REFINING PROCESSES 2000

rather than at high pressure can result in lower capital cost and
High-pressure Low-pressure allows design at lower gas rates.
section section Makeup hydrogen Operating conditions: Typical reactor temp., 725°F to 840°F; reac-
Recycle tor press., 1,400 to 3,500 psig; H2 part. press., 1,000 to 2,700 psig;
LC-Fining Stm. H2 LHSV, 0.1 to 0.6; conversion, 40% to 97+%; desulfurization, 60% to
reactor 90%; demetallization, 50% to 98%; CCR reduction, 35% to 80%.
1 6
2 Yields: For Arabian Heavy/Arabian Light blends:
Feed Atm. resid Vac. resid
Gravity, °API 12.40 4.73 4.73 4.73
3 5 Sulfur, wt% 3.90 4.97 4.97 4.97
Ni/V, ppmw 18/65 39/142 39/142 39/142
Conversion vol%
Hydrocarbon (1,022°F+) 45 60 75 95
feed 4
Products, vol%
START C4 1.11 2.35 3.57 5.53
Products C5–350°F 6.89 12.60 18.25 23.86
350–700°F (650°F) (15.24) 30.62 42.65 64.81
700 (650°F)–1,022°F (55.27) 21.46 19.32 11.92
1,022°F + 25.33 40.00 25.00 5.0
Hydrocracking +
C5 °API/wt%S 23.7/0.54 22.5/0.71 26.6/0.66 33.3/0.33
Economics: Investment,estimated (U.S. Gulf Coast, 2000)
Application: Desulfurization, demetallization, CCR reduction, and hydro- Size, bpsd fresh feed 92,000 49,000
cracking of atmospheric and vacuum resids using the LC-Fining process. $ per bpsd
(typical) fresh feed 2,200 3,500 4,200 5,200
Products: Full range of high quality distillates. Residual products Utilities, per bbl fresh feed
can be used as fuel oil, synthetic crude or feedstock for a resid FCC, Fuel fired, 103Btu 56.1 62.8 69.8 88.6
coker, visbreaker or solvent deasphalter. Electricity, kWh 8.4 13.9 16.5 22.9
Description: Fresh hydrocarbon liquid feed is mixed with hydrogen Steam (export), lb 35.5 69.2 97.0 97.7
Water, cooling, gal 64.2 163 164 248
and reacted within an expanded catalyst bed (1) maintained in tur-
bulence by liquid upflow to achieve efficient isothermal operation. Prod- Installation: Four LC-Fining units and three using Oxy Research
uct quality is maintained constant and at a high level by intermittent & Development Co. technology. Another is under construction/design
catalyst addition and withdrawal. Reactor products flow to a high-pres- for Shell Canada. Sizes: 6,000 to 80,000 bpsd.
sure separator (2), low-pressure separator (3) and product fractiona-
tor (4). Recycle hydrogen is separated (5) and purified (6). Licensor: ABB Lummus Global Inc., Oxy Research & Develop-
Process features include on stream catalyst addition and with- ment Co. and BP Corp.
drawal. Recovering and purifying the recycled H2 at low pressure

