6th International Conference on Petroleum Phase Behavior & Fouling
K.Le Lannic, I.Guibard
In the refining of petroleum residue, sulfur removal is an important objective to produce low sulfur fuel oil and to obtain suitable feed for residue catalytic cracking. The increasing severity of sulfur specifications for fuels implies the optimization of heavy residue processes, that requires an improving knowledge on mechanism reaction.
Residue hydrotreating process consists of two complementary sections in series with specific catalysts. The first section, the demetallization (HDM) one, has the role to disaggregate asphaltenes, to remove most of the metals and to partially desulfurize the residue. In the second one, the refining section (HDS), deep desulfurization occurs with the removal of nitrogen and partial hydrogenation.
The goal of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of the reactions in the HDS section and to develop a kinetic model.
To carry out this study, hydrotreatment pilot tests were performed on demetallized residues (residues obtained at the oultlet of the HDM section). Experiments were conducted using industrial residue HDS catalyst with varying residence time. The effluents were distilled into three cuts: gasoline-diesel, distillate and residue. Each of them were analyzed by liquid chromatography, separated into families depending on the polarity, then elemental analysis on each of them were done. Further analysis, 13C NMR and SEC, provided informations on the evolutions of aromaticity and molecular weight profile of each fraction during hydrotreating.