(70e) NHT Reactor High Pressure Drop Alleviation with Catalyst Grading

Saudi Aramco Yanbu' Refinery experienced over years high pressure drop in the Naphtha Hydrotreater unit reactor which caused several interruptions to the NHT and downstream Platformer unit leading to loss of gasoline production. The NHT unit usually undergo shutdown every 18 months to open and inspect the NHT reactor and to skim or dump the reactor catalyst and start up again. This activity takes around a week, interrupting the downstream Platformer unit and other H2 dependent units.

With the removal of the NHT reactor trash basket and installing a new configuration of catalyst grading materials, the reactor pressure drop maintained at low level and the cycle improved to five years.

The paper will share the refinery experience with original design of NHT reactor trash basket, high pressure drop across the reactor, new configuration of catalyst grading materials that can be implemented in other refineries to mitigate the high pressure drop problem