Fill the gap! Another proprietary technology boosts the transformation and upgrading of China’s petroleum refining industry!

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It was learned on August 17 that the single-reactor hydrorefining/hydrocracking combined catalyst, independently developed by the Research Institute of Petroleum and Petrochemicals of Sinopec, has recently been applied in the single-reactor diesel hydrocracking unit at Dagang Petrochemical Company. Not only was the unit started up successfully on the first attempt, but it also operated stably for two months, with product performance exceeding the requirements specified in the cooperation agreement between the institute and the company. This marks the successful completion of the first industrial trial of China National Petroleum Corporation’s single-reactor diesel hydrocracking technology, adding another proprietary technological tool to the transformation and upgrading of its refining operations. This year, in order to further reduce diesel production and improve profitability, Dagang Petrochemical has transformed this unit into a diesel hydrocracking unit, which requires the development of combined catalyst technology for hydrorefining/hydrocracking. In response to the major technical challenges in enterprise production, the Petrochemical Research Institute formed a team with Dagang Petrochemical to work together on solving these issues. With the strong support of the Petroleum Technology Management Department and the Refining & Chemicals Division of China National Petroleum Corporation, this project was designated as one of the company’s key technical field trial projects for 2021. Starting from the composition of diesel molecules and the process of directed conversion reactions, the R&D team achieved thorough removal of nitrogen compounds by appropriately matching the type of catalyst acid and the structure of the active phase. At the same time, they overcame the technical challenge of selectively opening and cracking polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in diesel to increase the production of naphtha, and successfully developed a combined hydrorefining/hydrocracking catalyst technology that enabled an increase in naphtha production. Dagang Petrochemical and the Petrochemical Research Institute attached great importance to this industrial test, cooperating closely and coordinating effectively, thus laying a solid foundation for its success. From June to August, the operational parameters of the unit showed that when straight-run diesel, catalytic reformate, and catalytic diesel were used as raw materials, the yield of the product was over 99%, with an additional 13% in the form of naphtha, meeting the requirements for high-quality feedstock for reformation as well as for components used in the production of National VI diesel ； Compared with the previous operating cycle, the monthly production of naphtha increased by 13,000 tons, meeting the production needs of Dagang Petrochemical to further reduce the diesel-to-gasoline ratio and increase the output of reforming feedstock. The success of this industrial test is yet another successful example of cooperation between CNPC’s research institutes and enterprises; it not only fills the technical gaps existing within the group company but also contributes to helping the company achieve a high level of scientific and technological self-reliance at an early date.