Antifoulant control process

Details Antifoulant control process Antifoulant control process

2000-07-07

2001-09-25

Yildirim, Bekir L. (Department: 1764)

Mineral oils: processes and products

Chemical conversion of hydrocarbons

With prevention or removal of deleterious carbon...

C208S0480AA, C585S648000, C585S833000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06294078

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to treatment of a tubular reactor (i.e. a thermal cracking reactor) with antifoulant.
In a thermal cracking reactor, antifoulants alleviate the undesirable formation of coke and carbon dioxide during thermal cracking of hydrocarbons. Heretofore, there has been no procedure by which the concentration of antifoulant in the feed gas is controlled to ensure proper treatment of the reactor without unnecessary waste of antifoulant.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide a process in which the concentration of antifoulant in a feed gas as introduced to a tubular reactor is controlled as discussed above.
The above object is realized by a process comprising: (a) providing a tubular reactor having an inlet and an outlet, a furnace for heating the reactor, and a cooler having an inlet in communication with the reactor outlet and also having an outlet; (b) introducing a substantially constant flow of feed gas comprising steam to the reactor inlet while the reactor is heated by the furnace to produce a predetermined and substantially constant reactor outlet temperature; and (c) controlling, during at least a portion of (b), the concentration of an antifoulant in the feed gas based on cooler outlet temperature.
The process of the invention can be applied to a feed gas comprising only steam (pretreatment) and/or to a feed gas comprising steam and at least one saturated hydrocarbon (cracking, assuming the reactor outlet temperature in (b) is in a suitable range).
The invention relies upon the discovery that the cooler outlet temperature will vary depending upon the amount of excess antifoulant in excess of that required for treatment of the tubular reactor) in effluent flowing from the tubular reactor to the cooler. An increase n excess antifoulant, or simply the presence of excess antifoulant as opposed to no excess, results in a rise in cooler outlet temperature. According to a preferred embodiment, proper treatment of the tubular reactor without unnecessary waste of antifoulant is ensured by controlling the antifoulant concentration in (c) so as to maintain the cooler outlet temperature above an initial cooler outlet temperature but below an upper limit.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4376694 (1983-03-01), Lohr et al.
patent: 4420343 (1983-12-01), Sliwka
patent: 4775459 (1988-10-01), Forester
patent: 5734098 (1998-03-01), Kraus et al.
patent: 5851377 (1998-12-01), Bush

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