The residue hydrogenation reactor uses a dense-phase packing, resulting in an excessive increase in bed pressure drop.
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For this cycle of our installation, we used catalysts provided by the Fuyan Research Institute. The four reactors were equipped mainly with two types of catalysts: one for desulfurization and another for removing residual carbon, with the catalyst for removing residual carbon being installed in a dense-phase configuration. After the unit started operating, the pressure drop across the fourth reactor increased rapidly. As of now, the unit has been in operation for 40 days, and the maximum pressure drop across the bed in that reactor has reached 500 KPa (while the specified value in the process specifications is 800 KPa); the maximum pressure drop in the other reactors is 250 KPa. I would like to ask those with more experience: have you encountered similar problems when using dense-phase packing in your units? Are there any good operational adjustments to delay the increase in voltage drop?
I. Reduce load； II. Consider diluting and blending the feed residue oil. For reference only
The pressure difference has already reached 5 kilograms, and it will definitely increase faster going forward. Wash the catalyst with light oil; if that doesn’t work, just discard it.
Producing more paraffin oil means that the slag inclusion rate still won’t meet the requirements; are there any other solutions?
With dense packing, the pressure drop will definitely increase. Ask whether the process is reasonable and controllable, and have them find a solution
Is it allowed in production to add some aviation fuel? Let’s give it a try
Adding a scale inhibitor can be considered to delay the increase in pressure drop caused by scaling in the device. Feel free to contact me if you have any needs
What do the catalyst manufacturers say? Is it within a reasonable range? Here we deal with diesel hydrogenation; we are not familiar with the pressure drop in the residue hydrogenation bed. It’s just that the pressure difference for dense packing is naturally a bit higher than that for normal packing. Forty days has been a long time since operation started, but if there’s no upward trend, a difference of 2.5 kilograms compared to other beds is considered normal.
The situations regarding residue hydrogenation, diesel hydrogenation, and gasoline hydrogenation are all different. At present, one approach is to see if it’s possible to communicate with the catalyst manufacturers, and another is to seek coordination through the process engineers, as failing to resolve this issue will definitely result in a long-term problem