AM-93-73 IMPROVED HYDROCRACKER TEMPERATURE CONTROL: MOBIL QUENCH ZONE TECHNOLOGY

Description:

Hydrocracking is a well established process in the oil refining industry. There are over 2.7 million barrels of installed capacity world-wide.(‘) The hydrocracking process comprises several families of highly exothermic reactions(2) and the total adiabatic temperature rise can easily exceed 200’F. Reactor temperature control is therefore very important. Hydrocracking reactors are typically constructed with multiple catalyst beds in series’. “Cold” recycle gas is usually injected between the catalyst beds to “quench” the reactions, thereby controlling overall temperature rise (Figure 1). The design of this quench zone is the key to good reactor temperature control, particularly when processing poorer quality, i.e, higher heat release, feeds. Mobil Research and Development Corporation (MRDC) has developed a. robust and very effective quench zone technology (QZTSM) package, which is now being licensed to the industry for hydrocracking applications.