Guidelines for Fractionator Bottoms System

Reactor and Fractionator Coking

Coking can occur in the reactor, the reactor vapor line and at the bottom of the
fractionator.

Coking can occur in dead spots, e.g., above cyclones or at any cold spots in the
reactor or reactor overhead line.

There can be many reasons for coke formation i.e. feed composition, feed
nozzles, poor insulation in the reactor head and overhead line, poor fractionator
internals, poor design criteria, poor operating criteria.

Guidelines for minimizing coking are :

1. Good feed nozzles

Atomizing feed nozzles are recommended especially if heavier resid stocks

are fed to the unit.

Resid feeds can contain heavy asphalt type material that does not atomize
fully in the feed nozzles and leave the riser as uncracked droplets. These
droplets can coalesce in cold areas of the riser outlet line and cause coke to
form in the reactor line, fractionator and can foul the slurry exchangers.

Use of steam in the nozzles will lower the partial pressure of the oil and lead
to greater vaporization of the oil. Steam should be increased as feed
concarbon increases. Up to 5 wt% steam is used for feeds of 4-5 wt %
concarbon and higher. Naphtha can be added to heavy residua feeds to
lower viscosity and reduce or optimize the droplet size at the atomization
point.

Additional guidelines for feed nozzles is provided in the existing best practice
document.

2. Reactor head and overhead vapor line Insulation

Any place there is a cold area in the transfer line, condensation can occur
which can lead to coke formation.

The reactor head should be well insulated. Up to 10 inches of insulation on

the reactor head and 8 inches of insulation on the transfer line.

The flange on the fractionator inlet should also be insulated. If this flange is
not insulated condensation can occur leading to coke formation at the
fractionator inlet.

All refractory should be as smooth as possible to reduce the “site” for coke
formation.
3. Reactor overhead vapor line velocities

Reactor overhead vapor line should be designed for 100-120 ft/sec velocity.

At fractionator inlet this velocity should be reduced to less than 70 ft/sec if grid
is installed in the slurry pumparound section so that the vapor can distribute
evenly across the fractionator This can be accomplished by swaging out the
vapor line at the fractionator inlet.

Pressure drop through the grid should be greater than the pressure drop
through the fractionator feed nozzle for good distribution.

4. Reactor inlet internals

Distributors at the fractionator entrance for distributing the vapors into the
slurry pumparound section are not recommended. Distributors used in this
area have been found to be a source of coke formation.

Impingement plates at the fractionator entrance are also not recommended

for the same reason.

There has been an incident at some refiners of impingement on the opposite

fractionator wall from the fractionator inlet as units are expanded and
entrance velocity increases. The inlet velocity at the fractionator and the
depth of penetration into the column should be calculated to determine if this
could be a problem. If it is found the penetration could lead to impact on the
wall of the fractionator an impingement plate can be installed at the
fractionator wall opposite the entrance.

The reactor vapor line should not extend into the column and wiper plates
should not be installed above the vapor inlet.

5. Fractionator temperature in the pumparound area

The temperature of the liquid leaving the slurry pumparound grid or packing
should be controlled at less than 735 F to ensure good wetting of the grid or
packing. Temperature higher than this can lead to dry cycles on the surface
of the packing leading to coke formation.

Grid packing should have a minimum liquid wetting rate of 0.2 gpm/ft2 at the
packing bottom. Maximum vapor rates in the grid are calculated from the
“C “ factor for the particular packing used.

It is generally observed that the slurry pumparound rate is 1.5 to 2 times the
FCC feedrate which is normally much higher than the minimum wetting rate.

6. Fractionator pumparound zone

Grid packing is recommended in this area with the slurry pumparound filtered
through “V” notch troughs over the grid. The grid has a lower pressure drop
and can lead to increased product yield.

There should be a minimum distance of 5 ft from the fractionator inlet to the

bottom of the packing to reduce minimize any entrainment and for vapor
distribution.

A total draw-off pan should be installed on the heavy cycle oil (HCO) with a
hot HCO pump back. Also there should be three or more trays between the
HCO total draw and slurry pumparound return to provide some fractionation
between slurry and HCO. This allows maximizing recovery and gives greater
control for keeping the grid clean by allowing control of the reflux.

