A PROCESS FOR MONITORING THE OPERATION OF HYDRODEOXYGENATION OF A FEEDSTOCK

Abstract

In a process for monitoring the operation of hydrodeoxygenation of a feedstock, comprising the steps of directing the feedstock to contact a material catalytically active in hydrotreatment, monitoring the temperature in multiple locations of said catalytically active material, and providing an indication in a means for process monitoring when the difference between the temperature in a first location of said catalytically active material and the temperature in a second location of said catalytically active material is above a specified threshold value, the difference between the temperature in said first location of the catalytically active material and the temperature in said second location of the catalytically active material is below the specified threshold value during an initial operation time.

Claims

1. A process for monitoring the operation of hydrodeoxygenation of a feedstock, comprising the steps of: directing the feedstock to contact a material catalytically active in hydrotreatment, monitoring the temperature in multiple locations of said catalytically active material, and providing an indication in a means for process monitoring when the difference between the temperature in a first location of said catalytically active material and the temperature in a second location of said catalytically active material is above a specified threshold value, optionally for a specified time of operation, wherein the difference between the temperature in said first location of said catalytically active material and the temperature in said second location of said catalytically active material is below said specified threshold value during an initial time of operation.

2. A process according to claim 1, wherein the means for process monitoring is a control room screen or submission of a message via local or remote means of communication.

3. A process according to claim 1 where the specified threshold is either defined as an absolute difference in temperature or defined as a relative value, compared to a difference in temperature from the inlet of said catalytically active material to the outlet of said catalytically active material.

4. A process according to claim 3, wherein the threshold value is an absolute difference in temperature of 10° C.

5. A process according to claim 3, wherein the threshold is a relative threshold of 10% of the difference in temperature from the inlet of said catalytically active material to the outlet of said catalytically active material.

6. A process according to claim 1, wherein the difference in temperature from the inlet of said catalytically active material to the outlet of said catalytically active material is from 40° C. to 200° C.

7. A process according to claim 1, wherein the feedstock comprises one or more oxygenates selected from the group consisting of triglycerides, fatty acids, resin acids, ketones, aldehydes and alcohols, said oxygenates originating from one or more of a biological source, a gasification process, a pyrolysis process, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, methanol-based synthesis or a further synthesis process, with the associated benefit of such a process being a process viable for receiving a wide range of feedstocks.

8. A process according to claim 7, wherein the feedstock originates from plants, algae, animals, fish, vegetable oil refining, domestic waste or industrial organic waste.

9. A process according to claim 1, wherein the material which is catalytically active in hydrotreatment consists of one or more catalyst layers designed for fixed-bed hydrodeoxygenation purposes.

10. A process according to claim 1, wherein part of the outlet from the HDO reactor is recycled to the inlet of the HDO reactor and/or a diluent, that does not contain oxygen, is added to the inlet of the HDO reactor.

11. A process according to claim 1, wherein a mixture of a renewable feedstock and a fossil feedstock is coprocessed.

12. A process according to claim 1, wherein the feedstock mixture contains up to about 50% renewables.

Description

EXPERIMENTAL

[0037] Experiments have shown in more detail how—during a cycle with renewables—the exotherm over time moves down through the catalytic bed. These experiments used a bed consisting of five consecutive catalyst layers as follows:

TABLE-US-00001 layer 1: 3/16″ Ring layer 2: 1/8″ Ring layer 3: TK-339 1/10″ QL layer 4: TK-341 1/10″ QL layer 5: TK-569 1/16″ TL

[0038] where the TK-339 and TK-341 catalysts are designed for fixed-bed hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) purposes, while the TK569 catalyst provides high hydrodenitrogenation (HDN) and hydrodesulfurization (HDS) activity.

[0039] This catalytic bed received a fresh feed stream. By specifically watching the behavior of the exotherm (% dT) as a function of the number of run days for bed no. 1, it was seen that, in the beginning, most of the reactions take place in layers 1, 2 and 3. But already after 50 run days, the dT above these layers begin to decrease and move to layer 4 as TK-339 starts to deactivate. Around run day 120, the dT above layer 4 begins to decrease, while it begins to increase in layer 5.

[0040] At the start of run (SOR), approximately 50% of the dT is happening in the HDO and HDN layer, and the hydrogenation activity of the P guard starts to deactivate after around 100 run days. The HDO catalyst starts to deactivate after 130 run days, and more than 50% of the dT has moved to layer 5 (HDO/HDN) after 220 run days.

[0041] At the end of run (EOR) after 500 run days, almost all of the reactions take place in the last layer, i.e. layer 5. Furthermore, it is seen that approximately 45% of the dT is happening in the TK-341 or TK-569 layers at the start of run (SOR). After 50 run days, TK-339 starts to deactivate, and TK-341 starts to deactivate after 120 run days, having no more activity left after one year of catalyst life.

[0042] The TK-339 has no more activity left after 175 run days, and more than 50% of the dT has moved to the TK-569 layer after 200 run days.

[0043] In another experiment with four beds, it was observed that around day 360, dT begins to decrease in beds 1 and 2, i.e. the two beds receiving a fresh renewable feed stream, while the dT increases in bed 3 (which bed, in this experiment, serves as the protection bed).

[0044] In the FIGURE, a simplified run is shown, only including dT of bed 1 and bed 3. At (a), fresh renewable feed is injected into beds 1 and 2, which do all the renewable reactions. At EOR, shown as (b), 50% of the exotherm is now happening in bed 3, i.e. the protection bed, meaning that this bed is now doing a significant part of the HDO reactions.