Patent ID: 7695611

Claim:
A method of reducing NO x emissions from the regeneration zone during fluid catalytic cracking of a hydrocarbon feedstock into lower molecular weight components, said method comprising contacting a hydrocarbon feedstock with a cracking catalyst inventory at elevated temperature in a fluid catalytic cracking unit having a regeneration zone operated under a full burn mode or complete mode of combustion under fluid catalytic cracking conditions whereby lower molecular weight hydrocarbon components are formed, said cracking catalyst comprising (a) a fluid catalytic cracking component suitable for catalyzing the cracking of hydrocarbons, and (b) a NO x reduction component comprising (i) at least about 5.0 wt % of acidic metal oxide containing substantially no zeolite; (ii) at least 0.5 wt %, measured as metal oxide, of a metal component selected from the group consisting of alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, and mixtures thereof (iii) at least 0.1 wt %, measured as metal oxide, of an oxygen storage metal oxide; (iv) at least 0.1 ppm palladium; and (v) at least 0.1 ppm of a noble metal component selected from the group consisting of platinum, iridium, rhodium, osmium, ruthenium, rhenium and mixtures thereof, all percentages being based on the total weight of the NO x reduction component.