A dynamic non-isothermal model for a hydrocracking reactor: Model development by the method of continuous lumping and application to an industrial unit

Abstract

Hydrocracking is an important refinery process which is carried out in catalytic reactors to convert heavy petroleum fractions into valuable products. Because of the large number of species and complex reactions involved, modeling of hydrocracking is a challenging task. In this paper a dynamic, non-isothermal reactor model has been constructed using the method of continuous lumping which treats the complex reactive mixture as a continuum. In doing so concentrations are characterized in terms of reactivity which is a monotonic function of the true boiling point of the mixture. The material and energy balances are developed in the form of integro-differential equations. The significant modeling parameters are identified and estimated using data from an industrial reactor. Steady-state and dynamic predictions of the model outputs such as reactor temperature, product yields and hydrogen consumption are shown to be in good agreement with plant data.