Removal of mercury compounds from liquid hydrocarbon by hydrodemetallation

Abstract

Removal of mercury compounds from liquid hydrocarbon by hydrodemetallation was investigated in this study. CoMo/Al2O3 and NiMo/Al2O3 were used as hydrodemetallation catalysts. The experiments were conducted in a fixed bed continuous-flow reactor. The pressure was maintained at 400 psig and the temperatures were varied at 150, 200 and 250 ํC. Mercuric chloride and diphenylmercury were used as model compounds to represent inorganic and organic mercury compounds in petroleum, respectively. Each mercury compound was added in toluene which was used as a liquid carrier. The mass flow rate of hydrogen per liquid hydrocarbon was 1:187.2 and LSHV was 5h-1. The results showed that mercury compounds could deposit on the reactor wall and other parts of reactor system which were made of stainless steel. The deposition depended on types of mercury compound and operating temperature. It was also found that mercuric chloride deposition was high even at room temperature (approximately 35 ํC). Hydrodemetalation reaction could be efficiently used to remove both mercury compounds from liquid hydrocarbon feed. Teh relation ship between removal efficiency and types of catalysts or operating temperatures could not be clearly concluded because of the loss of mercury compounds to the reactor system.