Catalyst Grading Optimization and Kinetic Simulation of the Shale Oil Hydrotreating Process

The shale oil hydrogenation experiments were conducted on a fixed-bed reactor with grading of a hydrogenating protective (HP) catalyst, hydrofining (HF) catalyst, and hydrocracking (HC) catalyst. The effects of the reaction temperature and liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV) on product distribution of shale oil hydrotreating were investigated. Three kinds of lumping kinetic models for,hydrodearomatization (HDA), hydrodesulfurization (HDS), and hydrodenitrogenation (HDN) were first established and applied in this process. The predicted reactive features and optimized operating conditions for HDS, HDN, and HDA agreed well with experimental results at different catalyst grading ratios, with a relative error of less than 3.8%. In accordance with operating conditions, the model can also be applied in catalyst grading scale calculation, which enhances the theory of shale oil hydro-upgrading application.