The C2hydrotreating catalyst (PEC-21) developed independently by the PetroChina Petrochemical Research Institute (PRI) has been operating continuously for one month in the first stage of reactor in the 460 kt/a ethylene unit at the PetroChina Lanzhou Petrochemical Branch Company, indicating that this catalyst has been successfully applied in commercial scale. The uninterrupted supervision data have shown that the PEC-21 catalyst worked smoothly and the temperature distribution in the reactor bed was satisfactory, while delivering product with acetylene content meeting the spec, denoting that this catalyst has an excellent overall performance.

The 460 kt/a steam cracking unit at the Lanzhou Petrochemical Company (LPC) is characteristic of a significant range of fluctuating cracking gas components and high butadiene content, which is ten times more than that in similar domestic steam cracking units and thus imposes a stringent requirement for the catalyst performance. During the past operating cycles, the imported catalyst used in the first-stage reactor was prone to be deactivated because of quick coke deposition and could not meet the requirements for the long-cycle stabilized operation of process unit.

The C2hydrotreating research team of PRI has been providing technical services to the Lanzhou Petrochemical Company through working on the comprehensive implementation of the catalyst formulation optimization,the production plan, the catalyst loading plan, as well as the unit start-up plan. On June 17, 2019 the C2hydrotreating unit was put on stream, the C2hydrotreating team adjusted the start-up plan in a timely manner to overcome the unfavorable factors including the low CO content and low space velocity in the unit start-up process to ensure the successful operation of the PEC-21 catalyst at one stroke.

The revamp of C2hydrotreating reactor by substituting the domestic PEC-21 catalyst for imported one has resulted in lower catalyst cost, better catalytic selectivity, and higher conversion rate to achieve the increased economic bene fits through reduction of operating cost of the steam cracking unit. In the next phase, the C2hydrotreating research team will track the operation of the catalyst throughout to ensure the long-cycle and stable operation of the C2hydrotreating unit.