The Experience of a Team of Experts to

Resolve Severe Regenerator Maldistribution

Presented by: Presented at:

Peter Blaser, VP Engineering Services 13 – 15 November, 2017

CPFD Software Hilton Athens, Greece

Barracuda Virtual Reactor, Barracuda VR, Barracuda and CPFD are registered trademarks of CPFD Software, LLC
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Presentation Outline

Acknowledgements

Regenerator case study

• Historical operations and presenting problems
• Use of CFD to inform the team
• Decision and outcome

Recommendations

2
History: Planning for 2015 Turn-Around

Pre-2015 turn-around configuration

• Three cyclone pairs
• Evenly spaced
Pre-2015

Proposed post-2015 turn-around configuration

• High efficiency cyclones
• Required location of secondary cyclone in center
• New combustion air grid of identical design

CFD simulation suggested maldistribution would be present

Proposed

3
Presenting Problems and Preliminary Diagnosis

Air grid orientation modified before installation

FCC exceeded emissions constraints:

• NOx: 10% over 365 day rolling average
• CO: 43% over 365 day rolling average
• Particulate emissions: frequent high loss episodes
• Significant afterburn

Radioactive tracer study performed

• Significant maldistribution
• Potential damage

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Audience Poll

What is your greatest concern when considering modifications to an FCC

regenerator?
• Emissions
• Catalyst losses
• Reliability / erosion
• Catalyst regeneration
• Other

5
Formation of Team and Initial Finding
Shutdown scheduled to repair expected
damage

The simulation predicted significant gas

channeling (without air grid damage)
• The spent catalyst distributor exacerbates
the maldistribution

Team formed to propose options if no

damage was found
• Refinery engineers, corporate staff,
cyclone vendor, two independent
consultants, simulation expertise

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Primary Cause – Spent Catalyst Distributor

Spent catalyst distributor effectiveness

• Spent catalyst initially biased to south side
• Same side as gas channeling

Significant maldistribution
• Different regenerator regions with differing
temperature, coke loadings, gas compositions, etc.

Major changes not feasible before shutdown

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What Could be Modified if No Damage Found?
During shutdown could alter:
• Air grid orientation
• Dipleg discharge
direction
• Shortening secondary Aligned
dipleg lengths

1A

1B
2B
3A

2A

3B

Current Option 1 Option 2 Offset

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 Top: Half model Bottom: Distributor
view orientation Elevation slice
Mixing and Channeling

No case addresses root

cause

Can incremental
improvements be
obtained?
• Regions with highest
time-averaged gas
bypass shown
• Cases 2 and 3
dissipate gas jets at a
lower elevation Case 0 Current Case 1 Case 2 Case 3

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 0

Gas Uniformity Index

C
1
2
3

Quantification of time-averaged gas flow shown

(Uniformity Index*)
𝐶𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠−𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑏𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑔𝑎𝑠 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤
𝑈=
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠−𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎

Poor utilization of regenerator cross-section in all

cases
• Gas stream coalescence and bypassing influenced by
internal structures

Cases 2 & 3 have the highest uniformity of gas flow.

* See Fletcher, R. et. al., “Identifying the Root Cause of Afterburn in
Fluidized Catalytic Crackers”, AFPM 2016 Annual Meeting, AM-16-15.

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Thermal and Gas Composition Profiles
Regenerator temperature
profiles dominated by
maldistribution

High O2 reaching dilute phase

Afterburn due to O2 and CO

mixing in the dilute phase

Cases 2 and 3 show better

mixing and less
maldistribution Case 0 Current Case 1 Case 2 Case 3

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Flue Gas CO

Regen presents significant transient

behavior:
• CO concentrations shown for two different
time periods
• Variability also noted in radioactive tracer
study

Cases 2 and 3 show reduced CO compared

with the current configuration
• Case 3 shows more variability than case 2

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Catalyst Losses and Secondary Dipleg Plugging
Density [pcf]
Catalyst losses may be correlated with 50
secondary dipleg plugging
1B 2B
2B 1B
Lower bed densities at secondary dipleg 3B
outlets were observed before the 2015 Pre-2015
3B Current
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turn-around
• Dipleg 3B in the current configuration
shows a high likelihood of plugging
2B 2B
• Case 3 appears to have a greater likelihood
of dipleg plugging based on overall density 1B 1B
gradients
0 3B
• Raising the Case 2 dipleg discharge 3B
elevation by 1.5 feet reduces the concern Case 2 Case 3

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Summary of Simulation Findings
The root cause of maldistribution is the spent catalyst distributor
• Some maldistribution expected to remain in all 5 cases

Improvements are possible with simple modifications

Case 2 shows significant improvement over the current configuration in terms of:
• Improved flow uniformity
• Reduced air jetting
• Increased thermal uniformity
• Improved oxygen utilization
• Reduced CO entering the cyclone inlets
• Reduced likelihood of secondary dipleg plugging

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Outcome
During shutdown
• The air grid wasn’t broken
• Simulation gave the refiner confidence to implement the change
• The refiner opted for Case 2 with the secondary dipleg heights
shortened by 1.5 ft

Post-shutdown:
Case 2
• NOx & CO maintained below 365 day rolling average
• Dropped significantly after start-up
• Air rate optimization performed and NOx additive used
• Catalyst losses: complete elimination of the catalyst loss events

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Recommendations
Use the “Team” approach
• Refinery process engineers, central engineering, recognized consultants, technology
suppliers, radioactive tracer studies, hardware vendors, catalyst suppliers, simulation
expertise, etc.
• Encourage transparency between parties

Use all information available to make informed decisions

• A non-intuitive solution was found by considering all information available and studying
potential outcomes using CFD simulation
• Focus on what is possible to do

Begin planning early

• Baseline CFD models enable rapid evaluation of potential changes before problems occur

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