Eng. Shafei:

IDRO, Shahid Beheshti University team up for producing catalysts

The Industrial Development and Renovation Organization (IDRO) is collaborating with Shahid Beheshti University for producing types of catalysts and enzymes which are used in producing detergents.

Mr. Gholamreza Shafei, the deputy minister of industry, mine, and trade on the sidelines of his meeting with Mr. Mohammad-Mehdi Tehranchi, the chancellor of Shahid Beheshti University, said that a SBDC contract will be signed in the near future between IDRO and Shahid Beheshti University, with the goal of producing Merox Plus catalyst, which is used in desulfurization of fuels.

It was decided to review results of the researches carried out jointly by IDRO and Shahid Beheshti University and support the plan if it is economically justified, he said.

Shahid Beheshti University has announced that it holds the technology for recovering and restoring catalyst reforming which is used in gasoline refineries. So, it was decided to establish a semi-industrial unit, if is economically justified, to recover 400 kilograms of catalyst reforming per day.

According to the report, since a majority of industrial enzymes, which are needed in the detergent producing units, is imported, Shahid Beheshti University will embark on producing such enzymes under the cooperation with IDRO to gain the required technology and establish a semi-industrial production unit.

To this end, Shahid Beheshti University was named the leader of a group, including Sharif, Tehran, and Tarbiat Modarres universities and will invest 40 billion rials in the project.

The heads of IDRO and Shahid Beheshti university also discussed ways to produce chromatography columns and HPLC as well as insulin for domestic use. The two sides agreed to conduct feasibility studies for producing the substances in large scale.

It should be noted that the development of high tech industries and preparing the ground for obtaining modern technologies as well as realizing production in large scale are among duties of IDRO, as the largest and the most important development organization in Iran.

Establishing links with universities ad research centers is among the most important activities which have been carried out in this regard, so that IDRO is in cooperation with 50 universities and research centers nationwide and has signed deals with the goal of expanding small business development centers (SBDC).

Shahid Beheshti University is one of the key universities of the country. More than 1700 theses for master’s graduation and 200 PhD theses are presented annually in the university, which shows great potentials in the fields of biotechnology, electronics and chemistry.

According to Dr. Tehranchi, the expansion of relations between IDRO and Shahid Beheshti University is aimed to implement need-oriented and mission-targeted research plans in the university.

---Importance of Merox Plus catalyst

The high PPM sulfur in fuels is one of the main reasons for air pollution in big cities. The Merox Plus catalyst plays a key role in reducing sulfur in fuels.

Heavier hydrocarbon fractions such as naphthas, kerosene, jet fuel and diesel contain types of mercaptan which cannot be readily extracted from the hydrocarbon.

Hence, in a fixed-bed sweetening Merox process application, the mercaptan oxidation reaction takes place in the presence of air, Merox catalyst and a basic environment, such as caustic.

The mercaptans are converted to disulfides which remain in the sweetened hydrocarbon product. The overall sulfur content, therefore, remains the same.