Course Programme

Registration on each day opens at 08.30am and the first session will commence at 09.00am, with each day ending at 17.00pm

Tuesday 11 October - Thursday 13 October 2011

DAY 1

Introduction and Basic Terminology

  • What is hydroprocessing?
  • Hydrocracking vs hydrotreating
  • Typical flow diagram
  • Typical process conditions
  • Terminology and acronyms

Hydrocracking Basics

  • What is a hydrocracker?
  • History of hydrocracking
  • Hydrocracking licensors

Hydrocracking Chemistry

  • Typical molecules
  • Desirable reactions – pretreating, aromatic saturation, hydrocracking
  • Undesirable reactions – recombination, PCA build-up, thermal hydrocracking
  • Hydrogen consumption and heat release

Process Configurations

  • Single stage once through
  • Single stage recycle
  • Two stage recycle
  • Other flow-schemes

Hydrocracking Catalysts

  • Characteristics
  • Properties
  • Components
  • Manufacture
  • Layering
  • Regeneration

Kinetics

  • Basic kinetic theory and formulae
  • Why normalise operating data?
  • Worked example of normalisation
  • Examples of advanced normalisation techniques

Feed Effects

  • Feed cut-point
  • Straight-run versus cracked feed
  • Effect of nitrogen
  • Effect of feed contaminants

End of day one

DAY 2

Process Variables

Effect of variation in

  • feed rate
  • partial pressure
  • gas-to-oil ratio
  • reactor temperature
  • temperature profile
  • recycle cut-point
  • per pass conversion

Reactor Internals

  • Why do reactors have multiple beds?
  • Purpose of reactor internals
  • Examples of reactor internals

Product Recovery

  • Fractionation basics
  • Fractionation troubleshooting
  • Fractionation optimisation
  • Fractionation performance monitoring

Shutdown Guidelines

  • Short-term shutdowns
  • Medium-term shutdowns
  • Long-term shutdowns

Catalyst Changeouts

  • Importance of well-managed catalyst changeouts
  • Catalyst unloading
  • Process inspection
  • Catalyst loading

Start-up Guidelines

  • Introducing oil to dry catalyst
  • Sulphiding
  • Titration
  • Reduction of noble-metal catalysts

End of day two

DAY 3

Emergency Guidelines

How to respond to unit upsets:

  • Loss of makeup gas
  • Loss of recycle compressor
  • Loss of feed
  • Temperature excursion

Monitoring, Troubleshooting and Optimisation

  • Monitoring techniques for:
    o Feed quality
    o Rotating equipment
    o Heat exchangers
    o Furnace
    o Reactor
    o Air-coolers
  • Maximising utilisation
  • Maximising upgrading
  • Energy optimisation

Residue Processing

  • Typical feedstocks
  • Residue processing chemistry
  • Fixed bed, moving bed and ebullating bed processes
  • Resid catalysts and deactivation

Metallurgy and corrosion

  • Typical materials of construction
  • Common corrosion mechanisms
  • Corrosion mitigation strategies

End of course