A method and a device for separation of at least one catalyst and/or adsorbent from a homogeneous mixture of catalysts and/or adsorbents containing one or more metal, semi-metal or non-metal contaminant(s) deposited thereon, making it possible to separate catalysts or adsorbents according to the presence or absence of contaminant and also according to the contaminant content, starting from a sorting threshold that corresponds to a content and that is defined by the operator.

A process for regenerating catalyst particles is disclosed. The process includes the steps: (a) withdrawing a regeneration zone effluent comprising halogen from a regeneration zone, wherein the regeneration zone contains catalyst particles comprising halogen; (b) contacting a first portion of the regeneration zone effluent with adsorbent in a first adsorption zone, removing halogen from the first portion of the regeneration zone effluent, and withdrawing from the first adsorption zone a first adsorption zone effluent; (c) contacting the first adsorption zone effluent with a water removing material to create a first water-depleted stream; and (d) passing the first water-depleted stream to the regeneration zone. Other embodiments include different orders of the steps.

Systems for separating a contaminant trapping additive from a cracking catalyst may include a contaminant removal vessel having one or more fluid connections for receiving contaminated cracking catalyst, contaminated contaminant trapping additive, fresh contaminant trapping additive, and a fluidizing gas. In the contaminant removal vessel, the spent catalyst may be contacted with contaminant trapping additive, which may have an average particle size and/or density greater than the cracking catalyst. A separator may be provided for separating an overhead stream from the contaminant removal vessel into a first stream comprising cracking catalyst and lifting gas and a second stream comprising contaminant trapping additive. A recycle line may be used for transferring contaminant trapping additive recovered in the second separator to the contaminant removal vessel, allowing contaminant trapping additive to accumulate in the contaminant removal vessel. A bottoms product line may provide for recovering contaminant trapping additive from the contaminant removal vessel.

Useful portions of equilibrium catalyst from a Fluid Catalytic Cracking unit are obtained by fractionating to obtain a narrow size fraction, followed by separation of the narrow size fraction using density as a fractionating criterion. Size fractionating may be performed in vibrating sieves, and the density fractionating may be performed in an air cyclone. Both beneficial and detrimental fractions can be identified; in one embodiment, large particles are removed from ECAT to improve the coking factor.

Useful portions of equilibrium catalyst from a Fluid Catalytic Cracking unit are obtained by fractionating to obtain a narrow size fraction, followed by separation of the narrow size fraction using density as a fractionating criterion. Size fractionating may be performed in vibrating sieves, and the density fractionating may be performed in an air cyclone. Both beneficial and detrimental fractions can be identified; in one embodiment, large particles are removed from ECAT to improve the coking factor.

A suspended-bed hydrogenation catalyst and a regeneration method are disclosed. A composite support comprises a semi-coke pore-expanding material, a molecular sieve and a spent catalytic cracking catalyst. The hydrogenation catalyst for heavy oil is obtained through mixing the semi-coke pore-expanding material, the molecular sieve and the spent catalytic cracking catalyst, followed by molding, calcining and activating, and then loading an active metal oxide to the composite support. According to the composite support, a macropore, mesopore and micropore uniformly-distributed structure is formed, so that full contact between all ingredients in the heavy oil and active ingredients in a hydrogenation process is facilitated, and the conversion ratio of the heavy oil is increased. The hydrogenation catalyst integrates adsorption, cracking and hydrogenation properties. According to a regeneration method, the loading performance of an active-metal-loaded support in a spent hydrogenation catalyst cannot be destroyed.

A process for regenerating catalyst particles is disclosed. The process includes the steps: (a) withdrawing a regeneration zone effluent comprising halogen from a regeneration zone, wherein the regeneration zone contains catalyst particles comprising halogen; (b) contacting a first portion of the regeneration zone effluent with adsorbent in a first adsorption zone, removing halogen from the first portion of the regeneration zone effluent, and withdrawing from the first adsorption zone a first adsorption zone effluent; (c) contacting the first adsorption zone effluent with a water removing material to create a first water-depleted stream; and (d) passing the first water-depleted stream to the regeneration zone. Other embodiments include different orders of the steps.

A method and device for separating at least one catalyst from a mixture of homogeneously shaped catalysts, the catalysts comprising at least one metal selected from the group formed by Ni, Co, Mo, W, the catalyst to be separated comprising a characteristic metal selected from the group formed by Ni, Co, Mo, W and the other catalysts of the mixture not containing said characteristic metal, in which method: the grains of the catalyst of said mixture pass in front of the LIBS detection system, the presence of said characteristic metal in the catalysts is detected by the LIBS technique, the wavelength being selected so as to detect said characteristic metal, the LIBS detection system sends a signal to a means for evacuating grains of catalyst to be separated in a manner such as to separate said grains from the other catalysts of said mixture.

A method and device for separating at least one catalyst from a mixture of homogeneously shaped catalysts, the catalysts comprising at least one metal selected from the group formed by Ni, Co, Mo, W, the catalyst to be separated comprising a characteristic metal selected from the group formed by Ni, Co, Mo, W and the other catalysts of the mixture not containing said characteristic metal, in which method: the grains of the catalyst of said mixture pass in front of the LIBS detection system, the presence of said characteristic metal in the catalysts is detected by the LIBS technique, the wavelength being selected so as to detect said characteristic metal, the LIBS detection system sends a signal to a means for evacuating grains of catalyst to be separated in a manner such as to separate said grains from the other catalysts of said mixture.

A method for disposing of a mixture of oxidizable catalyst material and inert support media. The method comprises introducing inert gas into an enclosure. The enclosure contains a plurality of stacked screens, the stacked screens have openings that decrease in size from a top of the stack to a bottom of the stack. The method also comprises introducing the mixture to an uppermost one of the plurality of stacked screens; moving the plurality of stacked screens to cause the oxidizable catalyst material to separate from and migrate to a location beneath the inert support media; conveying the separated inert support media to a location outside the enclosure for disposal as non-hazardous waste; and conveying the separated oxidizable catalyst material to a location outside the enclosure for at least one of reclamation, or thermal destruction.