"Steady_T" defines catalyst

To help you understand the concept here is a bit from Wikipedia.

Petroleum refining makes intensive use of catalysis for alkylation, catalytic cracking (breaking long-chain hydrocarbons into smaller pieces), naphtha reforming and steam reforming (conversion of hydrocarbons into synthesis gas). Even the exhaust from the burning of fossil fuels is treated via catalysis: Catalytic converters, typically composed of platinum and rhodium, break down some of the more harmful byproducts of automobile exhaust.

A catalyst works by providing an alternative reaction pathway to the reaction product. The rate of the reaction is increased as this alternative route has a lower activation energy than the reaction route not mediated by the catalyst. "

And this:

Catalytic Cracking
Figure 5: Catalytic Cracking Process
Figure 5: Catalytic Cracking Process

Catalytic cracking breaks complex hydrocarbons into simpler molecules in order to increase the quality and quantity of lighter, more desirable products and decrease the amount of residuals. This process rearranges the molecular structure of hydrocarbon compounds to convert heavy hydrocarbon feedstock into lighter fractions such as kerosene, gasoline, liquified petroleum gas (LPG), heating oil, and petrochemical feedstock (Figure 5).

Catalytic cracking is similar to thermal cracking except that catalysts facilitate the conversion of the heavier molecules into lighter products. Use of a catalyst (a material that assists a chemical reaction but does not take part in it) in the cracking reaction increases the yield of improved-quality products under much less severe operating conditions than in thermal cracking. Typical temperatures are from 850°-950° F at much lower pressures of 10-20 psi. The catalysts used in refinery cracking units are typically solid materials (zeolite, aluminum hydrosilicate, treated bentonite clay, fuller's earth, bauxite, and silica-alumina) that come in the form of powders, beads, pellets or shaped materials called extrudites. http://www.eoearth.org/article/cracking


It is true that a catalyst will not create a "new" reaction, a catalyst can take a reaction that might take weeks and make it happen in minutes.

If you have a complex series of reaction happening all at once as in pyrolysis, there are a large number of output chemicals produced with different quantities of each one.

A catalyst can selectively drive the ratio of the output chemicals to produce larger amounts of the desired chemicals and smaller amount of the undesirable chemicals.

"There isn't any single unique reaction happening in the cracker. The hydrocarbon molecules are broken up in a fairly random way to produce mixtures of smaller hydrocarbons, some of which have carbon-carbon double bonds." http://www.chemguide.co.uk/organicprops/alkanes/cracking.html

"The zeolites used in catalytic cracking are chosen to give high percentages of hydrocarbons with between 5 and 10 carbon atoms - particularly useful for petrol (gasoline). It also produces high proportions of branched alkanes and aromatic hydrocarbons like benzene."


Hope this clarifies the situation with catalyst's and the JBI process.