MODELING OF A THREE-PHASE REACTOR FOR BITUMEN-DERIVED GAS OIL HYDROTREATING

A three-phase reactor model for describing the hydrotreating reactions of bitumen-derived gas oil was developed. The model incorporates the mass-transfer resistance at the gas-liquid and liquid-solid interfaces and a kinetic rate expression based on a Langmuir-Hinshelwood-type model. We derived three correlations for determining the solubility of hydrogen (H-2), hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and ammonia (NH3) in hydrocarbon mixtures and the calculation of the catalyst effectiveness factor was included. Experimental data taken from the literature were used to determine the kinetic parameters (stoichiometric coefficients, reaction orders, reaction rate and adsorption constants for hydrodesulfuration (HDS) and hydrodenitrogenation (HDN)) and to validate the model under various operating conditions. Finally, we studied the effect of operating conditions such as pressure, temperature, LHSV, H-2/feed ratio and the inhibiting effect of H2S on HDS and NH3 on HDN.