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Grace Honors Shu For Catalyst Innovation

Nov. 17, 2020
Shu’s innovation improves catalyst performance while reducing CO2 emissions for the company’s fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) refinery customers.

Yuying Shu

W. R. Grace & Co. awards Principal Scientist Yuying Shu its highest honor for her discovery of the now patented Grace Stable Activity Improvement (GSI) Rare Earth (RE) technology. This innovation improves catalyst performance while reducing CO2 emissions for the company’s fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) refinery customers.

Shu’s work on the discovery spans nearly a decade and the chemistry is described in a 2015 paper in the peer-reviewed journal, Topics in Catalysis. Shu demonstrated a significant improvement in catalytic activity when RE elements with smaller ionic radii are used to make a more stable REUSY catalyst (Rare Earth Ultra Stable Y-zeolite). Compared to conventional RE-stabilized zeolites, GSI-stabilized zeolite has better surface area retention and requires lower input to achieve equal catalytic activity, according to the company. Dr. Shu’s patent has received 18 citations, according to the company.

The company’s Prime technology, based on this innovation, has been commercialized in more than 20 FCC units. Grace’s ACHIEVE 400 Prime reportedly limits undesirable hydrogen transfer reactions, delivers maximum butylene selectivity and increases FCC yields of valuable gasoline range olefins. IMPACT Prime provides improved zeolite stabilization and leading coke selectivity in applications with high levels of nickel and vanadium contaminant metals, according to the company.

Grace’s Prime catalyst technology also delivers sustainability benefits. The higher catalyst activity per unit of surface area resulting from Shu’s innovation allows for more efficient utilization of raw materials and results in less effluent from Grace manufacturing plants. In addition, Prime technology reduces coke and dry gas yields, resulting in lower CO2 emissions from the refinery and the conversion of more of each barrel of feedstock into valuable products, according to Grace. ACHIEVE 400 Prime allows the production of more alkylate, which improves engine efficiency and lowers CO2 emissions per mile.

Shu has worked in the development of FCC catalysts and additives for 14 years and has filed 30 patent applications, many of which have been granted, including seven in the United States. She has published 71 peer-reviewed journal articles and is the recipient of many awards including Maryland’s Top Innovator of the Year for 2010, as well as both the Procter and Gamble Prize and the President’s Prize at the Chinese Academy of Science. Before joining Grace in 2006, Shu was associate professor and group leader at Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics. She honed her research skills through appointments at the University of Delaware, Virginia Tech, and Hokkaido University. Dr Shu earned her Ph.D. at Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Her major research interest is the development of new catalysts and new chemical reactions.

For more information, visit: www.grace.com

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