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 REFINING PROCESSES 2000
to provide flexibility to vary the light-to-heavy product ratio and
obtain maximum catalytic efficiency. Single-stage options (both
once-through and recycle) are also used when economical.
Yields: Typical from various feeds:
H2S Feed Naphtha LCCO VGO VGO
1 4 Process gas Catalyst stages 1 2 2 2
3 Gravity, °API 72.5 24.6 25.8 21.6
Wash ASTM 10%/EP, °F 154/290 478/632 740/1,050 740/1,100
Light naphtha Sulfur, wt% 0.005 0.6 1.0 2.5
water Nitrogen, ppm 0.1 500 1,000 900
Feed Heavy naphtha Yields, vol%
2 5 6
START 7 Kerosine Propane 55 3.4 — —
iso-Butane 29 9.1 3.0 2.5
Diesel n-Butane 19 4.5 3.0 2.5
Light naphtha 23 30.0 11.9 7.0
Heavy naphtha — 78.7 14.2 7.0
Makeup Kerosine — — 86.8 48.0
hydrogen Sour water Diesel — — — 50.0
Product quality
Kerosine smoke pt., mm — — 28 28
Diesel Cetane index — — — 58
Hydrocracking Kerosine freeze pt., °F
Diesel pour pt., °F
—
—
—
—
465
—
475
410
Application: Convert naphthas, AGO, VGO and cracked oils from
Economics:
FCCs, cokers, hydroprocessing plants and SDA plants using the
Investment (basis: 30,000 bpsd maximum conversion unit, Mid-
Chevron ISOCRACKING process.
East VGO feed, includes only on-plot facilities and first catalyst
Products: Lighter, high-quality, more valuable products: LPG, gaso- charge, 1994 U.S. Gulf Coast), $ per bpsd 2,800
line, catalytic reformer feed, jet fuel, kerosine, diesel, lube oils and Utilities, typical per bbl feed:
feeds for FCC or ethylene plants. Fuel, equiv. fuel oil, gal 1
Electricity, kWh 7
Description: A broad range of both amorphous/zeolite and zeolite Steam, 150 psig (net produced), lb (50)
catalysts are used to obtain an exact match with the refiner’s pro- Water, cooling, gal 330
cess objective. An extensive range of proprietary amorphous/zeolitic
catalysts and various process configurations are used to match the Installation: More than 50 units exceeding 750,000 bpsd total capacity.
refiner’s process objectives. Generally, a staged reactor system con- Licensor: Chevron Research and Technology Co. Available through
sists of one reactor (1, 4) and one HP separator (2, 5) per stage Chevron Products Co. (Technology Marketing) and ABB Lummus
optional recycle scrubber (3), LP separator (6) and fractionator (7) Global Inc.

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 REFINING PROCESSES 2000
Three different process arrangements are available: single-
Fuel gas Fuel gas step/once-through; single-step/total conversion with liquid recycle;
H2 and two-step hydrocracking. The process consists of: reaction section
makeup (1, 2), gas separator (3), stripper (4) and product fractionator (5).
Light Product quality: Typical for HVGO (50/50 Arabian light/heavy):
gas oil
Feed, Jet
5 HVGO fuel Diesel
1 2 3 4 Sp. gr. 0.932 0.800 0.826
TBP cut point, °C 405 –565 140 –225 225 –360
Diesel Sulfur, ppm 31,700 < 10 < 10
Nitrogen, ppm 853 <5 <5
Wild naphtha Metals, ppm <2 – –
Cetane index – – 62
Feed Flash pt., °C – ≥ 40 125
START
Low-sulfur fuel oil Smoke pt., mm, EOR – 26 –28 –
Aromatics, vol%, EOR – < 12 <8
Viscosity @ 38°C, cSt 110 – 5.3
PAH, wt%, EOR <2

Hydrocracking Economics:
Investment (basis: 40,000-bpsd unit, once-through, 90% con-
version, battery limits, erected, engineering fees included,
Application: Upgrade vacuum gas oil alone or blended with various 2000 Gulf Coast), $ per bpsd 2,500 –3,000
feedstocks (light-cycle oil, deasphalted oil, visbreaker or coker-gas oil). Utilities, typical per bbl feed:
Fuel oil, kg 5.3
Products: Middle distillates, very-low-sulfur fuel oil, extra-quality
Electricity, kWh 6.9
FCC feed or high VI lube base stocks. Water, cooling, m3 0.64
Description: This process uses a refining catalyst usually followed Steam, MP balance
by a zeolite-type hydrocracking catalyst. Main features of this pro- Installation: Forty references, cumulative capacity exceeding
cess are: 1,000,000 bpsd, conversion ranging from 20% to 99%.
• High tolerance toward feedstock nitrogen
• High selectivity toward middle distillates Licensor: IFP.
• High activity of the zeolite, allowing for 3–4 year cycle lengths
and products with low aromatics content until end of cycle.

