The presence of mercaptans in petroleum products like LPG is undesirable due to their foul odor and highly corrosive nature which also may affect the activity of catalysts used in downstream processes. In commercial practice, the low molecular weight mercaptans present in LPG are first extracted with alkali and subsequently oxidized catalytically to disulfides. The process for converting thiols into less deleterious disulfides is termed as Sweetening. CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum has developed a homogeneous catalyst, Thoxcat ES™, which sweetens LPG cost-effectively. The invention is protected with 9 international and national patents
Thoxcat ES™ which is a globally competitive catalyst developed in collaboration with Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL). Thoxcat ES™ sweetens LPG cost-effectively with the following salient features.
- Drop-in Catalyst – No changes in existing LPG Sweetening plant required
- Higher activity, comparable stability with leading international sweetening catalysts
- Lower catalyst consumption due to higher activity
- Competitively priced, cost effective in use
- Shelf life of at least 3 years
The catalyst has been licensed by CSIR-IIP and BPCL jointly to M/s Lona Industries, Mumbai for its commercial production since 2007. Since then, this catalyst has been deployed for extractive sweetening of LPG in the following 10 refineries in India and successfully trialed in two refineries in the Middle East as well.
- Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), Mumbai Refinery, India
- BPCL Kochi refinery, India
- Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL)- Vishakhapatnam refinery, India
- Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL)- Mumbai refinery, India Bharat Oman Refinery Ltd (BORL), Bina, India
- Hindustan Mittal Energy Limited (HMEL), Bhatinda, India
- Mangalore Refinery Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), Mangalore, India
- Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL)- Digboi & Paradip, India
We invite refineries for free trials of Thoxcat ES for its in plant technical evaluations.
