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Oil & Gas Refineries

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Hydrogen is an essential raw material for every refinery and chemical plant. It is primarily used in methanol, ammonia and DRI production plants (not as a pure stream) followed by refinery plants for hydro-treatment of hydrocarbons as well as hydrogenation of unsaturated or aromatic hydrocarbons. The pure stream of this compound is produced in hydrogen plants and refineries, which further can be used in downstream reactors or units. In industrial plants, hydrogen is produced mainly from steam reforming of light hydrocarbons over nickel based catalysts.

Prior to syngas production in a steam reformer, natural gas has to be free of contaminations which have the adverse effect catalysts. Natural gas typically contains different levels of sulfur compounds, in the form of hydrogen sulfide and/or organic sulfur containing components which are highly poisonous to the downstream catalysts and must be removed. The organic sulfur containing materials is hydrogenated in HDS units and hydrogen sulfide is adsorbed in the next vessels utilizing zinc oxide sulfur removal adsorbents.

After removal of the harmful contaminants, natural gas mixed with steam and introduced in the steam reformer. For a heavy natural gas, a good option may be installing an adiabatic pre-reformer reactor prior to steam reformer. In this unit, higher hydrocarbons (C2+) are completely converted into a mixture of methane,

carbon oxides and hydrogen over a high active nickel based catalyst. The advantages of a pre-reformer are converting heavy components, lower risk of thermal cracking and coke deposition in steam reformers, energy saving due to lower steam to carbon ratio and lower energy required for heavy hydrocarbon reforming, increase in plant capacity by 10-20% and larger operational flexibility.

The natural gas stream (or outlet stream of the pre-reformer reactor) will be introduced into the steam reformer for converting the methane into syngas. The outlet from a steam reformer is a mixture of hydrogen and other components, therefore some further steps are required for the purification of this material. In a hydrogen or refinery plant, one or two water gas shift reactors (high temperature or low temperature) reduces the carbon monoxide content less than a certain value. For refinery plants, a methanation reactor is designed to remove trace of carbon oxides.

Refinery Plant Catalysts:

  • Hydrogenation Catalyst
  • Zinc Oxide (ZnO) adsorbent
  • Zinc Oxide (ZnO) Promoted adsorbent
  • Pre-Reforming Catalyst
  • Primary Reforming Catalyst)
  • High Temperature Water Gas Shift (HTS) Catalyst
  • Low Temperature Water Gas Shift (LTS) Catalyst
  • Methanation Catalyst
  • Oxidative Desulfurization (ODS) Catalyst
  • Hydro-Treating Catalysts
    • Naphtha Hydro-Treating (NHT)
    • Gasoline Hydro-Treating (GHT)
    • Diesel Hydro-Treating (DHT)
    • Kerosene Hydro-Treating (KHT)
    • Reduced Crude Desulfurization (RCD)