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.