Elutriation gas filter: To ensure stable circulation of catalyst in moving bed reactor and regenerator in CCR unit

In our previous article that paid attention to hot gas filtration in refining and chemical plant. Because of the hot gas filter´s excellent performance in extreme special conditions (such as high temperature, high pressure, toxic gas, etc.). As a result, this filter has been warmly welcomed in refineries and has been used in many refining unit. We now turn our attention to another important application of hot gas filter-CCR’s (the Continuous Catalytic Reforming) elutriation gas filter or the so-called dust collector.

CCR (the Continuous Catalytic Reforming) is a common petrochemical plant. It serves two purposes, to improve the quality of gasoline and to produce petrochemical raw materials. Because it can turns alkanes into aromatics, its most important role is as a bridge between the oil refining and chemical industries. Aromatization of alkanes, high temperatures and powerful catalysts are required. Due to the special reaction mechanism, carbon will deposit on the catalyst surface and deactivate the catalyst after the catalyst reacts in the reactor for a period of time. Therefore, the CCR unit uses a moving bed as the main reactor, the catalyst must be moved to the regenerator to recover its activity continuously, and then recycled back to the reactor to continue catalytic reaction.

During this process, the catalyst will be crushed due to the friction between the catalyst particles and the inner wall of the pipeline. The fine catalyst powder is easy to block the pipeline to prevent the circulation of catalyst, so it is necessary to find a way to ensure that the catalyst can circulate steadily smoothly. Because the catalyst contains a large amount of Pd, the broken catalyst powder still has great recovery value. Therefore, it is necessary to find a way to recover and discharge the catalyst powder automatically after separating the catalyst powder. Propane Dehydrogenation (PDH) unit also faces the same problem.

The most mature option is to add a fluidized-bed type of device that feeds nitrogen from the bottom to blow out the crushed catalyst powder before it enters the regenerator. The exhaust gas from the top of the fluidized bed carries catalyst powder, the unbroken catalyst remains at the bottom of the fluidized bed and then enters the regenerator to be reactivated.

The remaining problem is what to do with the exhaust gas from the fluidized bed. This flow has the characteristics of high temperature and large dust content, and ordinary filtering methods cannot meet the requirements. In order to ensure the stability of the unit and solve the manpower, it is recommended to use Shinkai’s  Hot gas filtration with venturi pulse blowback.

Shinkai’s hot gas filter, adopts metal powder sintered filter element as the filter element, through the automatic online partition back blowing way, can realize the continuous filtration, safe and stable.

In addition, the filter can be used in conjunction with the locking hopper for automatic removal of catalyst dust, which is also important for the refinery.

 


The Shinkai’s hot gas filter has two critical functions:
(1) To recover and transfer catalyst fines to a storage hopper and to ensure particulate emissions are minimized to not only protect downstream equipment but also limit the amount of emissions released into the environment.
(2) To recycle the catalyst and return to the production plant to improve economic efficiency.

Shinkai sintered metal hot gas filtration with venturi pulse blowback are proven to successfully filtering particulate down to less than 5 mg/Nm
3. In fact, over the past 10 years, Shinkai has been leading the industry in CCR filtration technology. We have become a trusted supplier to some of the world’s most productive and efficient refineries.

 

Ways to Maximize the Benefits of Fine Chemical Hydrogenation Reaction: Saving Catalyst or Extend Catalyst Life by Catalyst Filter

Vitamin E was discovered in 1922, isolated in 1935 and first synthesized in 1938. Alphatocopherol, either naturally extracted from plant oils or, most commonly, as the synthetic tocopheryl acetate, is sold as a popular dietary supplement, either by itself or incorporated into a multivitamin product, and in oils or lotions for use on skin. Vitamin E may have various roles as a vitamin. Many biological functions have been postulated, including a role as a fatsoluble antioxidant.

The current global demand for VE exceeds 70,000 tons per year, most of which come from artificial synthesis. The raw material for synthetic VE is geranialdehyde. The synthesis of geranialdehyde requires cumbersome steps, most of which are catalytic hydrogenation reactions. The catalyst is generally an expensive heavy metal catalyst, which is also the largest investment in a hydrogenation unit.

The loss of the catalyst is mainly caused by its own deactivation or poor filtration retention. The money they’re throwing away in catalyst each year can quickly mount because of poor filtration retention across a variety of industries – from food and ingredient manufacturers to specialty chemical and dye companies, to API plants.

The key to solving this problem is to choose a filter with excellent performance, like the SHINKAI’s catalyst filter, uses sinter powder metal filter cartridge as filter element. This product has two major advantages. First, it obviously means high particle retention and thus excellent product quality and catalyst capture. However, it helps keep all solids on the surface of the media to establish an effective filter cake. This cake, comprised of solid particles from the feed stream, enhances performance, resulting in improved particle retention. 

More importantly, since the cake and solids sit on the surface of the media rather than within the depths of the media, it can be efficiently backwashed or backpulsed off the media. This allows for downstream handling, or in the case of precious metal catalyst recovery, the ability to reuse or reclaim the catalyst. With a properly designed liquid filter, all of this can be done in a single pass, with a fully automated online clean in place system. These two advantages help reduce the loss of the catalyst and extend the life of the catalyst (because it will not contact the outside world).

At present, a large number of SHINKAI’s catalyst filters have been used in VE production equipment, which has significantly improved economic benefits.

Hot Gas Filtration in refining and chemical plant

With the continuous development of the society, people in growing number pay more attention to environment and safety in refining and chemical plant. Sinter powder metal filter is frequently used in applications involving high temperatures, pressure chemistry. Systems utilizing Sinter powder metal filter are fully enclosed and automated to minimize operator exposure and filter maintenance. Additionally, the sinter powder metal filter element have advantage of high filtration precision. There are three advantages to using a metal filter for hot gas filtration in refining and chemical Industrial.

1. Meeting increasingly stringent particulate emission regulations.

Refining and chemical plants will generate a large amount of high-temperature flue gas, especially the FCC plant (fluid catalytic cracking), most of which contain extremely fine dust particles.

In contemporary society, refiners are required to reduce particle emissions. Government regulations in most countries limit maximum particulate emission levels to 50 mg/Nm3, but some countries have taken steps to reduce limits even further to 40 mg/Nm3.

While the amount of flue gas from the FCC is usually only accounts for only a small part of the total flue gas, but this flue gases contain a lot of catalyst particles and H2S, refiners must pay special attention to filtering this gas. If these particles are not completely filtered, the particles need to be removed later by washing with water, which will produce a lot of acidic wastewater.

2. Protecting downstream equipment to minimize process disruptions.

When particulates are allowed to remain in the gas flow, they can cause fouling, plugging, and erosion of downstream equipment, including the turboexpander, waste heat boiler, and their components, requiring that this equipment be taken offline for service. This can result in costly process disruptions.

If refiners use sinter powder metal filter to intercept these particles, then the fluid entering in the downstream equipment is pure, which will greatly reduce the frequency of downstream equipment maintenance and the utility consumption.

3. Improving the quality of products and recovering catalyst

Most petrochemical reactions are catalyst reactions, and even many reactions require expensive metal catalysts. After the reaction is complete, the gas phase products will contain crushed catalyst particles. The use of high-precision metal sintered filters can improve product quality while also recovering the catalyst in the gas phase if this catalyst has recycling value.

More information if you’re interested in about the hot gas filtration, please feel free to contact us.