When is the right time to install the reforming catalyst?

I’m not sure what type of bed is used in your reprocessing reactor, but we usually ensure airtightness before and after loading the fuel. Before loading, the system is dried thoroughly to ensure a tight seal, while after loading, airtightness is checked only in those areas that have been moved

Generally, air tightness is checked to eliminate the vast majority of leakage points before filling the agent, and after filling, air tightness is verified to ensure that the head is leak-free. The thermocouples in some reactors are flanged rather than welded, and airtightness should be checked before loading the material to facilitate handling.

After the system is dried, the catalyst is loaded. Generally, after a new installation is completed, various equipment and system pipelines must undergo inspections, repairs, pressure tests, etc., and many of these pipelines and equipment inevitably have to be opened. Therefore, the humidity in the system is very high, and modern binary (multi)metal reformation catalysts have very strict requirements regarding water; hence, drying the system is essential. The drying procedure can be omitted unless it is an old unit that requires only catalyst renewal with minimal system changes. In this case, the system must not have used steam or cleaning equipment; the internal components of the reactor can only be cleaned using yarns, brushes, or sandblasting methods for components such as fan elements, central tubes, or the reactor vessel itself. The drying procedure for new units or units after major maintenance is as follows: Under the specified operating pressure, start the cycle with N2, and all free water should be removed from the lowest point of the system. Then ignition is carried out to raise the temperature, and cyclic drying takes place; when the temperature at the reactor inlet reaches 510°C and the high-molecular-weight dehydration rate is below 100 milliliters per hour, the drying of the system is complete. For continuous reforming units equipped with a regeneration system, the reaction system can be cleaned and dried simultaneously with the equipment of the regeneration system. For continuous reforming units, especially those with stacked reactors, another very important task during system drying is to check the thermal expansion of the reactor and regenerator systems. This inspection must be carried out repeatedly as the heating furnace temperature rises, in order to eliminate any abnormal fixed points that restrict normal thermal expansion and maintain the system in its intended state of expansion.

The airtightness of the catalytic reforming system is assessed in two scenarios: major plant overhauls and emergency repairs during shutdowns. After a planned major overhaul, almost the entire plant is opened up; the system needs to be dried and purged. Before catalyst installation, drying, airtightness testing, and heating of the furnace are carried out, and catalyst loading is done only after these steps are completed. If it is just a routine repair for fixing a fault, with few components being removed and the equipment remaining open, the catalyst can be installed on a sunny day before the system is purged and made airtight.

According to the requirements for the reforming catalyst, it is installed only after purging, drying, and ensuring airtightness, and once preparations for operation are complete. However, most devices do not meet such conditions

Our catalyst is ready to be installed in a few days; we just finished the process of heating the furnace yesterday. The four electric heaters were also operated at full capacity to dry out the regeneration system. A few days ago, the foreign experts from UOP requested that the catalyst installation take place only after the system had been dried and made airtight, and the airtightness of the regeneration system has already been checked. Of course, each company has its own requirements; we did this because we were in a hurry to drive