CleanCat™
CleanCat™ is a dense phase pneumatic conveying system for catalyst change out services in the petro- chemical industry. The system is developed by Inbulk technologies and Mourik. Mourik as a refinery service provider has an exclusive service agreement with Inbulk to use this system worldwide.
Dense phase technology is suitable for transporting difficult, abrasive or friable materials (like catalyst) and pushes material along a pipe in a plug form (see figure 1) at relatively low velocities. We fill the pipe with catalyst, and supply a small volume, higher pressure air supply. This will move slugs or plugs of the material along the conveying line, much like separate trains on a common track. There is a gap between these plugs, keeping the length of each plug rather uniform and the pressure drop across each plug similar. In this dense phase conveying the velocity of the gas is no longer important. The differential pressure across the plug, the line pressure before and after the plug, pushes the piston through the conveying line.
Mourik was the first who used this technology within the refining industry for hydro processing catalyst change-outs. We use a specially developed CleanCat™ system that involves a dense phase conveying unit (CDF) at ground level to convey the catalyst to the top of the reactor, and at the top, a special dual-purpose 'catalyst controller' (CDC) controls the velocity of the catalyst in the pipeline. This CDC allows the catalyst to fall by gravity in a receiver hopper, which is followed by a discharge sock or dense load machine like conventional methods (see drawing). During loading a reactor, the catalyst is pushed along a pipe in the form of a "plug" at low velocity. This means minimal attrition to the material being conveyed.
For unloading, the process is reversed and the control unit forms part of the system where the conveying speed of the catalyst is controlled; substantially reducing the attrition levels and allowing the catalyst to be loaded by gravity either into bins, or in a 17m3 (96 barrels) ISO-Veyor - a patented ISO container developed by Inbulk Technologies.
CleanCat can make an important economic contribution to the overall business. It provides clients a real opportunity to:
- Use a weather independent system (closed system),
- Improves health and safety procedures during catalyst change outs (less crane movements and less dust),
- It is less labor intensive (less crane movements),
- Loads catalyst in a shorter time than traditional methods (loading speed up to 20 t/h),
- Reduces attrition levels and increase the percentage of catalyst recovered in comparison to vacuum unloading (dense phase technology).
For more information: www.cleancat.co.uk
