Lower-cost feeds sound like a gift. They can be. But the hidden costs of running them are where margins quietly disappear. Ketjen has the technology to keep that from happening. 

By: David Leach, VP and GM, FCC, Ketjen 

Every refiner chasing opportunity crudes right now is running the same calculation. The discount on a barrel can look attractive on paper. What happens inside the unit often tells a different story — when addressing the shortfall from the Strait of Hormuz, refiners are looking for other crudes but the incremental barrels are not heavier than the ME crudes but are U.S. light tight oils that can carry stubbornly high iron. 

Higher iron in the feed can deposit on catalyst, restrict accessibility, and accelerate deactivation. As iron builds, conversion can fall, bottoms upgrading becomes harder, and unwanted byproducts can increase, forcing operators to add more catalyst and chase stability. The discount on the crude narrows. Sometimes it disappears entirely. 

This is the crude paradox opportunity, and it has become one of the defining operational challenges of the current market. Disruption around the Strait of Hormuz has accelerated it by reshaping trade flows and pushing different barrels into different regions — including incremental U.S. light tight oils that can bring higher iron exposure for FCC units. 

SaFeGuard: The Solution 

Ketjen’s SaFeGuard catalyst technology was designed specifically for this problem. When metal contamination accumulates on a catalyst, it forms a hardened outer layer that blocks access to the active sites inside the particle. SaFeGuard resists that process, keeping the catalyst open and working even as metal levels rise. 

The commercial results back it up. A 2025 trial at a North American refinery delivered roughly $10 million per year in net benefit: more desirable products, less low-value output, lower catalyst consumption, and 2,000 additional barrels per day of feed capacity. The refinery did not spend a dollar on capital. It changed the catalyst. 

As refiners look for ways to capture value from discounted, harder-to-run crudes without giving it back in operating costs, catalyst strategy is where the math gets resolved. Ketjen’s technical teams are ready to run that analysis for any unit.