Performance Testing of Hydrodesulfurization Catalysts Using a Single-Pellet-String Reactor

Small-scale parallel trickle-bed reactors were used to evaluate the performance of a commercial hydrodesulfurization catalyst under industrially relevant conditions. Catalyst extrudates were loaded as a single string in reactor tubes. It is demonstrated that product sulfur levels and densities obtained with the single-pellet-string reactor are close to the results obtained in a bench-scale fixed-bed reactor operated under the same conditions. Moreover, parallel single-pellet-string reactors show high reproducibility. To study the hydrodynamic effects of the catalyst-bed packing, the catalyst-bed length was varied by loading different amounts of catalysts, and crushed catalyst was also loaded.