TO STUDY THE POSSIBLE CAUSES AND TO ADDRESS THE HIGH PRESSURE DROP ISSUE ACROSS THE HTS CONVERTER CATALYST BED DUE TO COKE FORMATION

Abstract

For Diesel hydro-desulfurization (DHDS), Attock Refinery Limited (ARL) uses hydrogen produced by the Hydrogen Production Unit. High Temperature Shift (HTS) Converter is an important part of this unit in which heterogeneous catalytic Water-Gas Shift reaction takes place. A high pressure drop across the HTS catalyst bed was reported. This project aims to study and address the possible causes of this pressure drop. For this purpose, the design of monolithic HTS Converter was proposed instead of the packed bed reactor. The proposed design simulated through COMSOL Multiphysics gave significant reduction in pressure drop. Moreover, to enhance the catalyst performance by reducing coke formation, this work further focused on optimization of various operational parameters. This in turn, reduced the plant downtime. Aspen HYSYS was used for simulation of complete hydrogen production unit. Economic analysis and HAZOP study was also carried out.