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 REFINING PROCESSES 2000
redistribution internals (Spider Vortex Quench Zone Technology). Feed
and recycle gas are preheated and contact the catalyst in the down-
Feed flow fixed-bed reactor (1). Reactor effluent is flashed in high and low
wash H2S temperature separators, (2) and (3). An amine contactor tower (4)
Naphtha scrubs H2S from recycle gas. A simple stripper/fractionator arrange-
4 Fuel ment is shown for product recovery (5) and (6).
1 gas
Kerosine Operating conditions: Typical operating conditions are categorized
Naphtha according to either single-pass or extinction recycle configurations:
3 Diesel
6 Single pass Recycle
Temperature, °F 700–800 700–800
2 5 Pressure, psig 1,000–2,000 1,500–3,000
Yields: Typical operation on Middle East VGO and FCC LCO.
Feed
START Feed AL/AH VGO LCO
Gravity, °API 20.2 19.0
ASTM FBP, °F 1,050 620
Makeup Recycle oil Sulfur, wt% 2.9 1.0
hydrogen Low-sulfur HGO
Nitrogen, ppmw 900 600
Cetane index — 28
Conversion 50% 70% 98% 50%
Hydrocracking Naphtha, vol%
Kerosine, vol%
12.9
14.1
22.6
24.5
17.2
26.9
54.0
—
Diesel, vol% 31.8 32.5 63.6 54.3
Application: Convert a wide variety of feedstocks including vacuum LSGO, vol% 50.0 30 2.2 —
gas oil, coker gas oils and FCC cycle oils into high-quality, low-sul- H2 consumed, scf/bbl 1,080 1,300 1,525 1,730
fur fuels using the MAKFining HDC process. Product Quality
Naphtha, RON 64 63 66 92
Products: A wide range of high-quality, low-sulfur distillate fuels and Diesel cetane index 53 55 61 39
blending stocks including LPG, high-octane gasoline, reformer naphtha, Diesel sulfur, ppmw < 30 < 10 < 10 < 10
jet fuel, kerosine and diesel fuel. Unconverted products from single-pass
operations are excellent feedstocks for fluid catalytic cracking, lube oil Economics:
basestock production, steam cracking and low-sulfur fuel oil. Investment, $ per bpsd 2,000 –4,000
Description: MAKFining HDC technology is a product of an alliance Installation: Four operating units. One unit in design.
between ExxonMobil, Akzo Nobel, Kellogg Brown & Root and Fina
Research S.A. The process uses a multiple catalyst system in multi- Reference: Paper AM-94-21, NPRA meeting, March 20–22, 1994.
bed reactors that incorporate proprietary advanced quench and Licensor: Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc.

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 REFINING PROCESSES 2000
Description: Heavy hydrocarbons are discharged to the reactor
Fresh gas circuit and preheated with reactor effluent (1). Fresh hydrogen is dis-
Recycle gas charged to the reactor circuit and combined with recycle gas from the
cold high-pressure separator. The mixed gas is supplied as quench
370– for reactor interbed cooling with the balance first preheated with reac-
Recycle tor effluent followed by further heating in a single phase furnace. After
compressor
Quench gas mixing with the liquid feed, the reactants pass in trickle flow through
2 CHP the multi-bed reactor(s) which contains proprietary pre-treat, crack-
separator ing and post-treat catalysts (2). Interbed ultra-flat quench internals
3 and high dispersion nozzle trays combine excellent quench, mixing
Fractionator
HHP and liquid flow distribution at the top of each catalyst bed while max-
separator imizing reactor volume utilization. After cooling by incoming feed
1 streams, reactor effluent enters a four-separator system from which
HLP
separator CLP hot effluent is routed to the fractionator (3). Wash water is applied
Feed separator via the cold separators in a novel countercurrent configuration to
370+ Bleed scrub the effluent of corrosive salts and avoid equipment corrosion.
START
Two-stage, series flow and single-stage unit design configurations
are all available including the single reactor stacked catalyst bed
which is suitable for capacities up to 10,000 tpd in partial or full con-
version modes. The catalyst system is carefully tailored for the
Hydrocracking desired product slate and cycle run length.
Installation: Over 20 new distillate and lube oil units including two
Application: The Shell hydrocracking process converts heavy VGO
recent single-reactor high-capacity stacked bed units. Over a dozen
and other low-cost cracked and extracted feedstocks to high-value,
revamps have been carried out on own and other licensor designs usu-
high-quality products. Profitability is maximized by careful choice
ally to debottleneck and increase feed heaviness.
of process configuration, conditions and catalyst system to match
refiners’ product quality and selectivity requirements. References: “Performance optimisation of trickle bed processes,”
European Refining Technology Conference, Berlin, November 1998;
Products: Low-sulfur diesel and jet fuel with excellent combustion
“Design and operation of Shell single reactor hydrocrackers,” 3rd
properties, high-octane light gasoline, and high-quality reformer, cat
International Petroleum Conference, New Delhi, January 1999.
cracker or lube oil feedstocks.
Licensor: Shell Global Solutions International B.V.