Slurry Exchanger and Bottoms circuit Fouling

The slurry exchanger and bottoms circuit is prone to fouling on many FCCs.
The fouling is residence time and temperature dependent.

Guidelines to minimize fouling in this circuit are :

1. Control Fractionator Bottoms Temperature

As mentioned above the liquid temperature from the slurry pumparound

section should not exceed 735 F.

In addition the temperature in the bottom of the column should be

controlled using a slipstream from the slurry pumparound return direct into
the column bottom section. Quench flows direct to the fractionator bottoms
pool should not exceed 10% of the total slurry PA flow.

The temperature to control to at the bottom is dependent on feed quality,

operation severity and API of the slurry.

In general the temperature should be controlled around 680-690 F. As

slurry API is reduced it may be necessary to lower the bottoms
temperature (even down to 650 F) to control coking as coking is time and
temperature dependent. A lower API generally means a lower slurry
product flowrate and therefore increased residence time in the column
bottom.

Some refiners have recommended maintaining a maximum bottoms

temperature of 680 F as the API falls below 1.0.

2. Slurry residence time

As slurry coking is time and temperature dependent, it is recommended

that a residence time of less than four hours in the bottom of the column
((Volume of hot slurry in tower bottoms+volume in line to first exchanger
BBLs)/Bottoms product BBL/hr.) is maintained if possible.
3. Velocity in slurry exchangers

Recommend maintaining a velocity through the tube side of 6 to 8 ft./sec.

to minimize exchanger fouling from catalyst/coke formation. Very high
velocities however leads to erosion of exchanger tubes.

Bare tube U values of 50 BTU/ft2/F and straight tube bundles are

recommended for this service.

4. Monitoring of Slurry exchangers

The slurry exchanger overall U should be monitored on a regular basis.

The exchangers should have isolating valves so that they can be taken
out of service and cleaned on-line.

Recommend the use of the monitoring programs such as KBC simulation

program HexSpread, as part of our Opticlean service (Optimum Cleaning
Cycle and Fouling Monitoring) to automate this process and evaluate the
optimum cleaning cycle.

Spare surface area is highly recommended as economical in preventing

rate reduction in the FCC for exchanger cleaning.

A small stream of LCO can be injectied at the inlet of the slurry

exchangers as a means to keep asphaltenes from precipitating out.

5. Monitoring of Slurry

The deposition of fouling precursors from the slurry is also dependent on

the composition of the slurry. Condensation of aromatic fouling precursors
in the slurry leads to a decrease in solubility of the highly condensed
aromatic networks and these fall out from solution.

Slurry oil should be tested for:

Metals

Ash content wt%

Pentane insolubles wt%

Measure of resin + asphaltenes

Heptane insolubles wt%

Measure of asphaltenes

Conradson concarbon wt%

BMCI or ABN
High heptane insolubles indicates an increased tendency for asphaltene
deposition.

6. Fractionator Bottoms Pumps

The fractionator bottoms pumps are in a critical service and tough

environment. The slurry contains catalyst which is very abrasive to the
pump internals.

Recommend centrifugal pumps (slow speed <2000 rpm) with 12 Cr case

and applied tungsten carbide hard facing and carbon steel boron coated
coke crushing impellers (Lawrence pumps have been used successfully)

Recommend one pump on-line, one spare pump on hot standby and one
pump available in the shop. The resulting cost needs to be weighed
against the cost of potential loss of profit from downtime.

Recommend pump suction screens especially on start-up - the most likely

time to get coke through into the pump and exchangers.

The delta P across the screens should be monitored and the screens
switched out on high delta P. A balance needs to be determined for
strainer hole size to minimize strainer cleaning versus providing adequate
protection of the pumps and slurry exchangers from coke incursion.

The strainers should have LCO flushing facilities.

7. Fractionator Vortex Breaker

Recommend having a vortex breaker and coke trap in the fractionator

bottoms. This prevents vortexing and prevents large pieces of coke from
entering the pump suction lines and causing pump cavitation or damage.

Slotted pipe for inlet with coolly hat over top of open pipe has been a
typical practice. Specific application depends upon the distance from
vapor outlet and top of fractionator pool.

8. Steam Injection into Fractionator Bottom

Do not recommend steam stripping of the slurry. There is more risk

with wet steam at start up and additional load to the overhead
condensers. There is more than enough steam from the reaction
system, and the only steam added should be in side strippers.