You’ll be surrounded by a vast array of machines, processes, decisions, and other factors that have an impact on both the environment, as well the bottom line. What is one such component of this orchestra? Refineries use hydroprocessing catalysers. Although their primary role is to transform crude into useful fuels, an interesting subplot has caught the eye of some industry titans. What are the financial benefits? Now let’s don our math caps and get to work, more hints!
First, imagine a catalyst. Even though it might seem like it has lost its original shine, it’s a gold mine that is just waiting to be explored. There are precious metals, such as palladium or nickel. These metals can be extracted by recycling and sold or re-used. Ka-ching! This is your first source of savings.
Consider the other option to recycling, which is purchasing new catalysts. It’s tempting to buy new, but the price is high. Costs of manufacturing, transportation, and mining metals are added to the total. Recycling allows refineries to avoid all of these costly expenses and embrace a circular, eco-friendly economy.
Recycling can also help reduce downtime. Consider how much time is required to purchase, ship and integrate catalysts that are new versus reviving those you have. They say that time is currency. In the high-speed world of refineries this is truer than ever.
And there’s even more! The refineries’ operational efficiency can be improved by optimising the use of catalysers. It means that you can get more out of each drop. You can think of it as squeezing out every drop of juice in an orange.
After putting all these factors together, you can see that catalyst recycling has many financial benefits. The investment is in the future of the planet as well as the profits.