CONSTRUCTION OF DMD PILOT PLANT AND ITS SCALE UP TO INDUSTRIAL UNITS.docVIP

PPeettrroolleeuumm CCooaall Petroleum Coal ISSN 1337-7027 Available online at www.vurup.sk/pc Petroleum Coal 48 (3), 68-73, 2006 CONSTRUCTION OF DMD PILOT PLANT AND ITS SCALE UP TO INDUSTRIAL UNITS M.Tajerian*, M.Bazmi, A.Dehghani, B.Nonahal Eng. Develop. Div., RIPI, Tehran, Iran, *e-mail: tajerianm@ripi.ir Received October 18, 2006; accepted November 24, 2006 ABSTRACT: Demercaptanization of oil cuts is regarded as an important refining process and in particular the DMD process. Following the technology transfer of this process to RIPI and construction of 20BPD pilot based on the acquired know-how, pilot tests with LSRG feed from Shiraz refinery and naphtha from Kharg Petrochemical Complex were carried out respectively and successful results were obtained. Following the tests, process scale up was carried out and then basic and detailed designs of 3 industrial units for propane, butane and naphtha feeds were accomplished. At present, these industrial units are under installation. We intend to investigate and analyze the results obtained and describe the effects of important parameters on this process. Keywords: Demercaptanization, sweetening, DMD process 1. Introduction With regards to increasing exploitation of crude oil from reservoirs with enhanced sulfur contents and also increasing exploitation from sour reservoirs cause gradual increase of sulfur contents of refinery feeds throughout the country. This phenomena causes an increase in mercaptan content in middle distillate fractions. Hence RIPI as a leading RD center in petroleum industry in Iran acted upon technology transferring of DMD process from a Russian company called VNIIUS. The technology transfer was achieved in following phases: 1. Laboratory tests at bench scale which were already presented in the previous article published in [1] this journal . 2. 3. 4. Basic and detailed designs, construction, installation