【Alkylation】Dehydrator of alkylation unit contains acid
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This post was last edited by Xiao Gong 1985 on 2016-3-7 at 10:50. Those who have experience with alkylation, please help answer a question for me. After operating for some time, our plant encountered acid buildup in the dehydrator and the two filters located before it, and the amount of acid was quite significant. Every time there is a start/stop or a decrease in the pressure of the isobutane tower, acid is released. Let’s analyze what the reasons are.
The dehydrator and the filter before it contain acid
I don’t understand what you mean – what does the presence or absence of acidity have to do with the isobutane tower? Where is the dehydrator you are talking about? A dehydrator before the feed to the alkylation reactor?
Where is your dehydration coalescer? Before entering the isobutane removal tower? Have the alkali wash and water wash been applied?
I estimate that during the start-up and shutdown processes of your unit, overpressure occurred in the reactor, causing the acid inside the reactor to be returned directly to the recycle isobutane column line via the sealed flush liquid line. Haiyou, you need to be careful with such operations – the probability of damage to the seal will **increase**! I hope this can help you! Please clarify your question! It would be best to have a PID screenshot
Stop it. How high is the pressure level in that reactor? Do you mean to flush it through the seal? Isobutane also has a pump; how can the pressure from that pump be lower than the pressure in the reactor? Besides, the reactor is equipped with a safety valve, dude
Then why were there acid occurrences at the isobutane loop line and the external feed line at that time, bro!
I’m still wondering why there was acid in the isobutane extraction line back then; it’s been so long that I’ve kind of forgotten about it
I’ve kept notes of everything we’ve done with the device, haha, bro