High Throughput Experimentation As Efficient Tool for the Testing of Hydroprocessing Catalysts

High Throughput Experimentation as Efficient Tool for the Testing of Hydroprocessing Catalysts  

Increasing global demands for fuels, the tightening of environmental regulations and the optimization of refineries has led to an increasing demand for catalysts testing capacity. High throughput catalyst testing is a time-efficient approach for meeting this demand, however in the past the increase in testing throughput was accompanied by a loss of data quality.

Over the last couple of years hte has developed parallel reactor technology for testing of Hydroprocessing catalysts under a wide range of process conditions in order to meet this demand. The latest development is capable of processing VGO, heavy VGO and bio-oil under industrially relevant conditions. Temperatures of up to 450°C can be achieved routinely, as well as pressures from 20 up to 170 bar.

 

Figure 1: Hydrocracking gas phase products by online GC.	Figure 2: Carbon balance, liquid conversion and liquid recovery in a reactor-to-reactor comparison of HVGO hydrocracking in one of hte's parallel trickle-bed reactor systems.

A demanding example for the parallel testing of hydroprocessing catalysts is hydrocracking. The products of this process depend strongly on the reaction conditions (temperature, pressure, catalyst activity). These products range from ethane, LPG to heavier hydrocarbons comprising mostly isoparaffins. Closing the total carbon mass balance covering gas and liquid products, under demanding reaction conditions is one of the latest major achievements for high throughput reactor systems. Figure 1 reveals an example for the complex gas composition of hydrocracking products.

The results that will be presented will show the effectiveness of hte's parallel testing technology and the data quality standard in a reactor-to-reactor and run-to-run comparison for hydrodesulphurization and hydrocracking processes over several months feeding diesel, VGO, heavy VGO and bio-oil, as it is shown in Figure 2 for the hydrocracking of HVGO in a 16-fold parallel reactor system. To prove the value of the obtained data, the experimental results will be compared to pilot plant data. The latest developments in the field of high throughput reactor technology for refining applications will be shown, including parallel catalyst testing technology in a sub-pilot scale with higher catalyst volumes.