Effect of Decoking Pretreatment on Catalyst Rejuvenation Using Glycerol and Mono Ethylene Glycol (MEG)

Abstract

Hydrotreating process is one of the crucial processes in petroleum refinery to remove sulfur with the aid of catalyst. By the end of hydrotreating life cycle, the catalyst contaminated by silicon cannot be reused or regenerated and have to be sent to final disposal. The previous study reported that glycerol was able to selectively remove silic on from industrial spent catalysts using severe operating conditions. However, the treatment used did not consider carbon/ coke removal steps. The present work focuses on investigating the effect of decoking pretreatment on silicon removal process using glycerol, mono ethylene glycol, and a combination of glycerol + mono ethylene glycol. It was found that the decoking pretreatment will worsen solvent selectivity. In addition, XRD analysis also revealed that decoking pretreatment caused formation of MoO3 particles agglomerate as indicated by the presence of high crystalline. Compared with glycols, glycerol showed the best selectivity and could preserve catalyst phase from transformation that was occurred during decoking.