Hydrotreating of used oil: prediction of industrial trickle-bed operation from pilot-plant data

This paper reports on oil hydrotreating that was investigated in a pilot trickle-bed reactor (TBR) at 270-350{degrees} C, 5-7 MPa, and 1.1-4.6 liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV) and with different hydrogen/oil ratios using a commercial Co-Mo/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} catalyst. Hydrodesulfurization (HDS), hydrodeoxygenation (HDO), and metals removal were investigated by using a modified power- law kinetic model with a power term for LHSV. It was found that the HDS and HDO reactions can be described by pseudo- first-order kinetics. The removal of metals was found to be primarily due to the physical process of deposition on the catalyst bed. With the use of the kinetic data from a pilot plant, the simulation of an industrial TBR was performed. Simulated HDS and HDO, removal of metals, and prediction of catalyst deactivation agreed well with the industrial data for three charges of catalyst.