Upgrading Siberian (Russia) crude oil by hydrodesulfurization: Kinetic parameter estimation in a trickle-bed reactor

Upgrading Siberian (Russia) crude oil by hydrodesulfurization: Kinetic parameter estimation in a trickle-bed reactor

Crude oil

Corrosion

Kinetics

Hydrogen

Petroleum refining

Temperature

Hydrogen sulfide

HDS

Heterogeneous model

Siberian crude oil

Trickle-bed reactor

Sulfur

Hydrodesulfurization

Petroleum transportation

Chemical reactors

Petroleum analysis

Hydrodesulfurization (HDS) of sour crude oil is an effective way to address the corrosion problems in refineries and is an economic way to process sour crude oil in an existing refinery built for sweet oil. Siberian crude oil transported through the Russia-China pipeline could be greatly sweetened and could be refined directly in local refinery designed for Daqing crude oil after the effective HDS treatment. In this study, the HDS of Siberian crude oil was carried out in a continuous flow isothermal trickle-bed reactor over Ni-Mo/γ-Al2O3. The effects of temperature, pressure and LHSV were investigated in the ranges of 320–360 °C, 3–5 MPa and 0.5–2 h−1, keeping constant hydrogen to oil ratio at 600 L∙L−1. The HDS conversion could be up to 92.89% at the temperature of 360 °C, pressure of 5 MPa, and LHSV of 0.5 h−1, which is sufficient for local refineries (>84%). A three phase heterogeneous model was established to analyze the performance of the trickle-bed reactor based on the two-film theory using Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanism. The order of sulfur component is estimated as 1.28, and the order of hydrogen is 0.39. By simulating the reactor using the established model, the concentration of H2, H2S and sulfur along the catalyst bed is discussed. The model is significantly useful for industrial application with respect to reactor analysis, optimization and reactor design, and can provide further insight of the HDS of Siberian crude oil.

Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering

2020

Sun, Kening

Ma, Xixi

Hou, Ruijun

journalArticle

1004-9541

10.1016/j.cjche.2020.07.021

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1004954120303736