Risk Assessment and Material Suitability Evaluation on Static Equipment of Hydrofluoric Acid Alkylation Unit

In 2005, a 60 kt/a alkylation (ALK) unit began to resume production in the Second Oil Refinery Plant of Beijing Yanshan Petrochemical Company. There have been many leak cases from pipeline welds, valve body, flange, etc. After a half-year period of operation, production process is stable. However, the operation of the hydrofluoric (HF) acid ALK unit has been suffered from corrosion problems. There are no clear answers and references to the following problems. What types of corrosion are currently in the main equipment for HF acid ALK unit? What does cause equipment corrosion? What are the main influencing factors for corrosion? What measures can be taken to reduce the corrosion of HF acid? In this paper, considering the acid-related conditions of the ALK unit, the damage mechanism and damage rate analysis were carried out to calculate the safety risk of the static equipment of the ALK unit. Based on the damage mechanism and failure history, the material suitability of the ALK unit was investigated. The anti-corrosion measures and recommended materials for important corrosion parts of the ALK unit were proposed. It is meaningful for reducing the number of shutdowns of ALK units and maintaining safe and stable operation of the unit.

Para-tert-butylcumene synthesis

Objectives. This study describes a new approach to obtain para-tert-butylcumene by alkylation of cumene with isobutylene in the presence of catalysts, such as Amberlyst 36 Dry, KU-2-8, aluminum chloride, and tert-butyl alcohol and concentrated sulfuric acid.Methods. To determine the qualitative and quantitative composition of the compounds and reaction masses, the following analysis methods were used: gas–liquid chromatography (on the Kristall 2000M hardware-software complex), chromatomass spectrometry on an Agilent 6850 instrument equipped with an Agilent 19091S-433E capillary column (30 m × 250 μm × 0.25 μm), and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (on a Bruker DRX 400 instrument with an operating frequency of 400 MHz).Results. A significant quantity of meta-tert-butylcumene was obtained by the alkylation of cumene with isobutylene using several catalysts, along with para-tert-butylcumene. This study also showed that the use of the catalysts Amberlyst 36 Dry and KU-2-8 during alkylation in a closed system (autoclave) led to the formation of isobutylene oligomers, often in quantity greater than the target reaction product. Simultaneously, the alkylation of cumene with tert-butyl alcohol in the presence of concentrated sulfuric acid enabled the obtainment of only one isomer, para-tertbutylcumene, which is essential for the further production of high-purity para-tert-butyl phenol.Conclusions. Sulfuric acid alkylation of cumene with tert-butyl alcohol enabled the obtainment of an individual para-isomer of tert-butylcumene with a yield of 87–89% for the loaded tert-butyl-alcohol with a cumene conversion of ~30%.

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CONNECTION OF PIPES TO THE GRID IN THE AIR-COOLING UNIT

The article analyzes the types of pipe connections with a pipe grid in air-cooling devices. Based on this analysis, it is proposed to change the design of pipe fastening instead of rolling to tightening nuts in ABO-103/1-2 of the sulfuric acid alkylation unit

THE IMPROVING EFFICIENCY OF AIR COOLING APPARATUS OF THE INSTALLATION OF A SULFURIC ACID ALKYLATION

The study of the efficiency of the heat transfer process in the air cooling apparatus, which is part of the installation of a sulfuric acid alkylation, at different finning coefficients of heat exchange pipes

ENHANCING ENERGY USAGE IN THE TECHNOLOGY OF SULFURIC ACID REGENERATION IN THE ALKYLATION PROCESS

The main approaches to energy efficiency analysis of sulfuric acid regeneration technology in the process of sulfuric acid alkylation are considered