PTQ Q2 2023 Issue

A Charles Brandl, Senior Director, Customer Marketing, Honeywell UOP, charles.brandl@honeywell.com Maintaining feedstock composition and quality is extremely critical in hydroprocessing units (whether hydrocracking or hydrotreating), and refiners try to operate their respec - tive unit close to its design conditions. If the feedstock gets heavier in terms of composition, distillation, or contami - nants, the unit’s operating severity needs to be increased to meet the target design conversion and product specifica - tions. This, in turn, may impact product selectivity, catalyst life, and/or unit performance. With careful catalyst selection and utilising new and improved process and equipment solutions, existing assets could be fully utilised to deliver overall unit objectives. We have seen one hydrocracking unit where a refiner wanted to increase the unit capacity and process higher end- point feed than design. Due to increased feed rate and higher severity, radial spread in one of the beds was >25-40°C and was also seen in subsequent cycles due to catalyst volume, which was not effectively utilised. As a result, the refiner had replaced the previous generation internals with UOP’s latest generation reactor internals, and in close collaboration with UOP during start-up the refiner lowered the radial spread to ≤4°C. Lower radial spread resulted in meeting design con - version at lower WABT, which was pivotal for the refiner and provided additional operational flexibility to achieve higher distillate yields until the end-of-run conditions. Q Regional shifts in higher refinery capacity seem to cor - respond with the need for more intensive water treatment programmes involving wastewater recycle processes while protecting heat exchangers and linked assets from fouling and corrosion. At what level of investment have you seen refinery operators commit to plant water quality while reducing its consumption? A Andrea Laudonia, EMEA Regional Marketing Manager Industrial Solutions, Solenis, alaudonia@solenis.com Water scarcity is recognised as a top global risk to refiner - ies. The goal of using water as efficiently as possible, espe - cially in water-constrained regions of the world, is now an important part of most refinery operators’ environmental sustainability plans, with programmes being implemented to reduce water consumption even as refining capacity increases. Concurrently, refineries in many regions also are affected by a decrease in water quality that requires more intensive treatment chemistry and automation and digital programmes to ensure programme performance. Refinery operators recognise the need for more inten - sive water treatment programmes and are committed to improving plant water quality while reducing water con - sumption. Refinery operators typically develop water con - servation goals because of their current and future water scarcity and quality risks. Efficient plans to achieve these goals can be created by taking specific steps to identify and evaluate water conservation options: reduce, reuse, and recycle water. The first step is to reduce water use, which is accomplished through process improvements and

This dual filtration system achieves nearly a total preven - tion of solid particles in the liquid stream from entering the reactor. Furthermore, the need for spendable macropore fil - tration packings in the reactor and filter cartridges in front of the reactor are substantially eliminated (or minimised) to save the cost of materials and operations, which include loading/unloading and disposal of the spendable packing materials. The following commercial examples demonstrate the effectiveness of the Universal Filter in extending the cycle length of hydrotreaters:  Treating light coal tar feed stream to HDS reactor • Capacity: 52,000 MT/y light coal tar (92% benzene and 5% toluene) • Total solid particle removal: 97.6% • Nm size solid particle removal: 100% (6.6-29.5 nm) • Types of solid particle removal (in addition to carbon residue): Fe, S, Mn, Mo, Cu (100%); Al, Cr (90%); Ni, Cl (60-70%) After 45 days’ continuous operation, the filter required no backwashing or regeneration, and the HDS reactor expe - rienced no significant increment pressure drop or activity reduction.  Treating dirty kerosene feed stream to HDS reactor • Capacity: 30,000 b/d dirty (low-quality) kerosene stream fed to HDS reactor • With a conventional basket filter followed by a cartridge filter, the unit was run with only one-fifth of its design capacity for fresh (dirty) feed with four-fifths of a clean recycle stream to minimise plugging problems and pres - sure drop in the reactor • With the Universal Filter followed by a cartridge filter, full design capacity was achieved with a 0% recycle stream, generating US$7MM monthly operating profit (or annual profit of more than US$80MM) • The Universal Filter also keeps conventional filter car - tridges cleaner, reducing cartridge replacement from every few days to every few months, with annual cartridge cost savings of approximately US$225,000.  Treating straight-run naphtha to HDS unit for CCR reformer • Capacity: 30,000 b/d straight-run naphtha to HDS reactor for a CCR reformer • After the Universal Filter was installed in the feed stream to the HDS reactor, reactor run time increased from 3-6 months to two years for uninterrupted continuous operation. The HDS reactor turnaround has reduced from four (every six months) to one (every two years) in two years, and the total annual cost savings for the CCR reformer were estimated to be US$4,290,000 using the Universal Filter. (Each HDS reactor turnaround took 10 days, causing a US$2,860,000 loss in CCR production.) The Universal Filter technology can be successfully imple - mented in other hydrotreating/hydrocracking cases for extending cycle length. The only requirement is the solids in the liquid stream contain certain amounts of ferromagnetic substances, such as FeO, FeS, Fe2O3, Ni, NiO, Co, and CoO. In fact, solid particles in the liquid stream to hydrotreaters or hydrocrackers do meet this requirement.

PTQ Q2 2023