Introduction to Hydro-treating

• Refinery Overview
• HDT role in a refinery: aim of the various treatments with hydrogen and integration in the refining scheme
• Impurities in petroleum cuts and products, their impact on health, environment and on other refining processes
• Recent regulations and future trends: quality specifications of petroleum products and fuels
• Commercial history

ARDS Process Fundamentals

• Process description
• Chemical reactions

• Characteristics of the chemical reactions
• Thermodynamic and kinetic aspects
• Consequences on the operation of units
• Side reactions and optimum operating conditions to deplete their evolution
• Specific features of reversion reactions

ARDS Unit Process Design

• Design considerations
• Feed and product quality
• Flow schemes
• Typical processing conditions
• Reactor systems (H Oil/UFR/OCR difference and significance)
• Steam Strippers
• Steam Generators
• Amine absorption system
• PSA System
• Fired Heater
• Fundamentals of Fractionator
• Corrosion Control in Fractionator
• Complex control system (Reactor/Heater/Recycle gas/PSA/Feed system)

ARDS Unit Operation, Monitoring and Troubleshooting

• Operating conditions and compositions of the main streams; mass balance and yields, sulfur balance, hydrogen balance and consumption
• Significance of the operating variables and their influence on the process: mean temperatures and profile, pressures, partial pressure of hydrogen, recycle rate, quench ratio, feed flow rate and space velocity
• Advanced process control and optimization of the process
• Catalyst follow up and cycle length optimization, ageing and deactivation
• Reaction selectivity and activity
• Maximizing the performances of the unit under constraints or limit conditions

Process Capabilities

• Feedstocks and applications
• Hydrogen utilization
• Product qualities
• Catalyst consumption
• Hydrogen consumption
• Utilities

Catalysis

• Nature of ARDS Catalysts
• Composition and activity
• Catalyst selection and reactor loading diagrams
• Multi-catalyst Systems
• Hydrogenation – Dehydrogenation Equilibrium
• Sulfiding procedures: role, steps and details of the different methods
• Catalyst poisons
• Catalyst deactivation

Catalyst Management

• Reactor loading and unloading, catalyst handling
• Reactor distribution and internals
• Effects of poor distribution
• Developments in internals design
• Pressure drop management
• Commercial Catalysts

Start-up, Shutdown, and Troubleshooting

• Startup/Shutdown/Emergency handling procedures
• Causes of quality decrease and corresponding actions
• Main automatic safety systems
• Feed pump failure, heater failure
• Compressor failure: fresh gas or recycle, adapted reaction and safe shutdown