Catalysis 2022 issue

deviation of ±0.4 °C (±32.7 °F) for Required to reach 10ppm Sulphur. Considering the isothermal of our reactors has a variation of ±0.5°C (±32.9°F), we can confidently state that our technology allows cata - lysts performance discrimination with activity differences of 1°C for T required . Figure 13 presents another exam- ple where 16 loadings of a single commercial ULSD catalyst is tested in a 16 reactor system. We can see that the interpolated results at target S as T required show a 95% error of <1°C (<1.8°F) in all cases. The raw sulphur numbers and kHDS values for the experiment are presented in Table 1 . As observed, the 95% error is within ±2 ppm for all conditions. These examples also help address concerns with catalyst sample homogeneity with such small- scale reactors when loading <1g of catalyst. With this precision, we can sig - nificantly increase confidence in the results by comparing catalysts loaded in quadruplicate reactors. Figure 14 shows an example with four different ULSD catalysts. Note the precision of the quadruplicate reactors loaded with the same cata- lyst. The standard deviation around the temperature required to obtain 10 ppm sulphur is 0.2-0.4°C. Once again, excellent repeata- bility is observed for the duplicate reactors. Impressive discrimination power: statistically relevant dif - ferences in catalytic performance observed. Lastly, is an example with hydroc - racking catalysts tested in duplicate reactors. Run-to-run repeatability High data quality means that the test results are reproducible and thus reliable for refineries to select the best performing catalyst. To guarantee a high data quality in a parallel system, we need to obtain a good reactor-to-reactor repeatabil- ity where duplicate reactors [loaded with the same catalyst system] yield comparable results. Figure 15 shows VGO conversion as a function of temperature for duplicate reactors (open and closed symbols).

102.00

101.00

100.00

99.00

Mean: 100.06% Std. Dev.: 0.16%

98.00

97.00

96.00

95.00

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Run time (hours)

Figure 10 Overall mass balance for all 16 reactors (symbols colors varied by reactor)

104.00

102.00

100.00

98.00

Mean: 100.21% Std. Dev.: 0.60%

96.00

94.00

92.00

90.00

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Run time (hours)

Figure 11 Overall mass balance for all 16 reactors (symbols colours varied by catalyst)

357

T to reach 10ppm S required

356

355

SD ±0.4˚C

354

353

352

351

1 2

3

4 5 6

7

8 9

10

11

12

13

14 15

16

Reactor

Figure 12 Relative standard variation for 16 reactors loaded with the same ULSD catalyst

system performance in ultra-low sulphur diesel (ULSD). Note the outstanding reac - tor-to-reactor repeatability for all 16 reactors with a narrow standard

the excellent precision obtained with Flowrence technology, including an example where a commercial feed and 16 loadings of a single commer- cial catalyst were used to validate

58 Catalysis 2022

www.digitalrefining.com

Powered by