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 REFINING PROCESSES 2000
Catalysts are based upon both amorphous and molecular-sieve con-
taining supports. Process objectives determine catalyst selection for
Wash a specific unit. Product from the reactor section is condensed, sep-
water Makeup arated from hydrogen-rich gas and fractionated into desired products.
hydrogen Unconverted oil is recycled or used as lube stock, FCC feedstock or
ethylene-plant feedstock.
1
Yields: Example:
2 FCC cycle Vacuum Fluid coker
4 Flash gas
Feed type oil blend gas oil gas oil
Gravity, °API 27.8 22.7 8.4
5 Boiling, 10%, °F 481 690 640
End pt., °F 674 1,015 1,100
Fresh feed To fractionator Sulfur, wt% 0.54 2.4 4.57
START
3 Sour water Nitrogen, wt% 0.024 0.08 0.269
Principal products Gasoline Jet Diesel FCC feed
Recycle oil To fractionator Yields, vol% of feed
Butanes 16.0 6.3 3.8 5.2
Light gasoline 33.0 12.9 7.9 8.8
Heavy naphtha 75.0 11.0 9.4 31.8
Hydrocracking Jet fuel
Diesel fuel
89.0
94.1 33.8
600°F + gas oil 35.0
Application: Convert a wide variety of feedstocks into lower-molec-
H2 consump., scf/bbl 2,150 1,860 1,550 2,500
ular-weight products using the Unicracking process.
Economics: Example:
Feed: Feedstocks include atmospheric gas oil, vacuum gas oil,
Investment, $ per bpsd capacity 2,000–4,000
FCC/RCC cycle oil, coker gas oil, deasphalted oil and naphtha for pro-
Utilities, typical per bbl feed:
duction of LPG.
Fuel, 103 Btu 120–150
Products: Processing objectives include production of gasoline, jet Electricity, kWh 8 –12
fuel, diesel fuel, lube stocks, ethylene-plant feedstock, high-quality
Installation: Selected for 142 commercial units, including several
FCC feedstock and LPG.
converted from competing technologies. Total capacity exceeds 2.9 mil-
Description: Feed and hydrogen are contacted with catalysts, lion bpsd.
which induce desulfurization, denitrogenation and hydrocracking.
Licensors: UOP LLC.

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 REFINING PROCESSES 2000
toms distillates and straight run distillates (optional), are routed to
Straight run distillates the catalytical fixed-bed reactors of the GPH (4), which operates at
the same pressure as the LPH. GPH pressure is typically above
Vacuum residue Recycle hydrocracking conditions, therefore, GPH mild hydrocracking can also
Additive gas be applied to allow a shift in yield structure to lighter products. Sep-
aration of syncrude and associated gases is performed in a cold sep-
Offgas
1 2 4 7 arator system (5). The syncrude after separation is sent to a stabi-
lizer (6) and a fractionation unit. After being washed in a lean oil
scrubber (7), the gases are recycled to the LPH section.
Feed: Feedstock quality ranges covered are:
5 Gravity, °API −3 to 14
6 Syn- Sulfur, wt% 0.7 to 7
3 crude Metals (Ni,V), ppm up to 2,180
Asphaltenes, wt% 2 to 80
Hydrogen Waste water
Yields:
Hydrogenation residue
Naphtha < 180°C, wt% 15–30
Middle distillates, wt% 35–40
Vac. gasoil > 350°C, wt% 15–30

Hydrocracking Product qualities:

Naphtha: Sulfur <5 ppm, Nitrogen <5 ppm
Application: Upgrading of heavy and extra heavy crudes as well as Kerosine: Smoke point >20 mm, Cloud point <−50°C
residual oils. Diesel: Sulfur <50 ppm, Cetane no >45
Vac. gasoil: Sulfur <150 ppm, CCR <0.1wt%, Metals <1 ppm
Products: Full-range high quality syncrude.
Economics: Plant capacity 23,000 bpsd.
Description: A hydrogen addition process applying the principles Investment U.S. MM$190 (US Gulf Coast, 1st Q. 1994)
of thermal hydrocracking in liquid-phase hydrogenation reactors Utilities:
(LPH) (1) for primary conversion directly coupled with an integrated Fuel oil, MW 12
catalytical hydrofinishing step (GPH). In the LPH slurry phase Power, MW 17
reactors, residue is converted up to 95% at temperatures between Steam, tph -34
440°C and 500°C. In the hot separator (HS) (2), light distillates are Water, cooling, m3/h 2,000
separated from the unconverted material. By vacuum-flash distil-
lation (3) the HS bottoms distillates are recovered. For further Installation: Two licenses have been granted.
hydrotreating, the HS overheads, together with the recovered HS bot-
Licensor: VEBA OEL Technologie und Automatisierung GmbH.

