Hms. Lababidi et al., SIMULATION OF AN ATMOSPHERIC RESIDUE DESULFURIZATION UNIT BY QUASI-STEADY-STATE MODELING, Chemical engineering & technology, 21(2), 1998, pp. 193-200
The current trend in petroleum refining is to maximize the conversion
of the bottom of the barrel to improve the profitability of the refine
ry. Atmospheric residue desulfurization (ARDS) plays a key role in thi
s, especially, when processing crudes with moderate to high sulfur con
tents, A deterministic quasi-steady state model has been developed to
simulate the long term behavior of the reaction section of an atmosphe
ric residue desulfurization (ARDS) unit, consisting of four co-current
catalytic trickle bed reactors in series, The model uses the properti
es of the feedstock and the catalyst and is capable of simulating prof
iles of sulfur, coke, and metal depositions and the temperature along
the reactors, taking into account also catalyst deactivation. Hydrogen
quenching has also been simulated and simulation results predict all
the essentials of the long term behavior of both experimental and indu
strial scale ARDS reactors satisfactorily. Comparing the simulation re
sults with actual commercial data, the model predicted perfectly the m
iddle part of the run, The model is unable to simulate the End-of-Run
conditions due to pore mouth plugging phenomenon.