The market potential of rare earth catalysts is huge. Petroleum cracking and motor vehicle exhaust purification are important downstream industries.

Rare earth catalyst is a catalyst whose active catalytic material is composed of rare earth elements. Rare earth is a general name for 15 elements of the lanthanide series plus scandium and yttrium, a total of 17 elements. Currently, the most commonly used catalyst on the market is vanadium-based catalysts, which are mainly used to catalytically reduce nitrogen oxides. However, when vanadium-based catalysts are discarded, they will cause harm to the ecological environment. Rare earth catalysts can be used instead of vanadium-based catalysts. They have obvious environmental protection advantages and will not cause secondary pollution to the environment. The market development potential is huge.

Rare earth catalysts can be widely used in motor vehicle exhaust purification, petroleum catalytic cracking, industrial waste gas treatment, catalytic combustion, fuel cells and other fields. The number of motor vehicles in our country continues to increase, reaching 395 million in 2021. Motor vehicle exhaust emissions continue to increase, and there is strong demand for catalysts in the exhaust gas purification field. my country’s petrochemical industry is huge, and the field of petroleum cracking requires a large number of catalysts to increase the petroleum cracking conversion rate and thereby increase the yield of refined oil. From this point of view, rare earth catalysts have broad room for development in the future.

my country has abundant rare earth resource reserves and is a global leader in rare earth purification technology. It is the most important rare earth supplier, which has laid a solid foundation for the development of my country’s rare earth catalyst industry. At present, among rare earth elements, cerium is the most important active catalytic material. The rare earth catalysts that have been industrially produced mainly include cerium-based catalysts, molecular sieve rare earth catalysts, rare earth perovskite catalysts, etc.

According to the “China Rare Earth Catalyst Industry Market In-depth Research and Development Prospects Forecast Report 2022-2027” released by the Industrial Research Center, in 2021 In 2017, my country’s rare earth catalyst output was about 260,000 tons, of which motor vehicle exhaust purification and petroleum catalytic cracking were the main downstream markets, accounting for about 90% of the total demand. Rare earth catalysts have outstanding advantages. In the field of petroleum cracking, compared with traditional catalysts, rare earth catalysts have obvious advantages in catalytic activity, selectivity, loss, crude oil processing capacity, catalytic efficiency, etc. They can reduce production costs and increase product oil yields. , and can improve the quality of refined oil.

Industry analysts said that the main manufacturers of rare earth catalysts in my country include Sinopec Catalyst Co., Ltd. and Rare Earth Catalysis Innovation Research Institute (Dongying) Co., Ltd. Company, Sichuan Runhe Catalytic New Materials Co., Ltd., Jilin Jiafu Chemical Industry Co., Ltd., etc.

my country attaches great importance to rare earth catalyst technology and application research. In August 2019, the Rare Earth Catalysis Research Institute, jointly established by Tianjin University, Youyan Rare Earth, Weichai Power and other universities and enterprises, settled in Dongying to focus on rare earth catalytic technology innovation and high-end Application is within the scope of research. Research results related to rare earth catalysts in my country are still emerging. In April 2022, the country’s first single-active center rare earth metal catalyst independently developed by the Petroleum and Chemical Industry Research Institute successfully prepared continuous polymerization pilot tests of butadiene rubber at Dushanzi Petrochemical Company.