SEGREGATING USED CATALYST FRACTIONS BY LIQUID FLUIDIZATION

SEGREGATING USED CATALYST FRACTIONS BY LIQUID FLUIDIZATION Used catalysts contaminated with various metals contents during processing of hydrocarbon feedstocks can be effectively segregated by density difference using fluidization with a light liquid having selected specific gravity range. The lighter weight less contaminated catalyst portion which rises is returned to the reaction zone for further use, while the heavier more contaminated catalyst portion which drops is usually discarded. Such segregation recovery and reuse of still active catalyst particles from a reaction process significantly reduces the overall catalyst consumption and costs for various catalytic reaction processes. This catalyst segregation and reclaiming procedure is particularly useful for recovering used catalyst from fluidized catalyst be systems, e.g. H-Oil? and H-Coal? hydrogenation processes using ?bullated bed reactors, from fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) processes, and also from fixed catalytic bed reaction systems.