Ecovyst Inc. (formerly PQ Corporation)

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Intelligence

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• Did you know2024

  Ecovyst makes two zeolite catalyst products that are causal inverses of each other in the petroleum-to-emissions chain: FCC (Fluid Catalytic Cracking) zeolite catalyst that converts heavy crude oil fractions into gasoline and diesel, and SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) zeolite catalyst (ZSM-5 and SSZ-13/chabazite structures) that is installed in vehicle exhaust systems and stationary power plant stacks to reduce nitrogen oxides (NOx) from burning that gasoline and diesel. The same zeolite chemistry platform — sodium aluminum silicate crystal structures with precise pore geometries — creates the catalyst that makes fossil fuel combustion possible at scale AND the catalyst that controls the pollution produced by that combustion. Ecovyst's FCC catalyst business improves the yield and quality of gasoline from heavy crudes; Ecovyst's SCR catalyst business meets the Clean Air Act and Euro 6 NOx limits that constrain that gasoline's combustion. The company is literally on both ends of the same environmental externality.

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• Concentration2024

  Ecovyst's Ecoservices division operates what are effectively geographic monopolies at US petroleum refineries that use sulfuric acid alkylation — the process that produces isooctane (2,2,4-trimethylpentane), which determines the octane rating of premium gasoline. Approximately 35-40 US refineries use sulfuric acid alkylation, consuming and regenerating approximately 30-40 million tons of sulfuric acid per year in continuous acid regeneration loops. Ecovyst's Ecoservices plants are physically built adjacent to these refineries and are the exclusive acid regeneration service provider for each facility — there is no competitive bidding once the plant is built, because the acid logistics infrastructure is captive to the refinery. If Ecovyst's acid regeneration capacity at a given refinery goes offline (equipment failure, supply disruption), the alkylation unit must shut down — and without alkylate production, that refinery cannot produce premium (87+ octane) gasoline, affecting regional premium fuel supply. The US premium gasoline supply depends on a geographic acid regeneration monopoly structure that is largely invisible to consumers and analysts.

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• Origin2024

  Ecovyst traces its corporate origin to the Philadelphia Quartz Company (PQ), founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1831 — making it one of the oldest continuously operating specialty chemical companies in the United States. The Philadelphia Quartz Company made sodium silicate (water glass, Na2SiO3) for the soap-making industry, which needed silicate as a filler and builder in bar soap. In 1831, the chemical that kept Philadelphia soap clean is the same chemistry platform that, 190 years later, produces zeolite catalysts that convert crude oil into gasoline and zeolite catalysts that remove NOx from the exhaust that burning that gasoline produces. PQ Corporation went through multiple PE ownership cycles, renamed Ecovyst in 2021 to emphasize its sustainability/circular chemistry positioning, and listed as ECVT on NYSE. The 190-year lineage from 1831 soap silicate to 2021 refinery catalyst is one of the longest continuous specialty chemical heritages in US industry.

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