Petroleum refining is an important use for palladium and the
other platinum group metals as catalysts for a number of
different refining processes. Johnson Matthey includes this use
within their catchall category “other uses”. Distillation is the
first step in the process, and alone can separate the heavy
crude into its primary fractions of gasoline, jet fuel, diesel,
heating oil, and fuel oil. Because the natural ratio of these
fractions does not match the demands for the various fuels,
additional steps are required to reform some of the products
into products that are in demand. This is particularly true for
high demand automobile gasoline. These additional processes are
as follows: • Catalytic Reforming • Catalytic Cracking Catalytic
Reforming produces high octane gasoline for today’s automobiles.
Gasoline and naphtha feedstocks are heated to 500 degrees
Celsius and flow through a series of fixed-bed catalytic
reactors. Because the reactions absorb heat additional heaters
are installed between reactors to