Deactivation of hydrotreating catalyst is an important issue for processors of the bitumen derived from oil sands. This project is focused on two main activities the idenfication of the mechanisms and kinetics of hydrotreating catalyst deactivation, and the development of control and optimization techniques that will ensure that the useful life of the catalyst, when used in a hydrotreating reactor, is maximized.
Naphtha hydrotreators are fixed bed reactors and as a result, can be considered to be nonlnear, distributed parameter systems. The systems engineering portion of this project will investigate high performance control and optimization methods to calculate and track operating trajectories for naphtha hydrotreators, which extend catalyst life.
