02/01/2025, lasting around four weeks. During the test period, the conventional car- tridge filter (S103B) had to be shut down four times for clean- ing and cartridge changes. The test unit of the filter operated smoothly, without any pres- sure fluctuations or increases in pressure drop due to plug- ging. Figure 2 shows the flat, smooth curves for the inlet pressure, outlet pressure, and pressure drop of the filter from 04/12/2024 to 02/01/2025. Performance of filter test kit As shown in Figure 3 , a MagAFS filter test kit was installed in filter S103B to
186 cm
100 cm
95 cm
95 cm
100 cm
186 cm
Figure 1 One-inch test unit of MagAFS filter installed in the feed stream to the HDS reactor in Aroma No. 2 plant
reactor is filtered by a conventional 50-mesh cartridge filter (S103B), which cannot remove any particles smaller than 297 µm (297,000 nanometer [nm]). A 25-mesh (707 µm) cartridge filter (S103A) in a bypass line is used temporarily during cleaning and cartridge replacement in Unit S103B. However, filter S103B is ineffective at removing particles in the feed stream, causing severe plugging problems and rising pressure drop in the HDS reactor and its front-end heat exchangers, and thus requiring frequent unscheduled shutdowns. Filter S103B needs to be cleaned, and the cartridges swapped out twice a week. The shutdown of filter S103B lasts around four hours for each cleaning operation. In addi- tion to the operational disruption, the environmental con- cerns of escaping volatile organic compounds (VOC) and air contamination of process streams are also significant. The annual material cost of cartridges alone is around $60,000. As shown in Figure 1 , a one-inch test unit of the MagAFS filter was installed in a slipstream of the feed stream to the HDS reactor. The test unit ran from 04/12/2024 to
replace one of the 40 fibre elements. In the perforated housing of the test kit, a permeant magnetic element was surrounded by the proprietary magnetic inducing pack- ings (MIPs). The HDS reactor feed stream could flow freely through the MIPs. A commercial plant test was conducted from 04/11/2024 to 12/11/2024. The test kit was removed from filter S103B for analysis during the filter clean-out and cartridge replace- ments. Approximately 0.328g of solid particles larger than 75 µm (200 mesh) and 0.371g smaller than 75 µm were collected from the MIPs and the permanent magnetic ele- ment. All collected particles showed strong magnetism near a permanent magnetic bar, although the particles contained not only ferromagnetic but also diamagnetic and paramagnetic materials. To verify the presence of non-ferromagnetic materials in the filtered particles, a sample with one-half of the larger particles (>75 µm) and one-half of the smaller particles (<75 µm) was heated in a high-temperature furnace at 600ºC for 15 minutes to remove combustibles or volatile
7.5
6.3
6.25
6.2 6.2 6.2 6.2
6.2 6.2 6.2 6.2 6.2
6.2 6.2 6.2 6.2
6.2 6.2
6.5 6.1
6.1 6.1
6.1 6.1 6.1
6.1 6.1 6.1
6.1
6 6
5.5
4.5
3.7
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3.6
3.6 3.6
3.6 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.45
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3.5
3.5
3.5
3.45 3.35
3.4 3.4
3.4 3.4 3.4
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3.4
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2.75
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2.7
2.65 2.6 2.6
2.6 2.6
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2.6
2.5 2.5 2.6
1.5
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2025
Filter inlet pressure
Filter outlet pressure
Filter pressure drop
Figure 2 Performance of one-inch test unit of MagAFS filter for cleaning feed to the HDS reactor in Aroma No. 2 plant
36
PTQ Q2 2026
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