(190c) Safer and Smarter Sulfiding of Hydrotreating Catalysts

Catalyst sulfiding (aka "presulfiding") is a critical step to ensure that hydrotreating catalysts perform as designed after startup.  In order to optimize the sulfiding process, Reactor Resources (RxR) has developed a new DMDS/TBPS Injection System that allows the refiner to continuously monitor sulfur injection rates, H2S levels, and Hydrogen Purity in real time during sulfiding operations.  These mobile units, called SmartSkid™ Injection Systems, are equipped with wireless telemetry that is streamed in real-time via the cloud.  With “live telemetry”, engineers and operations personnel can monitor pump operations and recycle gas concetrations from any computer or smart phone.

This allows customers to constantly monitor parameters such as:

• Flow rate of the sulfur spiking agent
• Total quantity of chemical injected
• Pressure
• H2S Concentration
• Hydrogen Purity
• Fluid Temperature
• Valve Position
• Pump Speed

By utilizing an Online H2S Analyzer System to continuously measure the H2S concentration of the recycle gas, the hazardous practice of operations personnel taking draeger tube measurements while equipped with breathing air (SCBA) is eliminated.  And with real time H2S data, sulfur injection rates can be controlled more precisely, avoiding over-injection of sulfur chemicals that can lead to compressor issues and the need to purge sour recycle gas.  The online Hydrogen Purity Analyzer measures the hydrogen concentration of the treat gas in real time, which also helps to avoid compressor trips and excessive purging that can lead to excess sulfur emissions.