Catalyst Change

The Challenge

Historically, this large Gulf States refinery used steam to gas-free the catalyst in the reactor of their Cat Feed Hydrotreater. In a recent turnaround, engineers and operations personnel decided to expedite and improve the effectiveness of their clearing process by utilizing Refined Technologies’ QuikTurnRX process.

In prior years, the catalyst bed was steamed to remove HC and bring down the LEL. In a process that would typically take 5 to 7 days, exhaust steam was monitored for LEL and the process deemed complete when LEL reached 5%.

The Solution

Using Refined Technologies’ patented and proprietary QuikTurnRX process, an LEL level of 5% was reached in just 8 hours. The time saved was impressive, but equally as impressive was the nature of the catalyst following the QuikTurnRX injection. These pictures show a sample of catalyst taken from the reactor in previous years, and a sample following the QuikTurnRX application.

The first photograph shows a sample of spent catalyst removed from the reactor in 2006. It was agglomerated and smelled of residual hydrocarbon.

The second photograph shows a sample of spent catalyst removed after cleaning by the QuikTurn RX process. This catalyst was free flowing with no perceptible odor.

Refineries are using Refined Technologies’ patented processes to reduce downtime and improve operating efficiencies. In your daily operations meetings we encourage you to consider Strategic Chemistry^®: the timely use of chemistry and planning, engineered to improve operating margins.