Abstract
Hydrocracking is a catalytic cracking process for the conversion of heavy oil fractions, such as vacuum gas oil (VGO), into valuable products with lower boiling point, such as diesel, kerosene and gasoline. Due to the flexibility of the process, high yields and good quality of liquid products, hydrocracking has become an important unit in modern refinery. However, the study of kinetic modelling towards hydrocracking reactor (HCR) is limited due to its complicated reaction mechanism. In this study, the reactor model is established based on a new six-lump model considering the velocity change along the reactor, different thermal effects and kinetic differences between hydrotreater (HT) and hydrocracker (HC). Compared with the previously reported lumped kinetic models, the fine-tuned model (calibrated by differential evolution algorithm) can predict products yields more accurately, in particular outlet temperature of each beds and the detailed yields and temperature distribution along with the reactor beds. The proposed lump based kinetic model can be applied to the optimization and control of industrial hydrocracking process.
