On December 25, 2020, the project “The industrial sideline application test for flexible removal of solids from FCC slurry (RSFF)” undertaken by the SINOPEC Research Institute of Petroleum Processing (RIPP) and the SINOPEC Shanghai Petrochemical Company (SPC) passed the technical review and appraisal organized by the SINOPEC Science and Technology Division, which had raised a proposal on commercial application and dissemination of this technology.Removal of solid particles from slurry is a worldwide tough issue. RIPP based on its in-depth analysis of key scientific problems for removal of solid particles from FCC slurry in collaboration with SPC, the Shanghai Shangyang Company,and the Anhui Shihua Engineering Company, has focused their efforts on flexible materials, while carrying out slurry filtration tests in an industrial-scale sideline installation.During the operation of the test installation many problems,such as leakage from internal components of filter, instable feed rate, failure of main air blower, emergency shutdown of equipment, appeared and were eliminated. The test equipment had been operating continuously for 3 months,with the automatic operation and control system of the industrial-scale sideline installation working smoothly.

The RSFF technology adopts a new-generation sealing material and a one-stage solids removal process flow scheme, while the equipment is regenerated by backpurging with hot nitrogen gas. This technology can stably maintain the solid particles content in slurry to less than 50 μg/g and reduce the mass fraction of Al and Si to less than 10 μg/g with an Al and Si removal rate of more than 97%, demonstrating a good adaptability to a variety of FCC slurry oils. In comparison with the existing technology using rigid filter materials, the RSFF technology features lower operating temperature without materials circulation, simpler process scheme, lower energy consumption and operating cost, meanwhile no special environmental protection is needed, which could have a broad application prospect.