Laboratory Program to Support H-Coal Pilot Plant Operations. Low Pressure-Bench-Scale Operations

摘要

Process economics studies of the fuel oil mode of operation at lowered hydrogen partial pressure indicated that the potential capital saving of reduced pressure design outweighs the cost of increased catalyst usage needed to maintain product yield and quality. Because the yields, product properties and catalyst deactivation rates were an extrapolation of the existing data base, it was recommended that experimental work be done to verify this observation. On the basis of an experimental program conducted at the HRI R and D Center, the following conclusions were reached: lower pressure operation can yield an economic, as well as mechanical, benefit (1140 psi vs 1800 psi hydrogen partial pressure at the reactor outlet); test results from this bench run support most of the findings of an engineering study on a commercial design case at a lower hydrogen partial pressure (1200 psi). The experimental yields and predicted yields agree with each other within 2%, while the experimental data show a lower sulfur content and lower apparent viscosity than predicted; the spent catalyst from the low pressure run had a higher carbon content, by 4 W% (16.3 vs 11.6 W%), than the spent catalyst from a standard pressure run. Recovery of pore volume on ignition was equivalent for each. (ERA citation 05:005307)