(564g) High Throughput Experimentation As Efficient Tool for the Testing of Hydroprocessing Catalysts
AIChE Annual Meeting
2011
2011 Annual Meeting
Fuels and Petrochemicals Division
Alternative Fuels and Enabling Technologies III
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 5:27pm to 5:49pm
Throughput Experimentation as Efficient Tool for the Testing of Hydroprocessing
Catalysts
Increasing global
demands for fuels, the tightening of environmental regulations and the
optimization of refineries has led to an increasing demand for catalysts
testing capacity. High throughput catalyst testing is a time-efficient approach
for meeting this demand, however in the past the increase in testing throughput
was accompanied by a loss of data quality.
Over the last couple
of years hte has developed parallel reactor technology for testing of
Hydroprocessing catalysts under a wide range of process conditions in order to
meet this demand. The latest development is capable of processing VGO, heavy
VGO and bio-oil under industrially relevant conditions. Temperatures of up to
450°C can be achieved routinely, as well as pressures from 20 up to 170 bar.
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Figure 1: Hydrocracking gas phase products by online GC.
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Figure 2: Carbon balance, liquid conversion and liquid recovery in a reactor-to-reactor comparison of HVGO hydrocracking in one of hte's parallel trickle-bed reactor systems. |
A demanding example
for the parallel testing of hydroprocessing catalysts is hydrocracking. The products
of this process depend strongly on the reaction conditions (temperature,
pressure, catalyst activity). These products range from ethane, LPG to heavier
hydrocarbons comprising mostly isoparaffins. Closing the total carbon mass
balance covering gas and liquid products, under demanding reaction conditions
is one of the latest major achievements for high throughput reactor systems.
Figure 1 reveals an example for the complex gas composition of hydrocracking
products.
The results that will
be presented will show the effectiveness of hte's parallel testing technology
and the data quality standard in a reactor-to-reactor and run-to-run comparison
for hydrodesulphurization and hydrocracking processes over several months
feeding diesel, VGO, heavy VGO and bio-oil, as it is shown in Figure 2 for the
hydrocracking of HVGO in a 16-fold parallel reactor system. To prove the value
of the obtained data, the experimental results will be compared to pilot plant
data. The latest developments in the field of high throughput reactor
technology for refining applications will be shown, including parallel catalyst
testing technology in a sub-pilot scale with higher catalyst volumes.