【Ten Years of Great Progress in Chemical Technology】The Puguang Gas Field adopted robot-assisted agent removal for the first time from 2013 to 2023

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Over the past decade, chemical technology has seen remarkable development; let’s praise the prosperity and strength of modern China. By contributing our ideas, we can foster more active participation from everyone. HaiChuan becomes even better with your involvement – we welcome everyone to take part more actively in the forum discussions. With the hot weather in July, be careful to prevent fires. ********************************************* On July 9th, the third unit of the natural gas purification plant at the Puguang Gas Field, operated by Sinopec’s Zhongyuan Oilfield, used for the first time a new technology involving \"robots and robotic arms\" to remove catalysts from horizontal hydrogenation reactors. This approach successfully replaced the need for human workers to carry out this task in an oxygen-free environment. 　　It is reported that hydrogenation reactors are high-temperature, low-pressure devices, with a catalyst made of sulfided Co/Mo. During normal operation, the catalyst experiences issues such as carbon deposition and a decrease in specific surface area, which leads to a decline in its performance; therefore, the catalyst removal process must be carried out in an oxygen-free environment. In the past, workers tasked with removing the agent had to carry portable gas cylinders as well as long-tube air respirators equipped with a dual-air-supply system in order to enter the container to carry out their work. The working space was confined, there was a lot of dust during the agent removal process, visibility was poor, and as a result the efficiency of agent removal was low. 　　This year, the maintenance work on the third combined unit of the natural gas purification plant at Puguang Branch used the new technology of \"robots + robotic arms\" for catalyst removal for the first time, enabling the complete replacement of the hydrogenation catalysts in the hydrogenation reactors of the third combined unit. After the relevant technical staff at the plant installed and calibrated the robotic arm-type deslagging robot at the reactor inlet, the arm was slowly extended into the working area inside the reactor to carry out the tasks. This not only effectively reduced safety risks such as oxygen deficiency and suffocation associated with manual deslagging inside the reactor, but also **improved the efficiency of the deslagging process**.