I would like to know how the circulation works in the catalytic distillation process at other plants
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In our plant, catalytic processing is carried out with a three-way circulation system: feedstock, reprocessed oil, and slurry circulation. I’m not sure if there are any other circulation systems as well
The distillation process here operates with these 3 streams you mentioned, all of which are recycled crude oil. At the beginning, it is an external circulation around the tower; in other words, the feedstock does not enter the lift pipe, but instead returns to the feedstock tank or the reprocessing tank ； The reprocessed oil also does not return to the tower; it is simply mixed with the crude oil ； Then, there is a cross-line from the reprocessing tank to the inlet of the slurry pump, which allows fluid to flow into the slurry pump; however, this fluid does not return to the tower. From that point, another cross-line leads to the crude oil tank and the reprocessing tank – this is what is known as the startup circulation line. Then, for both the middle section and the top section, oil is pre-pumped in first while waiting for feeding
Fractionation cycle: Feedstock → Refined oil → Slurry cycle. We also have a first intermediate stage and a second intermediate stage, which are used to remove excess heat from the fractionation process