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 REFINING PROCESSES 2000
uum bottoms for recycle.
Purge to Operating conditions: Temperature, 770°F– 840°F; hydrogen par-
Catalyst H2 recovery tial pressure, psi 1,000–2,500; LHSV, 0.1–1.0 hr –1; conversion
30%–90%.
H2
makeup Process performance and yields: From commercial two-stage
2 processing:
Vacuum residue conversion 52 W% 70 W%
Fuel gas Processing objective LSFO Conversion
1 1 1 Naphtha Feed Ural VR Arab H VR+FCC slurry
3 Middle distillate Gravity, ºAPI 13 3.6
to diesel pool 1,000ºF+, vol% 85 85
START VGO to FCC Sulfur, wt% 2.8 5.2
Performance, yields and product qualities
Catalyst Vacuum bottoms to
Vacuum residue withdrawal
HDS, wt% 85 83
feedstock fuel oil, coker, etc. HDN, wt% 40 38
Chem. H2 Cons, scf/bbl 920 1,540
Naphtha, vol% 7 8
Diesel, vol% 25 33
Hydrocracking, residue VGO, vol%
Residue, vol%
31
41
38
25
Diesel sulfur, wppm 400 2,000
Application: Catalytic hydrocracking and desulfurization of residua
VGO sulfur, wt% 0.18 0.9
and heavy oils in an ebullated-bed reactor using the H-Oil process.
Residue sulfur, wt% 0.8 2.0
Products: Full-range distillates and upgraded residue, trans- Residue gravity, ºAPI 14 4.0
portation fuels, FCC or coker feed, low-sulfur-fuel oil.
Economics: Basis 2000 U.S. Gulf Coast
Description: A one, two or three stage ebullated-bed (1) reactor sys- Investment—$ per bpsd 3,000 –5,000
tem. Feed consists of atmospheric or vacuum residue, recycle from Utilities—per bbl of feed
downstream fractionation (3), hydrogen-rich recycle gas and makeup Fuel, 103 Btu 40 –100
hydrogen. Combined feed is fed to the bottom of the reactor and Power, kWh 9 –15
expands the catalyst bed resulting in good mixing, near isothermal Water, cooling (20°F rise), gal 100 –200
operation and allows for onstream catalyst replacement to maintain Catalyst makeup, $ 0.2 –1.5
catalyst activity and 3 to 4 year run lengths between turnarounds.
Installation: Seven units currently in operation.
Two-phase reactor effluent is sent to high-pressure separator (2); liq-
uid is sent to fractionation (3) to recover light liquid products and vac- Licensor: IFP, IFP North America.

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 REFINING PROCESSES 2000
shutdown. This ensures the maintenance of constant, optimal cat-
Recycle hydrogen Recycle hydrogen alyst activity and consistent product slate and quality. After high-
Amine pressure recovery of the effluent and recycle gas, the products are
compressor absorber
Fixed-bed separated and stabilized through fractionation. A T-Star unit can oper-
Makeup hydrogen HDS ate for four-year run lengths with conversion in the 20%–60% range
Fuel gas and hydrodesulfurization in the 93%–99% range.
VGO feed T-star
reactor High Naphtha S= Operating conditions:
START
pressure <2 wppm Temperature, °F 750 –820
separator Hydrogen partial pressure, psi 600 –1,500
Stabilizer
LHSV, hr –1 0.5 –3.0
Diesel S= VGO conversion, % 20 –60
Oil feed <50 wppm
heater Gas-oil Examples: In Case 1, a deep-cut Arab heavy VGO is processed at
stripper FCC feed S= 40 wt% conversion with objectives of mild conversion and preparing
1,000-1,500 wppm specification diesel and FCC unit feed. In Case 2, a VGO blend con-
Hydrogen Ebullating
pump taining 20% coker material is processed at lower conversion to also
heater obtain specification FCC unit feedstock and high-quality diesel.
Economics: Basis 2000 U.S. Gulf Coast

