Hydrodesulfurization and hydrodemetallization of different origin vacuum residues : new modeling approach.

Cristina Ferreira (1) , Melaz Tayakout-Fayolle (2) , Isabelle Guibard (1) , Francisco Lemos (3)

1 IFPEN - IFP Energies nouvelles
2 IRCELYON - Institut de recherches sur la catalyse et l'environnement de Lyon
3 Centro de Engenharia Biologica e Quimica

In order to be able to upgrade the heaviest part of the crude oil one needs to remove several impurities, such as sulfur or metals. Residue hydrotreatment in fixed beds, under high hydrogen pressure can achieve high removal performances, with an industrial catalysts optimized staging. Despite the recent improvements, petroleum residues remain very difficult to describe and characterize in detail. Several kinetic models have been developed, but mostly they are feed dependant and their predictions are not satisfying for residues of different origins. Based on a recent study comparing residue properties and the differentiating physical-chemical properties responsible for reactivity, the present work develops a hydrotreatment kinetic model coupled with mass transfer in the catalyst which attempts to simulate the different residue performances. After estimation of kinetic parameters for a given residue, the model was validated for three other residues. This new model is able to take into account differences in residue characteristics and gives fairly good simulations of residues performances.

Keywords: Crude oils; heavy oils; bed reactor; asphaltenes; Vacuum residue; Kinetic model; Hydrodesulfurization; Hydrodemetallization; Reactor modeling

Domains: Chemical Sciences; Organic chemistry

Cristina Ferreira, Melaz Tayakout-Fayolle, Isabelle Guibard, Francisco Lemos. Hydrodesulfurization and hydrodemetallization of different origin vacuum residues : new modeling approach.. Fuel, 2014, 129, pp.267-277. ⟨hal-01005691⟩