Hydrotreating is an established refinery process for reducing sulfur, nitrogen and aromatics while enhancing cetane number, density and smoke point. The refining industry’s efforts to meet the global trend for more- stringent clean fuels specifications, the growing demand for transportation fuels and the shift toward diesel mean that hydrotreating has become an increasingly important refinery process in recent years. Shell Global Solutions’ hydrotreating process combines advanced process technology, high- performance catalyst systems and efficient reactor internal designs. This technology has helped many refiners to rise to the clean fuels challenges facing their businesses; operators around the world have licensed new units for their grass- roots facilities. In addition, we apply new catalyst and reactor internals technology to revamp existing units, including upgrading for more complex duties such as dewaxing.
Naphtha Hydrotreating
- Feedstocks: Straight Run, Visbreaker, Coker
- Products: CCR/Isom feed quality (< 0.5 wppm sulfur, < 0.5 wppm nitrogen)
- CD- Hydro and CD- HDS, available from CD- TECH for FCC naphtha
Kerosene Hydrotreating
- Feedstocks: Straight Run Kerosene
- Products: Jet fuel quality (> 19 mm smoke point), Illuminating kerosene (> 25 mm smoke point)
- Flexible designs: 1- stage or 2- stage, optimized pressure, tailored catalysts
Diesel Hydrotreating
- Feedstocks: Straight Run LGO, Visbreaker LGO, FCC LCO, Coker LGO
- Products: Euro V (HDS, Cetane Upgrade, Cold Flow Improvement, Density & Aromatics)
- Flexible designs: 1- stage or 2- stage, optimized pressure, tailored catalysts
VGO Hydrotreating (FCC Pretreat)
- Feedstocks: Straight Run VGO, Coker Heavy Gas Oil, DAO
- Products: FCCU feed (sulfur, nitrogen)
- Flexible designs: optimized pressure, tailored catalysts
Process Description
In Shell Global Solutions’ hydrotreating process, oil fractions are reacted with hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst to produce high- value clean products. The operating conditions depend on the final application. For instance, temperatures could range between 350 and 390°C, and pressures between 60 and 90 barg for the production of ultra- low- sulfur diesel (<10 ppm). Several process configurations are available. The heart of our hydrotreating process is the reactor section, which features a high- pressure reactor vessel and proprietary catalyst and reactor internals technology. The process configuration is optimized for each application to suit operating requirements and customer- specific project economics.