Oil & Gas or Petrochemical industry is the backbone of our current economy. The products derived from these industry touch almost every aspect of our lives. Oil products are used as transportation fuels. Gas products are used for cooking and heating and production of electricity. By-products from oil refining are used to make plastics, pesticides, asphalt, tar, lubricants, waxes, etc. At every stage of production, filtration is required to separate or purify the products from by-products and/or impurities.

Activated carbon plays a vital and versatile role in these filtration processes because of its tailorable porosity and strong adsorption characteristics. For instance,

• In refineries high pressure steam plays a critical role for several operations. To save cost, the steam is continuously recycled and reused through boiling and condensation. In order to protect compressors’ parts, and to improve the efficiency, very high purity acid-washed granular activated carbon derived from coconut shell charcoal is used to remove traces of oil and hydrocarbons from steam condensates. These grades of GAC have extremely low silica content to prevent silica leaching into condensate.
• Hydrocracking is one of the most versatile refining processes for converting heavy fuel oil components into naphtha, kerosene, jet fuel, diesel oil or high-quality lubricating oils, through the catalytic reactions under the high-temperature and high-pressure hydrogen atmosphere. During hydrocracking, by-products such as Heavy Polynuclear Aromatics (HPNAs) are formed. The removal of HPNAs to the required level of purity is achieved using activated carbon.
• GAC filtration is a leading technology for purification of amine and glycol solutions to prevent the prevalent surfactants, degradation products and organic acids from causing foaming and corrosion which can significantly lower the efficiency of downstream scrubbers. GAC is also used for amine scrubbers to remove CO2 and H2S from gas streams. Similarly, for glycol scrubbers, GAC is used to remove moisture from gas streams.

SpaceBlack Adsorbents offers a wide range of granular and pelletized activated carbon products designed and manufactured to meet the various requirements of petrochemical industry.