Breakthrough from scratch - record energy-saving and high-efficiency new continuous reforming technology development and industrial application projects

Editor's note: At the 41st member congress of the Chinese Chemical Industry Society held not long ago, 72 scientific and technological achievements won the 2022 Science and Technology Award of the Chinese Chemical Industry Society
.
These award-winning achievements have a high overall level and strong innovation, especially the projects that have won the first prize of technological invention and the special prize of scientific and technological progress have been ranked among the
world's similar advanced technologies.
Starting from today, a series of reports on the "Exhibition of Scientific and Technological Awards of the Chinese Society of Chemical Industry" will be launched to display some of the award-winning scientific and technological achievements for readers
.

Recently, the project of "Development and Industrial Application of New Continuous Reforming Technology for Energy Conservation and High Efficiency" won the special prize for scientific and technological progress of the Chinese Chemical Industry Society
.
The project has developed a new counter-current continuous reforming process, innovatively developed the key equipment and engineering technology of counter-current continuous reforming and the energy-saving technology of thermal energy coupling, which is an important achievement
of the original technology of China's petrochemical industry.
The project results have been successfully applied to the 2.
6 million tons/year continuous reforming unit of Sinochem Quanzhou Petrochemical Co.
, Ltd.
, realizing a breakthrough
in the domestic large-scale continuous reforming plant from scratch.

Blessing of advanced technology technology

Catalytic reforming is one of the important basic processes in the refining and chemical industry, and is the main source of
aromatic hydrocarbons, high-octane gasoline and hydrogen in refineries.
Before 2020, more than 80% of China's new catalytic reforming units adopt imported technology, of which all units with a scale of more than 2 million tons/year adopt foreign patents' technology, and the catalytic reforming energy consumption is high, accounting for 15%~30% of the total energy consumption of
the whole plant.
Therefore, it is of great
significance to develop a new set of energy-saving and efficient continuous reforming new technologies.

The project is jointly completed
by Sinopec Engineering Construction Co.
, Ltd.
, Sinopec Research Institute of Petrochemical Technology, Tsinghua University, China University of Petroleum (Beijing), etc.
Based on the new understanding of the chemical principle of continuous reforming reaction, the project team pioneered a new process of countercurrent continuous reforming in China, realized the concept of matching the difficulty of reaction with the activity of the catalyst, and innovatively developed the key equipment and engineering technology of countercurrent continuous reforming and the energy-saving technology of thermal energy coupling, which is an important achievement
of the original technology of China's petrochemical industry.

The results of the project were applied to Sinochem Quanzhou Petrochemical's 2.
6 million tons/year continuous reforming plant, and the aromatic hydrocarbon yield increased by 1 percentage point, the C₅+ liquid collection increased by 0.
5 percentage points, and the pure hydrogen yield increased by 0.
2 percentage points; the energy consumption of the plant was reduced by 5%, and the energy consumption of the reforming-aromatics combined plant was reduced by 17%.
The amount of catalyst wear is reduced by 57%~82%.

Empower key technology applications

In addition to advanced technology and technology, industrial applications are also an important part
of the continuous reforming plant project.
To this end, the project team carried out research on the application of key technologies of continuous reforming equipment
.

The foundation design of Sinochem Quanzhou Petrochemical's 2.
6 million tons/year continuous reforming plant was undertaken by Sinopec Engineering Construction Co.

, Ltd.
In the design stage, they took advantage of the low-temperature heat mutual supply and mutual use of the reforming p-xylene aromatic compound unit, organized the technical research, demonstration and analysis of the domestic large-scale steam turbine plant, and for the first time adopted the design scheme of 0.
45MPa steam low-temperature heat produced by the domestic paraxylene plant as the turbine driving force of the reforming compression press, while ensuring the efficient utilization of low-temperature thermal coupling recovery of the large-scale reforming-aromatic compound, while reducing the energy consumption of 64.
9 kg of standard oil/ton paraxylene.
It reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 228,000 tons every year, and the effect of energy conservation and carbon reduction is remarkable
.

As the first innovative pilot in China to use 0.
45MPa steam as the driving force of the reforming unit, the cleanliness of the steam pipeline is the key to ensure the smooth operation of the
unit.
The diameter of 0.
45MPa steam pipe is up to 1 meter, and there is no case of steam purging target in the same level of pipeline and successfully applied to power turbine
.
The project team organized the review and revision of the scheme for many times, calculated the steam purge parameters, and optimized the purge process from the aspects of pipeline direction to ensure the safe and smooth start of the plant
.

Optimize various equipment parameters

After the completion of the plant project, the project team continued to optimize its production, and adopted technical measures
such as optimizing the temperature distribution of each reactor, adjusting the water and chlorine balance of the catalyst, and maintaining the optimal activity of the catalyst.

At the same time, the project team made a fuss about energy conservation and consumption reduction, sought breakthroughs in increasing production and efficiency, and focused on promoting the application
of related technologies.
Continuous reforming furnace fuel gas consumption is the main energy consumption of the device, they through the use of high efficiency, low excess air coefficient, low nitrogen oxides, low noise burner and high efficiency air preheater, so that the flue gas temperature is reduced below 90 °C, reduce the exhaust loss, reduce carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide emissions, so that the average thermal efficiency of the furnace reaches 94.
5%.

In addition, the project team optimized operating conditions and reduced catalyst costs
.
They accurately calculate and optimize catalysts under different operating conditions to increase gas volume; Match the optimal gas velocity of the catalyst to reduce the amount of
catalyst wear.
They also added an independent low-flow heating pipe process to reduce the amount of steam used in the heating pipe and save 70,000 tons of steam per year; Transform the residual volume of the cylinder of the regenerative cycle gas compressor, reduce the electricity consumption by 260 kilowatts, and save about 2.
18 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year
.

In the end, Sinochem Quanzhou Petrochemical's 2.
6 million tons/year continuous reforming plant was successfully put into operation, achieving a breakthrough
in domestic large-scale continuous reforming plant from scratch.