Treatment of catalyst unit settler leakage
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After increasing the production volume, leakage occurred in the settler of our equipment; is there a good way to address this without shutting down operations?
There’s no good way to keep operations running without interruptions; if the agent loss is high, the catalyst consumption is high, and the solid content in the fractionated slurry is high, it can easily cause blockages in the tube bundles and wear on the pipelines.
A large amount of leakage can only lead to an emergency shutdown; otherwise, the slurry system cannot circulate properly. Before increasing the volume, there was no catalyst leakage; after the increase, leakage might occur because the flow rate of the reaction gases exceeded that of the centrifuge, causing the catalyst to be carried out. If that is the case, it is possible to reduce the volume of reaction mixture, or to increase the reaction pressure appropriately if the conditions in the reverse regeneration system and the compressor permit it.
Due to poor performance, the capacity of the unit was reduced. It was working normally before the reduction, but problems arose after the capacity was increased. Moreover, there was a significant decline in the pressure drop at the top of the settler, from 9 kPa to 6 kPa; as a result, the stored volume in the system decreased. Could there be some obstruction somewhere?
It seems that after reducing the capacity of your device, the line speed was low and coking occurred; this time, as the line speed increased again, coke particles or other substances fell off. Adjust it again; if that doesn’t work, there’s no choice but to stop operations for maintenance
It is suspected that high processing load leads to production fluctuations; excessive load on the cyclone causes the flap valve to get stuck in the open position. In such cases, it is necessary to cut off the material flow and significantly change the operating pressure, which may help resolve the issue. Our device has experienced two similar situations, and both were resolved in this way.
It’s possible; give it a try under disturbance. If it’s a problem with the flap valve, it might work.
The pressure of the descender can be increased significantly by shaking it
Appropriately increase the sedimentator inventory and temporarily seal off material return.
How’s the running dose? What is the solid content of the slurry? Is the current of the slurry pump increasing?