Grace Refining catalyst researchers win award
Researchers at W. R. Grace & Co. have been selected to receive an Innovator of the Year Award from The Daily Record (a business publication in Maryland) for their work to develop a new fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) catalyst for the refining industry.
The catalyst (known as ALCYON) is used by petroleum refiners to "crack" the hydrocarbons in distilled crude oil--in order to produce transportation fuels such as gasoline and diesel. The ALCYON catalyst maximizes the amount of transportation fuel a refiner can obtain from each processed barrel of crude oil by suppressing undesirable side reactions that constrain refinery operations.
The award will be officially presented during an event scheduled for October 21, 2010, at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.
Officially accepting the distinction will be Yuying Shu, Ph.D, a senior R&D engineer for Grace Davison Refining Technologies and primary contributor on the ALCYON catalyst product team. She is an inventor listed on 15 patents and pending patent applications in the United States and China, and a published contributor to more than 50 publications.
This award is the second distinction for Grace in 2010 recognizing products developed for the petroleum refining industry. In January, the company received the 2009 Frost & Sullivan North American Technology Innovation Award in the field of refinery catalysts for work on the MIDAS 300 FCC catalyst. That particular catalyst helps refiners meet worldwide demand for diesel fuel and comply with regulations for lower sulfur fuels. The MIDAS 300 catalyst cracks the very bottom of the oil barrel and converts it into light cycle oil (LCO), a component that is blended into the refinery's diesel pool.
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