BATON ROUGE, La. — Albemarle Corp., a leading global supplier of petroleum refining catalysts and additives, has developed and produced a new catalyst that can help improve the performance of hydrodesulfurization units by up to 35 percent over the current most active catalysts in the hydroprocessing marketplace.

The new product, Ketjenfine(R) 770 hydrodesulfurization catalyst, built on patented STARS technology, will enable ultra-low-sulfur diesel refiners to improve their operating margins substantially by increasing catalyst cycle length; increasing throughput; or running cheaper, lower-quality feed stocks, all without additional, new capital expenditure.

The new technology was developed by Albemarle’s R&D team in Amsterdam and will be available from production sites in the Netherlands and the United States. The product is already being sold in Europe, and is commercially available to refiners worldwide.

In another development, Albemarle has announced it has awarded a multiyear order from Neste Oil Oyj, Finland to produce catalysts made exclusively for Neste for use in their NExBTL renewable diesel process.

This proprietary NExBTL process, the world’s first fully commercial renewable diesel production process, delivers an advanced fuel based on renewable raw materials that performs more efficiently and has a lower level of environmental impact than fossil diesel or FAME-type (fatty acid methyl ester) biodiesel. Neste Oil and Albemarle have worked together for several years to develop the catalysts for the NExBTL renewable diesel process.

Albemarle’s multi-year order with Neste includes scheduled deliveries of the catalysts for 2008, 2009 and 2010.

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