Hydroprocessing Catalyst Management |
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With increasingly strict environmental regulations
being imposed on the fuel quality and the shift towards middle distillates,
refineries are focusing their attention towards hydroprocessing. In this
emerging scenario, hydrocracking and hydrotreating have become the pivotal
processes in refineries worldwide. In countries like India where demand for
middle distillates is envisaged to increase sharply, hydrocracking is set
to occupy the centre stage in the coming years.
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 Expertise of IndianOil's R&D Centre |
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New Catalyst Selection :
Most of the catalyst systems are expensive and the
technology of catalyst manufacture and supply are available with very few
reputed international vendors and licensors. Hence, it is prudent to
validate the catalysts vendor's claims before actually loading the
catalysts in the unit. Pilot plant evaluation also assists the refiners
to select the best catalyst system for a particular application.
Optimization & Troubleshooting :
Due to large scale of operation of the refining units, even a small
gain in yield improvement or energy saving can lead to considerable
increase in profitability. Hence continuous efforts should be put to
optimise the operating conditions with respect to selectivity, run length,
products quality, energy requirement etc. through pilot plant evaluation
and mathematical models.
Evaluation of Feed Mix :
The quality of feed mix processed in all the processing units keep on
changing with time and rarely matches with the design feed quality.
Hence, it is of vital importance to study the effect of change in the
feed mix quality for optimising the performance of the unit.
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New Process/Catalyst Development :
During development of new technologies or catalysts, initial studies are
carried out in pilot plants to generate data on catalyst activity,
selectivity, stability and kinetics. These data are subsequently scaled
up with the help of simulation models to commercial scale.
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Hydroprocessing Pilot Plant
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Catalyst Evaluation Facilities |
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State-of-the-art hydroprocessing (hydrocracking,
hydrotreating), middle distillate and lube dewaxing, VGO/Resid
hydrotreating, once-through micro-reactors, fully automatic pilot plants
with liquid and gas recycle and associated facilities.
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Feed/Product Characterization Facilities |
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Sulfur and Nitrogen analyzer |
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SIMDIS and HTSIMDIS units |
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Refinery gas analyser |
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GC-Sulfur chemiluminiscence detector |
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GC-MS |
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High performance liquid chromatography |
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NMR spectrometer |
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X-Ray Flurescence (XRF) |
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Other Measurements : Pour point, density, moisture, TAN, TBN, Mercaptans, RON etc. |
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Catalyst Characterization Facilities |
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Adsorption & Chemisorption unit |
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ICAP and AES (Inductively Coupled Argon Plasma and Atomic Emission Spectrometer) |
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Mechanical Properties Evaluation Units |
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(Crushing strength,
Abrasion Resistance/Attrition Resistance, Apparent Bulk Densitometer) |
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Temperature Programmed Desorption/Reduction Units |
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X-Ray Diffractometer (XRD) |
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Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) |
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Thermal Analysis Units (TGA, DSC, DTA) |
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Electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA) |
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CHNS & CS Analyzer |
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Diffuse Reflectance-UV-VI Spectrometer Microcalorimeter |
Adsorption and Chemisorption unit
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IOC - R&D has developed process models for
hydrocracking (HC-MOD), DHDS (DHDS-MOD) etc. based on process chemistry
and kinetics. These mathematical models are complementary to pilot plants.
They are used for interpretation of pilot plant data as well as for
estimation of kinetic and deactivation parameters for different catalyst
systems. |
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Rigorous hydro-cracking kinetic
model based on continuum theory of lumping approach |
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Used for simulation studies for process optimization,
trouble shooting and catalyst performance assessment |
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Prediction of total sulfur, total
nitrogen, concentration of individual sulfur compounds and estimation
of chemical hydrogen consumption, cetane number. |
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