Hydrocracking/ Investment in $ per bpsd

Utilities—per bbl of feed
3
1,200 –2,500

Fuel, 10 Btu 60
hydrotreating—VGO Power, kWh 3
Catalyst makeup, $ 0.05 –0.20
Application: The T-Star Process is an ebullated-bed process for the
hydrotreatment/hydrocracking of vacuum gas oils. The T-Star Pro- Installation: The T-Star process is commercially demonstrated
cess is best suited for difficult feedstocks (coker VGO, DAO), high- based on the ebullated-bed reactor. IFP has licensed more than 1.3
severity operations and applications requiring a long run length. MMbpsd of capacity in gas oil, VGO and residue. IFP has seven com-
mercially operating ebullated-bed units and one is under construc-
Description: A T-Star process flow diagram, which includes inte- tion that will process a variety of VGO feedstocks.
grated mid-distillate hydrotreating, is shown above. The typical
T-Star battery limits include oil/hydrogen fired heaters, an advanced Reference: “A Novel Approach to Attain New Fuel Specifications,”
hot high-pressure design for product separation and for providing recy- Petroleum Technology Quarterly, Winter 1999/2000.
cle to the ebullating pump, recycle gas scrubbing and product sep-
aration. Catalyst is replaced periodically from the reactor, without Licensor: IFP, IFP North America.

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 REFINING PROCESSES 2000
is sent to the final hydrotreating reactor, or the “second stage.” In this reac-
Makeup hydrogen Recycle gas Amine tor, distillate feed undergoes saturation of aromatics using a Topsøe noble
compressor scrubber metal catalyst, either TK-907/ TK-908 or TK-915, a newly developed high-
HDS activity dearomatization catalyst. Finally, the desulfurized, dearomatized
Diesel stripper distillate product is steam stripped in the product stripping column to remove

HDS separator
Wash Overhead
feed water H2S, dissolved gases and a small amount of naphtha formed.
vapor
First HDS Like the conventional Topsøe hydrotreating process, the HDS/HDA pro-
HDS cess uses Topsøe’s graded bed loading and high-efficiency patented reactor
stage reactor stripper internals to provide optimum reactor performance and catalyst use lead-
Sour
water Water ing to the longest possible catalyst cycle lengths. Topsøe’s high efficiency
internals have a low sensitivity to unlevelness and are designed to ensure the
Wild most effective mixing of liquid and vapor streams and maximum utiliza-
HDA Product naphtha tion of catalyst. These internals are effective at high of liquid loadings,
Second diesel thereby enabling high turndown ratios. Topsøe’s graded-bed technology and
reactor Steam
stage stripper the use of shape-optimized inert topping and catalysts minimize the build-
Diesel product up of pressure drop, thereby enabling longer catalyst cycle length.
HDA
separator Operating conditions: Typical operating pressures range from 20
Diesel cooler to 60 barg (300 to 900 psig), and typical operating temperatures range
from 320°C to 400°C (600°F to 750°F) in the first stage reactor, and
from 260°C to 330°C (500°F to 625°F) in the second stage reactor. The
Hydrodearomatization Topsøe HDS/HDA treatment of a heavy straight-run gas oil feed
yielded these product specifications:
Application: Topsøe’s two-stage hydrodesulfurization hydrodearom- Feed Product
atization (HDS / HDA) process is designed to produce low-aromatics Specific gravity 0.86 0.83
distillate products. This process enables refiners to meet the new, Sulfur, ppmw 3,000 1
stringent standards for environmentally friendly fuels. Nitrogen, ppmw 400 <1
Total aromatics, wt% 30 <10
Products: Ultra-low sulfur, ultra-low nitrogen, low-aromatics diesel, Cetane index, D-976 49 57
kerosine and solvents (ultra-low aromatics).
References: Cooper, Hannerup and Søgaard-Andersen, “Reduc-
Description: The process consists of four sections: initial hydrotreating, tion of Aromatics in Diesel,” Oil and Gas, September 1994
intermediate stripping, final hydrotreating and product stripping. The Søgaard-Andersen, Cooper and Hannerup, “Topsøe’s Process for
initial hydrotreating step, or the “first stage” of the two-stage reaction pro- Improving Diesel Quality,” NPRA Annual Meeting, 1992.
cess, is similar to conventional Topsøe hydrotreating, using a Topsøe high- de la Fuente, E., P. Christensen, and M. Johansen, “Options for
activity base metal catalyst such as TK-573 to perform deep desulfuriza- meeting EU year 2005 fuel specifications.”
tion and deep denitrification of the distillate feed. Liquid effluent from this
first stage is sent to an intermediate stripping section, in which H2S and Installation: A total of four, two in Europe and two in North America.
ammonia are removed using steam or recycle hydrogen. Stripped distillate Licensor: Haldor Topsøe A/S.

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