EMPIRICAL HYDRODYNAMIC MODEL FOR DE-METALIZATION OF KIRKUK REDUCED CRUDE OIL IN TRICKLE-BED REACTOR

Abstract

Kirkuk reduced crude oil was hydro-demetallized over two particle size (0.2 - 0.3 and 0.2 - 0.5 cm) Ni-Mo/γ-Al2O3 catalyst beds. The catalyst bed length varied from 12.7 to 31.8 cm and the liquid hourly space velocity varied from 0.5 to 4.2 h-1. Reaction temperature was kept constant at 360oC. Also, hydrogen pressure and hydrogen to reduced crude oil ratio were kept at 3.2 Mpa and 400 cm3 cm-3. The effects of catalyst particle size, catalyst bed porosity, catalyst bed length and superficial liquid reduced crude oil flow through trickle-bed reactor has been studied. The results show, that apparent rate constant increased with increasing liquid velocity and bed length while decreasing in apparent rate constant with increasing of bed porosity and particle size of the catalyst.Two empirical hydrodynamic models described the behavior of apparent rate constant of the hydro-demetallization has been discussed. First, the classical empirical hydrodynamic model proposed by Garcia and Pazos [1]. Second, suggested model denoted as Reynolds empirical hydrodynamic model. Statistical analyses of these two models show that both models represented well the effect of particle size, bed length, bed porosity and liquid superficial velocity on the apparent rate constant of the hydro-demetallization reaction. But suggested Reynolds hydrodynamic model, was more accurate than classical hydrodynamic model.