Statistical Reaction Analysis of Residue Desulfurization Reactor Based on Component Structures

Heavy oils contain many kinds of organic compounds which have complex structures. Thus, it is difficult for us to figure these characteristics to develop suitable catalysts. Recently, due to the development of Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS), the detailed composition data of heavy oils can be obtained.

In this research, the authors proposed a new analyzing method of chemical reactions using the input/output composition data from FT-ICR-MS. In this method, representative chemical reactions were defined and assumed the series of reactions linearly. As a result, the conversion ratios of each chemical reaction can be simply obtained and statistically compared by component structures.

In the next, the authors applied this method to a residue desulfurization reactor in petroleum refinery as a case study and compared the reaction ratios by component structures. From this analysis, the authors found that the component structure significantly affects to the conversion ratio in desulfurization reaction and capture the characteristics of this reaction. Therefore, this analysis might be a promising to analyze reaction for providing insights of catalysts and process design.