Hydrocarbon Processing - May 2022 - 33

Special Focus Biofuels, Alternative Fuels and
Green Petrochemicals
T. VILELA, Avantium Catalysis, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Quickly screen catalysts for hydrotreating of
vegetable oil using high-throughput micro-pilot plants
Accurate
catalyst
evaluation
is
an
important step in optimizing catalytic
processes with respect to product yield,
energy efficiency and overall product
quality. High-throughput catalyst testing
and small-scale reactors offer several advantages
when compared to larger reactor
systems.
Using reactors of smaller scale to evaluate
catalysts with renewable feedstocks
presents a clear advantage: smaller volumes
reduce the amount of feed required,
avoiding the typical issues associated with
obtaining large quantities like handling,
shipping and storage (also for longer-term
availability of reference feed material).
Overall, small-scale parallel reactor systems
like the unit described here are more
cost effective than large-scale reactors.
The author's company continuously
evaluates the feasibility of processing new
feedstocks in its proprietary systemsa
.
In this article, the results of processing
blends of soybean oil and straight-run
gasoil (SRGO) and 100% vegetable oil
(VO) for renewable diesel production
are presented.
In this testing program, a commercial
ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) NiMo catalyst
was used to hydrotreat the VO.
METHODOLOGY
The micro-pilot plant. This testing program
was conducted in a 16-parallel fixed
bed reactors system with a diameter of
2 mm-2.6 mm. FIG. 1 shows a schematic
overview of the 16-parallel reactors micro-pilot
plant. This unit employs a proprietary
high-throughput catalyst testing
systema
that enables the tight control of
process conditions: temperature, flowrates
and pressure.
FIG. 1. Schematic of proprietary 16-parallel reactors for configured hydoprocessing applications.
More information can be found in the several patents.
100
102
104
106
108
110
90
92
94
96
98
The testing program was performed in
collaboration with a global market-leading
catalyst supplier. For this program,
only eight reactors were used-the highthroughput
16-reactors system allows for
the selective isolation of unused reactors.
Reactor loading. The catalyst packing
in the single-pellet-string reactors (SPSR)
is straightforward and does not require
special procedures. A single string of catalyst
particles is loaded in the reactors with
an internal diameter (ID) that closely
Accurate mass balance
100.4 ± 0.0%
100.0 ± 0.3%
99.7 ± 0.4%
99.8 ± 0.2%
20% VO
80% SRGO
100
40% VO
60% SRGO
200
300
Time onstream, hr
FIG. 2. Mass balance for all feedstocks tested (colors varied by reactor).
Hydrocarbon Processing | MAY 2022 33
70% VO
30% SRGO
400
500
600
100% VO
Mass balance, %

Hydrocarbon Processing - May 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hydrocarbon Processing - May 2022

Contents
Hydrocarbon Processing - May 2022 - Cover1
Hydrocarbon Processing - May 2022 - Cover2
Hydrocarbon Processing - May 2022 - Contents
Hydrocarbon Processing - May 2022 - 4
Hydrocarbon Processing - May 2022 - 5
Hydrocarbon Processing - May 2022 - 6
Hydrocarbon Processing - May 2022 - 7
Hydrocarbon Processing - May 2022 - 8
Hydrocarbon Processing - May 2022 - 9
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Hydrocarbon Processing - May 2022 - 11
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Hydrocarbon Processing - May 2022 - Cover3
Hydrocarbon Processing - May 2022 - Cover4
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