe, refiners prioritize cycle length and reliability, while closely monitoring H₂ consumption costs. This leads to a preference for high-performance catalysts that are stable, robust, and do not consume excessive hydrogen. In the US, stronger and more resilient margins allow refiners to run harder, often accepting higher severity to maximize throughput and distillate yield, with catalyst selection focused on activity but also hydrogen consumption. In Asia, the situation varies by crude source. In India, for example, a shift toward heavier crudes is likely to increase the need for higher-activity catalysts. In the Middle East, with exports constrained, refiners tend to prioritize steady-state operation and robustness over short-term margin capture. Overall, the current uncertainty makes catalyst choice a region-dependent strategic decision, on top of a technical one.
Q. Catalyst cycle length is always a top concern for refinery planners, especially today. What are the biggest factors that determine whether a hydrotreating unit makes it to its target run length? How to achieve a long cycle?
Catalyst cycle length is one of the key drivers of refinery economics and operational flexibility. A longer, predictable cycle allows planners to synchronize turnarounds across units, lock in feedstock and product strategies, and minimize outage costs, which are especially high in periods of strong refining margins like today.
Hydrotreating units typically miss their target cycle either due to a major upset—such as severe pressure-drop buildup—or when severity escalation outpaces the available operating margin. This may result from feedstock quality and variability or lowered hydrogen partial pressure, both of which increase inhibition and coke formation, shortening run length, particularly in ULSD and cracked-feed services.
How the unit is operated matters as much as what it processes. High severity early in the cycle, poor break-in practices, or aggressive introduction of cracked stocks front-load deactivation and can damage cycle potential. WABT slope rather than absolute temperature is the most reliable real-time indicator of whether the unit is on track. This is where the catalyst system plays a decisive role. Beyond limiting pressure-drop buildup and resisting metal poisoning and nitrogen inhibition, a well-designed catalyst system maintains the required activity at a low and predictable deactivation rate, even under operating constraints. It also helps mitigate the impact of operational upsets, better preserving hydrotreater activity.
In short, proper unit operation combined with the right catalyst system is essential to meeting cycle-length expectations. While the catalyst system does not eliminate unit constraints, it allows refiners to reach them later in the cycle, maximizing profitability.
Q. There’s a lot of discussion around feedstock flexibility in refining right now. From a hydroprocessing perspective, what does feedstock flexibility actually require when it comes to catalyst selection?
Feedstock flexibility requires catalyst robustness, balance, and the right catalyst system design as a whole. This applies to both conventional (fossil) and renewable feedstock hydrotreating. In practice, feedstock flexibility requires robust guard beds to handle higher and more variable contaminant loads and to properly manage pressure build-up. It also requires a balanced main catalyst system with sufficient – but not excessive -hydrogenation activity and the right pore structure to provide the stability needed to protect cycle length as feed type, severity, and H₂ consumption change. To deliver maximum performance even under feedstock swings, Ketjen optimizes catalyst loading design using its proprietary kinetic models and reactor optimization technologies—STAX® for conventional feedstocks and ReNewSTAX™ for renewable diesel and SAF production.
Q. When a refinery is evaluating whether to stay with their current hydrotreating catalyst or make a change, what should they be looking at beyond just activity data?
When evaluating whether to stay with a hydrotreating catalyst or make a change, activity is not the only metric. What matters is the overall performance of the catalyst system in the unit over the full production cycle, including how it supports product specifications, cycle length, hydrogen efficiency, and stable operation as a whole. Ultimately, the objective of a catalyst load is to maximize profitability, also beyond the single hydrotreating unit, while reducing operating risk.
The quality of the service provided by the catalyst supplier can matter as much as the catalyst system itself. Commercial experience, deep application know-how, and strong technical support are essential to translate catalyst potential into real, sustained performance. The ability to design the right catalyst system and technical support throughout the cycle often makes the difference between theoretical performance and actual profitability.
Q. Ketjen has launched eight new hydrotreating catalysts in the past six years. What’s driving that pace of innovation? What problems are you solving that previous generations couldn’t?
Hydrotreating may appear to be a fully mature application, but it is not. New applications and new feedstock types are being introduced, requiring constant catalyst innovation. This is evident for renewable applications, but catalyst improvement remains just as essential for conventional (fossil) feedstock hydrotreating. Refiners need more capable catalysts to defend profitability and remain compliant with evolving regulations through higher performance, reduced fill cost, and lower carbon emissions.
At Ketjen, we are committed to supporting the refining industry in staying competitive, meeting market demand, and enabling a sustainable energy transition. We invest heavily in catalyst innovation for both conventional and renewable feedstocks, including waste oils and fats and waste plastic oils. To achieve this, we apply the latest advancements in high-throughput experimentation, including machine learning and combinatorial chemistry. This allows us to identify deeper relationships between active-phase properties and catalyst performance than in the past. The success of this approach is reflected in the pace of Ketjen’s catalyst introductions and their adoption in the market.
Over the past six years, Ketjen has launched two new catalyst platforms, PULSAR® and QUASAR™, along with eight hydrotreating grades covering diesel and VGO hydrotreating. These also include renewable applications within the ReNewFine platform, ranging from phosphorus and alkali metal trapping to selective deoxygenation.
In parallel, we continue to invest in new analytical techniques and kinetic models to deepen our knowledge of hydrotreating chemistry across both existing and emerging applications. The underlying chemistry of hydrotreating remains the same, it is our tools and understanding of it that allow us to develop improved catalyst performance at a faster pace.