Saudi Aramco and Amsterdam-based Shell & AMG Recycling B.V. signed a memorandum of understanding this week to “evaluate the feasibility of creating a venture in support of Saudi Arabia’s vision to maximize value from its vast natural resources,” the companies said in a press release this week. The two companies will explore the potential ability for Saudi Aramco to re-capture vanadium from spent fuels.
“The Kingdom is becoming a globally important region for the supply and demand of vanadium, and desires to enable the development of a world class vanadium recycling industry. In support of this initiative, Shell & AMG Recycling B.V., along with Shell Catalysts & Technologies, will explore the feasibility of building a catalyst manufacturing and recycling “supercenter” in The Kingdom,” the press release said.
As Forbes writes in explaining the significance of the MOU, “the oil industry relies on catalysts to convert crude oil into other products such as gasoline. However, these catalysts don’t last forever. At some point, they lose their usefulness, and they become spent. When they are spent they contain vanadium which comes from the oil…At that point new catalysts are required, while the spent ones, which are hazardous, get recycled. That’s where the Shell AMG JV comes into the picture. The MOU the JV signed with Aramco is all about drawing up a feasibility study of building a facility to recover the vanadium.”
This “supercenter” will enable Saudi Aramco to refine its crudes in an environmentally sustainable manner through the manufacturing of “fresh residue upgrading catalysts required to convert heavy oil fractions into valuable products and recycling the resulting spent catalysts and gasification ash which are otherwise hazardous wastes,” the two companies said ina press release. The “supercenter” will have the ability to “make significant contributions toward the circular economy by bringing state-of-the-art fresh catalyst and recycling technologies to The Kingdom, enabling the realization of renewable energy and GHG emission reduction goals in the region.”
Vanadium is used as an alloying agent to make stronger, and more resilient steel. Such alloys of so-called ferrovanadium and steel allow buildings to get constructed using less steel than they would with regular unalloyed steel. This is economically more viable and greener because less steel gets used which costs less and results in lower carbon emissions, Forbes notes.
[Click here to read the press release from Saudi Aramco and Shell & AMG Recycling B.V.]
