The symposium on Hydrotreatment and Hydrocracking of Oil Fractions aims to provide a global perspective and an inspection of the state-of-the-art of these processes. New American, European and Japanese environmental regulations call for advanced hydrotreatment processes for HDS and HDN for the removal of S- and Ni-components from oil fractions. These will alter the product slate of the oil refineries and the hydrocarbon composition of these products. Hydrocracking will play an important part in this shift. Adapting the operating conditions will not suffice to reach the desired product specifications and yields. Adequate catalysts will have to be developed. Powerful tools are now available for this, e.g. surface science techniques, molecular modeling and new types of reactors operated in a nonsteady mode. Another instrument in the improvement of hydrotreatment and hydrocracking units is the availability of more realistic kinetic models. These are based on a judicious insight into the reaction mechanism, also provided by the above-mentioned tools. Progress in the analytical techniques has allowed the reduction of the lumping of components in these kinetic models and first order kinetic equations are gradually replaced by equations accounting for the adsorption of the various components. More detailed and more realistic reactor models are now based on rigorous hydrodynamic models and their application has become possible through the rapidly increasing possibilities of computers.

The 2nd International Symposium on Hydrotreatment and Hydrocracking of Oil Fractions, which is also the 7th in the series of European Workshops on Hydrotreatment, took place in Antwerpen, Belgium from November 14 to 17. The Symposium emphasized how oil refining faces increasingly severe environmental regulations. These and the increasing application of heavier crudes containing more S-, N- and metal components call for more efficient hydrotreatment and hydrocracking processes. It is clear from the keynote lectures, the oral contributions and the posters of this meeting that adapting the operating conditions will not suffice. Adequate catalysts need to be developed, with different composition and structure. Surface science techniques and molecular modeling are now well established tools for such a development. They should be of help in widely different aspects, like the role of precursors in the preparation or the modifications undergone by the catalyst under reaction conditions. The improvement of hydrotreatment and hydrocracking also needs accurate modeling of the chemical reactor. This requires more representative hydrodynamics and kinetic models whose validity extends to the very low S- and N-contents. These areas should be vigorously developed.

Provides a holistic approach to multiphase catalytic reactors from their modeling and design to their applications in industrial manufacturing of chemicals Covers theoretical aspects and examples of fixed-bed, fluidized-bed, trickle-bed, slurry, monolith and microchannel reactors Includes chapters covering experimental techniques and practical guidelines for lab-scale testing of multiphase reactors Includes mathematical content focused on design equations and empirical relationships characterizing different multiphase reactor types together with an assortment of computational tools Involves detailed coverage of multiphase reactor applications such as Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, fuel processing for fuel cells, hydrotreating of oil fractions and biofuels processing

Modeling and Simulation of Catalytic Reactors for Petroleum Refining deals with fundamental descriptions of the main conversion processes employed in the petroleum refining industry: catalytic hydrotreating, catalytic reforming, and fluid catalytic cracking. Common approaches for modeling of catalytic reactors for steady-state and dynamic simulations are also described and analyzed. Aspects such as thermodynamics, reaction kinetics, process variables, process scheme, and reactor design are discussed in detail from both research and commercial points of view. Results of simulation with the developed models are compared with those determined at pilot plant scale as well as commercial practice. Kinetics data used in the reactor model are either taken from the literature or obtained under controlled experiments at the laboratory.