OPTIMIZATION OF A CATALYST FILTER FOR AN OIL REFINERY (LA14)

ISSUE

In an oil refinery, an octane reactor uses a phosphorus-based catalyst for its reaction. During the reactor operation, some of the catalyst particles escapes from the reactor before settling in low points of the downstream piping. The catalyst particles are then solubilized by the water also accumulated at the low points. Phosphoric acid is then formed in the piping causing localized corrosion issues.

To prevent this problematic, a filtration unit is used to recover catalyst particles escaping the reactor. The filter use resin-coated fiberglass filter cartridges. However, those cartridges are completely eaten up by the presence of phosphoric acid and organic products in less than a month. The cartridges are thus replaced every 21 days to prevent the leak of too much catalyst. Those frequent cartridges replacements as well as the catalyst leakage induces significant costs in addition to causing corrosion problems on the equipment.

TECHNOLOGICAL CHALLENGE

The project objective is to convert the filter elements to a type of elements more adapted to the environment, offering thus a longer life span, better filtration performances while reducing the costs of replacement and the annual piping circuit maintenance cost.

RECOMMENDED SOLUTION

STS Canada has evaluated and designed two (2) types of filter elements to replace the old cartridges without modifying the existing filter. The first prototype was an inexpensive cartridge disposable after use while the second prototype was a filter element of a more complex and expensive design which could be cleaned and reused several times.

RESULTS

Following the realization of this project by STS Canada, manufacturing specifications and drawings for the designed filter elements were provided to the client. Contact info’s of the manufacturers able to produce those filter elements at the best price were also provided. As part of this project, two (2) prototypes meeting the criteria of the customer in terms of filtration capacity and life time have been produced by the proposed manufacturers and successfully tested by the client.