Thermal Stability of Gas Oil Hydrotreating Processes: Numerical Issues of the Matrix-Eigenvalue Approach
Abstract
Processes carrying out exothermic reactions must ensure safe operating conditions to
avoid uncontrolled thermal excursion, also known as runaway. Therefore, a thermal
stability analysis is necessary to determine the safe and productive range of operating
conditions of highly exothermic processes. Hydrotreating gas oil feeds consists mainly of
hydrogenation reactions; processing highly unsaturated feeds such as light cycle oils can
be highly exothermic. For this reason, a thermal stability study of this complex refining
is performed. Perturbations theory has already been applied to carry out a thermal
stability study of this process under dynamic conditions. This method consists in the
perturbation of the hydrotreating reactor model and solution of the perturbed model in the
form of an eigenvalue problem. The stability condition imposes that all perturbations must
tend to zero when time tends to infinity. Some methodology and numerical aspects applying
this theory and the effect on stability results are tackled in this work. The
formalization of the perturbed model solution as a standard eigenvalue problem or as a
generalized eigenvalue problem are presented. The computation of the Jacobian by a
numerical approach or with the analytical expressions is also carried out. In both cases,
results are compared and their influence on the stability/instability results is
presented.
Domains
Physics [physics]
Origin : Publication funded by an institution
Loading...