2020-12-04

Petroleum Secondary Processing

Technology
Lecture (3) part (3)
Refinery Reaction Systems(Hydrotreating)
(Gerald Kaes , REFINERY PROCESS MODELING,1st edition , 2000, Kaes Enterprises, Inc.)
Prepared by : Mr. Serwan Ibrahem
MSc. Degree in Chemical Engineering
For 4th year students of Chemical and Petrochemical
Engineering Department .
Salahaddin University

Chemical & Petrochemical ENG _ Petroleum Secondary Processing 
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Hydrotreating: General Information:

A typical Hydrotreating process is shown in the last figure. The
process is similar to hydrocracking but differs in two respects:
reactor conditions are mild to inhibit cracking reactions, and the
process is only mildly exothermic and does not require quench
cooling of the reacted mixture.

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Hydrotreating: General Information:

Hydrotreating has been in general usage much longer than
hydrocracking. The simplest type of hydrotreater is the naphtha
desulfurizer reactor which precedes the naphtha reformer.
Hydrotreaters are also used to "polish" distillate fuels by removing
sulfur and nitrogen and saturating olefinic materials that cause
thermal instability.

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Hydrotreating: General Information:

Some aromatic saturation may also be accomplished. and this is
important when treating kerosene boiling range materials to raise
the smoke point and meet jet fuel specifications.

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Hydrotreating: General Information:

It may also be desirable to pretreat a catalytic cracker feed to
reduce the sulfur and nitrogen content and improve the
distribution and quality of the cat cracked products. The guard
reactor for a hydrocracking process is in reality a hydrotreating
reactor

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Hydrotreating: General Information:

In the process, the oil feed is mixed with the recycle hydrogen and
preheated by exchange with, the reactor outlet. A furnace is used
to bring the feed to the desired reaction temperature.

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Hydrotreating: General Information:

The reactor effluent is cooled and the liquid products removed and
sent to fractionation. The recycle hydrogen is treated in an amine
treater to remove and recycled to the process.

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Hydrotreating: General Information:

Fresh hydrogen is introduced to make up the hydrogen
consumption and solubility losses. It is also necessary to purge
some recycle hydrogen to control the hydrogen content of the
recycle gas to the reactor.

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Hydrotreating: Process Conditions:

Process conditions vary, depending on the feed stock. Conditions
are milder than hydrocracking since it is undesirable to crack the
feed stock. Typical reactor pressures are in the range 500 to 1000
psig (35.5 to 70 bars) and temperatures range from 550 to 700
(288 to 371 ).

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Hydrotreating: Process Conditions:

Hydrogen consumption is much lower than for hydrocracking and
ranges from 100 to 500 SCF per barrel of charge.

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Hydrotreating: Reactions:
Hydrotreater catalysts are typically bi-metallic, such as cobalt-
molybdenum or nickel-molybdenum on an alumina structure. The
catalyst is placed in a fixed bed arid must be periodically
regenerated and/or replaced.

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Hydrotreating: Reactions:
The critical operating variable is the hydrogen partial pressure in
the reactor. Because of hydrogen consumption within the reactor,
the hydrogen partial pressure can drop significantly at the reactor
outlet.

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Hydrotreating: Reactions:
The feed stock to a hydrotreater is often a more narrow boiling
range material than that to a hydrocracker. The number of reactions
taking place is fewer than the hydrocracker, and may be numbered
in the dozens versus the hundreds of reactions.

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End of Lecture 3 part 3.

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