Guard of hydrotreating catalysts of oil fractions from solid particulates: experimental studies and calculation

A study was made of the efficiency of trapping solid microparticulates contained in diesel fuel for catalyst loading – an analogue of an industrial package of guard beds of hydroprocesses. The package of catalysts consisted of catalyst granules ranked by shape and size: segmented rings, hollow cylinders of two standard sizes and trilobe shape. The experiments were carried out in the trickle flow regime with a constant ensemble of microparticulates – iron scale with a size of 5 to 150 μm at the inlet of the catalysts loading. It was found that the penetration coefficient of the catalysts loading of the guard beds did not change significantly (K ≈ 0.985) during the experiment. At the same time, a linear increase in the pressure drop on the catalysts loading of the guard beds with a height of 17 cm from 220 to 408 Pa was observed which occurred as a result of the trapping of solid microparticulates by the catalyst granules. The theoretical estimate of the initial pressure drop (228 Pa) coincides with the experimental data (220 Pa) with good accuracy.