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MacroTrap® Guard Bed Media
Is Pressure Drop Forcing You to Shut Down to Skim Your Catalyst Bed More Frequently?
Saint-Gobain NorPro has just the solution to keep your reactor up and running with its MacroTrap® guard bed media. This relieves refiners from replacing costly catalyst which then improves overall operations and profitability of the reactor. Particulates in the reactor's catalyst bed will settle and the catalyst can become plugged in a short amount of time. The result is that pressure drop increases and reactor performance declines, requiring the refiner to shut down while the fouled catalyst is replaced.
MacroTrap® guard bed media are highly macroporous ceramic materials which work by trapping particulates and soluble iron in the very large pores before they reach the catalyst bed. MacroTrap guard bed media provides proven benefits:
- Premature shutdowns avoided
- Life of catalyst bed is significantly extended
- Reduced operating costs
- Overall, more efficient reactor operation
MacroTrap® XPore 80 Guard Bed Media
Saint-Gobain NorPro's MacroTrap® XPore 80 guard bed media is the latest generation of catalyst protection for refiners. The "XPore 80" name indicates that macropores account for ~80% of total pore volume. This is significant as it permits filtering an extended range of particulate contaminant sizes. Extended benefits of MacroTrap® XPore 80 media include:
- Macropores trap larger particulate matter with 3x to 5x more pickup
- Micropores trap particulates as small as 3 µm to 120 µm
- Tortuous path improves trapping performance of contaminants
- Retains the strength and attrition appropriate for the application
- Lower density reduces fill cost
Typical Properties Comparison
| MacroTrap® 1.5 | MacroTrap® XPore 80 | ||
| Property | Units | Target Properties | Target Properties |
| Surface Area | m2/gm | > 1.50 | 0.25 max |
| Water Absorption | % | > 40 | > 45 |
| Packing Density | kg/m3 | 721 max | 513 max |
| Pore Volume Pores > 10 µm | (Hg) cc/gm | > 0.15 | > 0.40 |
| Crush Strength | kgs | ||
|
6 mm |
2.3 min | 2.0 min | |
|
8 mm |
4.5 min | 4.5 min | |
|
10 mm |
6.8 min | 6.0 min |
MacroTrap® Guard Bed Media -- Videos
The video below depicts typical performance where particulates pass through and around MacroTrap XPore 80 guard bed media. Results after use show effectiveness of media trapping contaminants in the pores of MacroTrap® XPore 80 guard bed media.
The video below demonstrates the improved pressure drop with the use of MacroTrap® XPore 80 guard bed media in place of hold down media. The example shows the need for skimming is more frequent due to fouling, but MacroTrap® XPore 80 guards against fouling, improving the overall reactor cycle performance and extending catalyst life.
MacroTrap® guard bed media more than doubles Naphtha Hydrotreator production time between skimming
| Problem | Pressure drop increase in a Mobil Oil Naphtha Hydrotreater required the refiner to shut down the reactor routinely to skim the catalyst bed. Pressure drop doubled after seven months in operation and tripled after 20 months. |
| Solution | Mobil installed a 270 mm layer of MacroTrap® media on top of the first of the reactor's three catalyst beds. |
| Results | After 18 months operation with the MacroTrap® media, the unit experienced no detectable pressure drop increase (Fig. 1). The refiner proceeded to apply MacroTrap guard bed media to other units in the refinery. |
| Application Details |
Feed Composition:
Guard Bed:
Catalyst:
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MacroTrap® guard bed media extends life 5X of desulfurization unit at Methanol production at National Methanol Company, Ibn Sina, Saudi Arabia
| Problem |
Sulfur must be removed from the natural gas feed before the steam reforming reactor produces the syngas feed for the methanol synthesis reaction train. Contaminants in the natural gas feed from the adjacent oil refinery caused unacceptable pressure drop increase over the desulfurization catalyst, necessitating skimming of the top 25% of the catalyst bed every 9 - 12 months. If such pressure drop increase does not occur, a 7 - 10 year catalyst lifetime is expected.
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| Solution | Installation of a 700 mm layer of 10 mm ring MacroTrap® 1.5 media directly on the catalyst bed. |
| Results |
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| Application Details |
Feed: Natural Gas
Feed Composition:
Guard Bed:
Catalyst:
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MacroTrap® guard bed media filters metals throughout body in Hydrodemetallization test at Process Licensor
| Problem | The process licensor was interested in removing metals that were contaminating the hydrodemetallization catalyst, resulting in reduced catalyst life.
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| Solution | A layer of MacroTrap® guard bed media was installed on top of the hydrodemetallization catalyst in a pilot reactor. After one month, the guard bed media and catalyst were analyzed to determine the amount of metals each picked up. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Results |
SEC microprobe scans (Figures 1 - 3) of the MacroTrap® media showed iron, nickel and vanadium deposited in the spaces between the alumina peaks, or absorbed into the pores of the media. This proved that the metals were filtered throughout the guard bed media pores. Whereas, the HDM catalyst showed high removal of vanadium and sulfur, low iron removal and some coking. Electron microprobe analysis of the catalyst showed the metals deposited only on the surface of the catalyst particles. These results proved that the metals removed by the MacroTrap guard bed media occurred both on the surface, as well as filtered within the interconnected pores of the ceramic body.
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| Application Details |
Feed: Desalted Boscan crude
Feed Composition:
Guard Bed:
Catalyst:
Run Time:
Carbon and sulfur levels present in the used MacroTrap® media were measured after washing the spheres in hot toluene. Elemental analysis was conducted over the surface of cut spheres after heating the spheres in air at 450ºC (840ºF). The composition of the guard bed layer is compared to that of the top layer of the catalyst.
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