Nitrogen purging of the MTBE catalyst; bed temperature drops to below zero
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This post was last edited by Guan Gongyu on 2016-9-9 at 15:29. The catalyst in the MTBE reactor was equipped with a nitrogen purge system; it was observed that once nitrogen entered the reactor, the bed temperature dropped to below zero. Could anyone please explain what might be causing this? How to solve it? What are the things to keep in mind?
Are you going to replace the catalyst or not? ? It is normal for nitrogen to enter the catalyst and cause its temperature to drop to below zero; the reason for this is the residual oil and methanol in the resin catalyst, which absorb heat during purging
When the temperature drops to over minus 20 degrees, what impact does that have on the equipment? We have never encountered this before; please explain!
Minus 20? ? It is low enough; I haven’t encountered that either
The reason for this is not actually the catalyst; it’s likely that the residual methanol or C4 in the pipes or reactor gets stirred by nitrogen, resulting in vaporization. The heat absorbed during this process causes the temperature to drop
It’s also possible; are there any other reasons that could be causing it? Don’t we know that very well? Please explain it again!
There can be no other reason; the MTBE catalyst is a macroporous strongly acidic resin that does not possess any heat-absorbing capacity. What can cause a significant drop in temperature is basically only the heat absorption during the vaporization of the material. This phenomenon does not occur only in MTBE plants; it also appears in other plants where materials are prone to vaporization.