Patent ID: 6881390

Claim:
A method of reducing gas phase reduced nitrogen species 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 at elevated temperature whereby lower molecular weight hydrocarbon components are formed, said cracking catalyst comprising (a) a cracking component suitable for catalyzing the cracking of hydrocarbons, and (b) a component for reducing gas phase reduced nitrogen species, said component comprising particles having a mean particle size of about 50 to about 200 μm and comprising (i) at least about 5.0 wt % of acidic metal oxide containing substantially no zeolite; (ii) a metal component selected from the group consisting of alkali metal, alkaline earth metal, and mixtures thereof; (iii) at least 0.1 wt %, measured as metal oxide, of an oxygen storage metal oxide; and (iv) at least 0.1 ppm of a noble metal component selected from the group consisting of platinum, palladium, iridium, rhodium, osmium, ruthenium, rhenium and mixtures thereof, said metal component (ii) being present in amount of at least 0.5 wt %, measured as metal oxide, of the composition.