IFP de-mercurisation and de-arsenification process: the application of catalysis to the decontamination of natural feedstocks

Abstract The RAM II process developed by the ‘Institut francais du petrole’ is ideally suited for simultaneous removal of arsenic, mercury and lead, if present, from contaminated feedstocks upstream of aromatic complexes or steam-cracking units. The wide nature of the mercury and arsenic compounds requires a two-step process in which the organo-arsenic compounds are hydrogenolysed and adsorbed in a catalytic step, where the organo mercuric species are decomposed into hydrocarbons and metallic mercury, the latter being subsequently absorbed on a trapping mass in a second step.